International News

Bloomberg The country that brought robots to car factories looks set to stay resolutely old school in agriculture as it seeks to attract more foreign workers to replenish an aging workforce. This month’s vote by Japan’s parliament to open the door more widely to overseas labourers confirms that despite government support and millions of dollars of investment in high-tech agriculture ...

Bloomberg The UK published its long-awaited immigration plan for life outside the European Union, to end freedom of movement from the bloc and prioritise skilled workers regardless of nationality. Home Secretary Sajid Javid said the aim was to bring net migration down to “sustainable levels.” Reducing immigration has been a major issue for British voters and was a key motivation ...

Bloomberg The BBC is in talks with Irish and Dutch authorities to obtain licenses allowing it to continue broadcasting across the European Union in the event of a no-deal Brexit, according to two people familiar with the matter. The UK licenses that the taxpayer-funded British Broadcasting Corp uses to beam hit shows including nature documentary “Blue Planet 2,’’ “Top Gear’’ ...

Bloomberg Global trade developments may dictate how lively Canadian corporate bond sales are next year. Trade tensions, which increased volatility and caused sales in the Canadian corporate securities market to collapse in the fourth quarter, are poised to continue. Issuers pulled back from the market in the fourth quarter and in 2019 volatility may put investors in the driver’s seat ...

Bloomberg BMW AG dodged a takeover attempt by Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler AG six decades ago, and ever since the two luxury-car icons have been bitter rivals — until recently. Reflecting the historic challenges gripping the auto industry, BMW and Daimler are reaching across the aisle to team up in what’s become an emerging trend in the sector. The latest rapprochement ...

Bloomberg Gibraltar was ordered by European Union regulators to reclaim some 100 million euros ($114 million) in tax breaks that aimed to lure multinational firms to the British territory. The European Commission said Gibraltar’s corporate tax exemption rules for interest and royalties unfairly favored some multinational firms. It also judged illegal five tax rulings involving some income from Dutch partnerships. ...

Bloomberg Samsung Electronics Co. is making a new push in the market for wireless network infrastructure. This time, the South Korean electronics giant’s timing may be just right. Mounting concerns in Europe and elsewhere about letting China’s ZTE Corp. and Huawei Technologies Co. provide vital components for fifth-generation cellular networks have coincided with Samsung’s ambition to capture 20 percent of ...

Bloomberg Shares of SoftBank Group Corp.’s domestic telecom business had one of the worst first-day declines ever in Japan after Masayoshi Son raised $23.6 billion in an initial public offering. SoftBank Corp., the new entity trading under ticker 9434 on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, declined 14.5 percent to 1,282 yen in Tokyo. That’s the biggest decline for a major IPO ...

Bloomberg Japan’s export growth slowed again in November, with shipments eking out a tiny gain, as weakening demand in China and trade-war risks cloud the outlook. The value of exports rose 0.1 percent from a year earlier, broadly in line with a median forecast for a 1.2 percent gain, according to the finance ministry. With the exception of a decline ...

Bloomberg China is blowing through regulatory milestones as it completes an astonishing transformation from a market where basic Western drugs were once scarce to one where life-saving treatments are available ahead of the US — all in less than a year. The latest announcement that China has approved an anemia treatment from AstraZeneca Plc and FibroGen Inc. ahead of the ...