Bloomberg The US is threatening to block the UK from a 46-nation public procurement agreement, a move that would deny British companies from accessing a near $2 trillion marketplace after leaving the European Union, according to two officials with knowledge of the situation. The UK will apply to rejoin the Government Procurement Agreement, a $1.7 trillion trade accord that governs ...

Bloomberg The UK economy appears to be on course for its best calendar quarter in almost two years, despite a weaker-than-expected performance in August. Gross domestic product grew 0.7 percent in the three months through August, the Office for National Statistics said on Wednesday. In August alone, output was unchanged. Economists had predicted growth of 0.1 percent. However, a similar ...

Bloomberg British and European Union officials are locked in talks in Brussels over a compromise Brexit deal that could see the UK remain temporarily in the EU’s customs regime, people familiar with the negotiations said. With just a week before a crucial summit of EU leaders that could determine the outcome of Brexit, officials from each side are wrangling over ...

Bloomberg European Union governments tightened a proposed cap on carbon dioxide from cars in 2030, whittling away German resistance in a sign of heightened sensitivity across the bloc to road pollution. EU environment ministers set a CO2-reduction target for autos of 35 percent compared with 2021 in a bid to give a stronger spur to the development of electric vehicles. ...

Bloomberg Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV is nearing a deal to sell its high-tech car-parts unit, Magneti Marelli, to Calsonic Kansei after the Japanese firm raised its bid, according to people with knowledge of the talks. Calsonic, an automotive supplier owned by private equity firm KKR & Co., and Fiat have reached a tentative agreement on price and may announce an ...

Brexiters have long claimed countries are queuing up to sign trade deals with Britain once it leaves the European Union (EU). It’s one reason they so oppose any Brexit deal that leaves the United Kingdom tied to Europe’s customs union, even temporarily. Right on cue, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told the Financial Times this week that the UK would ...

So many internet and software companies make gadgets now. Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Facebook all make some type of internet-connected computing gear. Even Uber has started to engineer its own electric scooters. The one thing all these newcomers have in common is that their hardware businesses are irrelevant. That’s important to remember with Google’s introduction of the latest in its ...

At its best, economics poses a simple question: What makes people better off, and how can we have more of it? This year, the Nobel committee has rightly chosen to honor two academics, William Nordhaus and Paul Romer, who have demonstrated a rare dedication to finding answers — and to making the case for action. Economic growth can be a ...

The rejiggered North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) pulls the Mexican and US economies closer together, and raises the drawbridge to reduce trade with Asia. For Mexicans who already felt too dependent on the US, this is a grim combination. The reconfigured accord, announced last week, seems like another chapter in the global playbook of muscular regionalism. Globalisation is morphing ...

A couple of things happened last week in India that deserve a bit of attention — mostly because they reveal how deep the country’s structural problems go and how few good options the government has left. The first was the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) decision to hold interest rates steady even though the rupee had hit record lows against ...