Mercosur is looking for opportunities to do more cross-border business both within the five-member trade bloc and beyond. Foreign ministers are set to meet March 9 to discuss lowering barriers to trade among the countries that make up the “Common Market of the South”...
Lithium, last year’s hottest metal, looks set to be even hotter in 2017. With the new year barely a day old, mineral exploration company Birimian announced the sale of its Bougouni lithium project in southern Mali to China’s Shandong Mingrui Group. The deal signals...
“It can be like whack-a-mole,” one steelmaker exec told us recently. “AD/CVD duties do have an effect, but there is so much excess steel capacity in the world that when, say, China is blocked, here comes the steel from someplace else. Countries are watching for any...
Lithium is this year’s “hottest metal,” says USA Today, beating out gold, with another price spike expected this fall. There are no exchange reference prices for lithium as there are for gold. The Financial Times cites estimates from the research group Mineral...
By Simons Chase, guest columnist The Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act (TSRA) of 2000 launched a boom in exports from the US to Cuba that had previously been restricted since the early 1960s. US exports to Cuba rose from about $7 million in 2001 to a...
The Latin American economy’s recession could deepen if China’s economy slows much more, says the International Monetary Fund in a new report that marks down already gloomy forecasts for the region. Brazil, Latin America’s biggest economy, is a drag on the entire...
Latin America’s economy is moving at two speeds, according to BBVA, with the Pacific Alliance gaining ground as Mercosur, the Common Market of the South, slips into reverse in 2015 and on into 2016. In its first-quarter 2016 outlook, the Spanish bank lowers its...
No fooling: if you favor plain vanilla, your ice cream cone may cost you more this summer, thanks to pricey vanilla beans. Blame it on last year’s bad crop in Madagascar. As Eater reports, demand for vanilla (among spices, second only to saffron in price) is up while...
The copper down cycle has taken a big bite out of the profits of Japan’s trading companies. This morning, Mitsubishi Corp., Japan’s biggest trading house, announced ¥430 billion (US$3.8 billion) in write downs on a list of commodities assets, starting with...
The Chinese economy – indeed the world economy – is in for a run of bad luck in the Lunar New Year that begins today, according to feng shui master Chen Shuaifu, who shared his forecast with NBC News. Master Chen forecasts a big slide in the world economy: "The global...
