Tuesday 31 January 2017

JAPAN TIMES Brexit Headlines: 1 Jan - 31 Jan 2017

The Japan Times
Brexit Headlines

Nissan, Toyota back U.K. plants despite May's Brexit planBUSINESSJAN 19, 2017

Toyota Motor Corp. and Nissan Motor Co. say they'll keep making cars in the U.K. despite Prime Minister Theresa May's plan to leave the European Union's single market, which could make exporting from British factories less lucrative. May's Brexit plan, outlined Tuesday, won't derail Nissan's ...


Britain will leave EU single market, May saysWORLD / POLITICSJAN 17, 2017

Britain will leave the European Union's single market when it exits the group, Prime Minister Theresa May said Tuesday, putting an end to speculation that London might try to seek a "soft Brexit." In a long-awaited speech in which she sought to define the country's ...




Speaking truth to powerCOMMENTARY / WORLDJAN 11, 2017

BY HUGH CORTAZZI
The resignation of Sir Ivan Rogers, the British ambassador to the European Union in Brussels, has raised serious issues not only about Britain's strategy for Brexit but also about relations between officials and politicians and their political advisers. Rogers was an experienced negotiator and former ...



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Trump trade adviser says Germany using "grossly undervalued" euro

Donald Trump's top trade adviser accused Germany on Tuesday of using a "grossly undervalued" euro to gain a competitive advantage, drawing a rebuff from German Chancellor Angela Merkel and sending the euro to an eight-week high against the dollar.
    Tue Jan 31, 2017 | 3:44pm GMT
By Jamie McGeever | LONDON
Donald Trump's top trade adviser accused Germany on Tuesday of using a "grossly undervalued" euro to gain a competitive advantage, drawing a rebuff from German Chancellor Angela Merkel and sending the euro to an eight-week high against the dollar.
Peter Navarro, the head of the U.S. president's new National Trade Council, told the Financial Times the euro was like an "implicit Deutsche Mark" whose low valuation gave Germany an edge over the United States and its European Union partners.
Navarro's comments are the latest from Washington that may deepen growing unease over the outlook for global trade, after Trump himself told the Wall Street Journal two weeks ago that the dollar's strength against the Chinese yuan "is killing us".
The euro rose sharply to an eight-week high against the dollar of $1.08, further away from the 14-year low of $1.0339 it hit earlier this month. It had fallen almost 25 percent over the previous three years.
"Germany is a country that has always called for the European Central Bank to pursue an independent policy, just as the Bundesbank did before the euro existed," Merkel told a news conference in Stockholm with Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven.
Those who argue the euro is undervalued often blame the ECB's ultra-easy monetary policy, including trillions of euros of asset purchases, aimed at stimulating inflation and growth in the euro zone. The U.S. Federal Reserve, meanwhile, has begun raising interest rates from financial crisis-era lows.
"Because of that we will not influence the behaviour of the ECB. And as a result, I cannot and do not want to change the situation as it is," Merkel added.
A German finance ministry spokeswoman said it was unfair to single out Germany's current account surplus since it was only one country of 19 in the currency union, adding: "After all, no one argues about the current account status of California."
She noted that rising oil prices would mitigate the positive impact of lower currency rates, which meant the German surplus was projected to narrow this year.
Figures released on Tuesday showed the euro zone economy grew at an annualised rate of 2 percent in the fourth quarter, outstripping the U.S. economy's 1.9 percent.
Trump's proposed tax cuts, fiscal spending plans and rising U.S. interest rates had boosted the dollar globally.
But a strong currency threatens U.S. competitiveness and would make bringing manufacturing jobs back to the United States - a key Trump election pledge - more difficult.
"We sense the strong dollar policy is over, a thing of the past," said Neil Jones, head of hedge fund FX sales at Mizuho in London. "Recent U.S. concern over the strong dollar versus China is now feeding into the euro zone with these comments on an undervalued euro."
Navarro, a leading China critic and author of a book called "Death by China", said Germany was one of the main hurdles to a U.S.-EU trade deal and that talks on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) were dead, the FT reported.


ALSO IN FOREIGN EXCHANGE ANALYSIS


"A big obstacle to viewing TTIP as a bilateral deal is Germany, which continues to exploit other countries in the EU as well as the U.S. with an 'implicit Deutsche Mark' that is grossly undervalued," the newspaper quoted Navarro as saying.

"The German structural imbalance in trade with the rest of the EU and the U.S. underscores the economic heterogeneity within the EU — ergo, this (TTIP) is a multilateral deal in bilateral dress."

Successive U.S. Treasury Secretaries since Robert Rubin in the Clinton administration have repeated his mantra, first enunciated in 1995, that a strong dollar is in the interests of the United States.

Treasury Secretary nominee Steven Mnuchin tried to maintain that tricky balance at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee earlier this month. He said Trump's remarks referred to a short-term spike in the dollar due to market factors, not its longer-term value.

"The long-term strength over long periods of time is important" for the dollar, Mnuchin said.

 http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-fx-navarro-idUKKBN15F1E1
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Monday 30 January 2017

London cabs to hit Europe's streets next year

They might not be black and the steering wheel will be on the other side but London's distinctive cabs should hit Europe's city streets next year, the chief executive of the London Taxi Company (LTC) told Reuters.
FILE PHOTO - The emblem of London Taxi Company is seen on a taxi printed with the Union flag in Coventry, central England, September 11, 2013. REUTERS/Darren Staples/File Photo

 Mon Jan 30, 2017 | 6:06am GMT
By Costas Pitas | LONDON
The firm, owned by Chinese automaker Geely, is aiming for a ten-fold increase in output to around 10,000 cabs and light commercial vehicles by the turn of the decade, and wants to sell its taxis to major European cities.
Despite industry concerns over Britain's future access to the European Union after Brexit, the cab-maker has pushed ahead with investment plans and has nearly completed a new factory in central England.
Executives from LTC, which traces its roots back to 1899 and was bought by Geely in 2013, have visited cities such as Oslo, Amsterdam, Paris and Berlin in recent months, seeking new markets for the London black taxi.
Chief Executive Chris Gubbey declined to say which city would be the first overseas market for the cab but the firm will aim to export its new low-emissions model from next year.
"We'll start selling them in 2018," Gubbey said, acknowledging that it will be tricky to break into markets long dominated by other brands.
"They tend to be very nationalistic in their product and I think knowing that, we have to very sensible about what we believe can be our rate of climb in terms of market share," he said, referring to some European cities.
The firm has invested around 300 million pounds in a new plant near the central English city of Coventry, close to its existing facility which makes the current range of conventional models.
Gubbey told Reuters the Brexit vote and uncertainty around the country's future trading arrangements had not prompted any investment changes but there were concerns.
Prime Minister Theresa May said last week Britain would leave the EU single market, which guarantees unfettered trade with the EU. But May also suggested that the car industry might be able to keep elements of free trade under a bespoke Brexit deal.
She also said Britain would rather leave the European Union without a new agreement in place than accept a "bad deal", prompting concerns in the industry that Britain might have to fall back on World Trade Organisation tariffs.
"No deal is a tough deal because it basically means going to WTO standards which is a 10 percent tariff," Gubbey said.

ALSO IN BUSINESS NEWS

In a worst case scenario, Britain's more than 1.3 million car exports could face duties and be hit by the loss of customs union access. It would take longer and cost more to move components to and from continental Europe.
Around one third of LTC's new model will be made of British parts, Gubbey said, less than the 41 percent UK industry average.
    Both, however, fall short of the terms of some trade deals between countries for example, which can require more than half of the parts in a new model to be locally-made, a potential problem depending on the nature of any post-Brexit trade agreement.

"It's effectively over 25 percent of where we are today in terms of UK-supply base ... It is very difficult to prepare for that," Gubbey said.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-autos-taxi-id
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Saturday 28 January 2017

The most corrupt countries in the world

17 countries rate less corrupt than the U.S.; North Korea has made strides, but it’s still among the worst

Jan 28, 2017 1:42 p.m. ET
By
SHAWNLANGLOIS

When it comes to the world’s most corrupt countries, Somalia dominates the competition. In fact, for 10 years running, it has earned the dubious distinction of bringing up the rear on Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index.
But it’s not just the African nation that’s mired in a toxic mix of political turpitude and inequality. More than two-thirds of the 176 countries in this year’s index fall below the midpoint on its scale from zero — highly corrupt — to 100 — very clean.
“In too many countries, people are deprived of their most basic needs and go to bed hungry every night because of corruption, while the powerful and corrupt enjoy lavish lifestyles with impunity,” writes, José Ugaz, Chair of Transparency International.
Rounding out the top five behind Somalia are the usual cast of characters: South Sudan, North Korea, Syria and Yemen. Of note, only North Korea managed to eke out a slight improvement over the past five years, according to the study.
Tthe Middle East took the biggest hit in the index, led by a 10-score drop from Qatar, home to FIFA’s World Cup scandal and reports of human rights abuses.
On the flip side, Denmark and New Zealand top the list with a score of 90, followed by Finland, Sweden and Switzerland. The study explains that “higher-ranked countries tend to have higher degrees of press freedom, access to information about public expenditure, stronger standards of integrity for public officials, and independent judicial systems.”
The United States comes in with 74, a drop of two points from last year, which puts it in the 18th spot between Ireland and Austria.
Here’s the full list:
Overall, more countries declined in the index than improved, a clear sign that people are fed up empty political assurance to tackle corruption. This, according to the study, has led to a rising in populism that will likely only serve to make things worse.
“In countries with populist or autocratic leaders, we often see democracies in decline and a disturbing pattern of attempts to crack down on civil society, limit press freedom, and weaken the independence of the judiciary. Instead of tackling crony capitalism, those leaders usually install even worse forms of corrupt systems,” Ugaz said.
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Monday 23 January 2017

Dutch PM Rutte: 'If you don't like it here, then leave'

  • Weeks before Dutch voters go to the polls, Prime Minister Mark Rutte has said that anyone who rejects the country's values should leave.
    Mr Rutte's statement on the VVD website
Image copyrightVVD
Image captionMr Rutte's blunt message was published in several newspapers and on his party's website
"Act normal, or go away," he says, in a message seen as taking on the anti-immigration Freedom party currently running high in the opinion polls.
23 January 2017
The Dutch felt increasingly uncomfortable with people who abused the very freedom they came in search of, Mr Rutte argued.
Elections are taking place on 15 March.
Geert Wilders' Freedom party (PVV) is running neck-and-neck in the polls with Mr Rutte's liberal VVD and branded Mr Rutte's message as a downright lie. "The man of open borders, asylum tsunami, mass immigration, Islamisation, lies and deceit," Mr Wilders tweeted.
From L-R: Harald Vilimsky, General Secretary of the Austria Freedom Party, Geert Wilders, leader of the Dutch PVV party, and Marine Le Pen, leader of the French Front National, greet supporters at a conference of European right-wing parties on January 21, 2017 in Koblenz, GermanyImage copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image captionGeert Wilders (C) has found common cause with right-wing and far-right leaders across Europe
But even if Mr Wilders wins the election he will struggle to form a coalition, after Mr Rutte ruled out forming a government with the PVV.
Political commentators pointed out that the election was now being run on the national mood rather than traditional issues such as the economy and the government's handling of the financial crisis.
Last week Conservative CDA leader Sybrand Buma accused the prime minister, who came to power in October 2010, of presiding over a "moral crisis".

Mr Rutte's full-page ad appeared on Monday in several Dutch newspapers and he gave further details in an interview with the daily, Algemeen Dagblad (AD).
He singled out the case of bus company Qbuzz that was censured by the Dutch human rights institute for turning down an immigrant applying for the job of bus driver because he refused to shake women's hands. It found that shaking hands was not a key part of the job whereas the man's freedom of religion was affected.
"I think it's a bizarre verdict," he told AD. "Qbuzz is of course absolutely right. Surely a driver can't say 'I refuse to shake a woman's hand because it doesn't fit my beliefs'?
"That's precisely why I and many other people are rebelling. Because the norm here is that you shake hands with each other."

Taking on Wilders - by Anna Holligan, BBC News, The Hague

This is an uncompromising message from the Netherlands' king of consensus, published in the papers on a black background for maximum impact.
Mark Rutte is seeking to reclaim territory that his liberal party has been losing to populist leader Geert Wilders' PVV.
Mr Wilders has been emboldened by the election of Donald Trump. His campaign slogans include "Make the Netherlands Great Again" and "The Netherlands is Ours".
Mr Rutte also complained about anti-social behaviour on public transport and on the streets, but particularly targeted those who refused to adapt to Dutch values, harassed women in short skirts and gay men, and branded ordinary people as racists.
"If you live in a country where you get so annoyed with how we deal each other, you have a choice. Get out! You don't have to be here!"

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-38718286
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