News

Bloomberg Farmers in Australia, the world’s biggest exporter of chickpeas, have halved their plantings after the nation’s top customer hiked tariffs to levels that rendered the trade untenable, according to an industry association. India imposed a 30 percent import tariff on chickpeas in December before increasing it to 40 percent in February and to 60 percent in March. The country ...

Bloomberg Thailand will seek bids in the fourth-quarter for a $5.5 billion high-speed rail project that’s part of a wider plan for a train network to China. The bidder will build the first half of the network in Thailand, Minister of Transport Arkhom Termpittayapaisith said. His ministry expects to receive detailed designs this month from China, its partner for the ...

Bloomberg The Treasury Department is planning to heighten scrutiny of Chinese investments in sensitive US industries under an emergency law, putting Washington’s trade war with Beijing on a potentially irreversible course. Under the plan, the White House would use one of the most significant legal measures available to declare China’s investment in US companies involved in technologies such as new-energy ...

Bloomberg British businesses aren’t the only ones unhappy with the state of Brexit negotiations. Companies in the rest of the European Union aren’t thrilled either. Exactly two years after the referendum, nearly half of 800 executives surveyed across six EU countries by law firm Baker McKenzie said their businesses had reduced investment in the UK since the Brexit vote, according ...

Bloomberg Blackstone Group LP is nearing a first close of $5 billion for its inaugural infrastructure fund, according to people familiar with the matter. The fundraising, expected to be finalised this week, is slightly behind schedule but will mark the biggest initial close for a first-time fund across any alternative investment strategy after SoftBank’s $100 billion Vision Fund and the ...

Bloomberg General Electric Co. is nearing the sale of its factory power-generation unit to Advent International for at least $3 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported. The private equity firm apparently triumphed over a competing bid from Cummins Inc. and a transaction may be announced, the newspaper reported, citing people familiar with the matter who weren’t identified. The assets include ...

Bloomberg The Trump administration has collected more than $775 million so far from its metal import tariffs, as lawmakers from both parties blasted the duties and said the process for requests by companies for exclusions must improve. The tariffs President Donald Trump imposed in March have generated $582 million from steel imports and $195 million from aluminum as of last ...

Abu Dhabi / WAM President HH Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan issued a number of Federal Decrees on the ratification of international and bilateral agreements between the UAE and a number of friendly countries, as well as establishment of UAE Embassy in the Maldives. The Decrees were published in the latest issue of the Official Gazette. Federal Decree No. ...

CALIFORNIA / WAM A delegation led by Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD and CEO of the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa), has visited the US. The visit is part of Dewa’s efforts to expand cooperation with international universities, companies and research centres, and review best practices and the latest research in a variety of areas, including renewable energy, water, ...

DUBAI / Emirates Business The food and beverage (F&B) sector based in Jebel Ali Free Zone (Jafza), the UAE’s premier regional business and logistics hub, showed significant growth in 2017 reflecting continuing confidence in the industry in the UAE. The sector’s volume of trade rose to 3.5 million metric tonnes, valued at AED11.1 billion which accounted for 17.85 percent and ...