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The Morning Ledger: Trade Gap With China Isn't the Problem, U.S. CEOs Say |
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Joshua Bolten, right, president of the Business Roundtable, said China would be willing to discuss the group's recommendations. PHOTO: TOM WILLIAMS/CQ ROLL CALL/ZUMA PRESS
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Good morning. Executives at 200 of America's largest companies are raising their voices in the trade spat with China, urging the Trump administration to stop insisting that Beijing reduce its trade gap with the U.S. The White House should instead focus on pursuing changes to Chinese tariffs, investments and regulations, the Business Roundtable said, reports the WSJ's Bob Davis.
Here's a list of things: The business group laid out a negotiating agenda for U.S.-China talks in a document, saying it believes the approach could help resolve the escalating trade fight between the two countries. Presenting Beijing negotiators with a detailed list of overhauls, endorsed by President Trump, would help get talks moving, said the group’s president, Joshua Bolten.
[Continues below…]
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On the list: The Business Roundtable made various recommendations, including reciprocal tariff reductions; eliminating Chinese requirements that U.S. firms seeking to do business in China form joint ventures; permission for U.S. companies to obtain licenses in China without a local partner; scrapping requirements for U.S. firms to transfer technology to Chinese firms; and reducing Chinese subsidies that support the steel, aluminum and other industries marked by excess capacity.
Not on the list: The group’s document didn’t mention the bilateral trade deficit. China could boost purchases of U.S. goods, as Mr. Trump wants, but do so without dismantling the trade barriers that confront U.S. businesses, Mr. Bolten argued. “The U.S. will benefit and prosper if we get the right kinds of rules in place,” he said. “We won’t, if they just buy another $100 billion” of liquefied natural gas, he said.
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The U.S. Labor Department releases its monthly snapshot of the nation’s labor market Friday. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal expect it to show employers created 190,000 jobs in July and that the unemployment rate fell to 3.9% from 4.0% a month earlier. Here are five things to look for in the report.
Kraft Heinz Co., Noble Energy Inc. and Toyota Motor Corp. are among the companies slated to report earnings today.
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Dutch paints maker Akzo Nobel NV is continuing to raise prices to offset higher raw material costs, the company’s finance chief told CFO Journal's Nina Trentmann.
The Amsterdam-based company is not pursuing a blanket approach, but is increasing prices of paint and coating products based on data, Chief Financial Officer Maarten de Vries Thursday said. The data allows Akzo to determine, for example, the purchasing power of its customers in a specific country or the overall price level in a certain market.
“We have installed very detailed dashboards to track our data on a very granular level,” Mr. de Vries said. The company has several thousand products in its portfolio, he said.
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Pedestrians walk past a signboard of Heineken in Shanghai, China. PHOTO: JUN YING/ZUMA PRESS
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Heineken NV on Friday announced a $3.1 billion tie-up with China Resources Beer Holdings Co., the country's biggest brewer, as it looks to tap drinkers in the world’s largest beer market by volume.
Apple Inc. on Thursday became the first U.S. company to surpass $1 trillion in market value, underscoring the iPhone maker’s explosive growth and its role in the technology industry’s ascent to the forefront of the global economy and markets.
Microsoft Corp. continues to narrow the gap with cloud services front-runner Amazon.com Inc., nearly doubling its share of the infrastructure-as-a-service market last year, in part by selling more companies on a hybrid cloud approach, Gartner reports.
CBS Corp. reported better-than-expected revenue for the second quarter, results that come as the media company’s board investigates allegations of sexual harassment against its chairman and chief executive, Leslie Moonves.
The world’s largest maker of generic drugs, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., is struggling to get healthy. Teva posted an 18% decline in second-quarter sales on Thursday, with continued weakness in some of the Israeli company’s most important drug categories.
Kellogg Co. offered a bullish outlook for its annual sales after several sluggish years, but it warned that higher trucking costs and lower prices for its products were eating into profit margins.
Cisco Systems Inc. agreed to pay $2.35 billion in cash and stock for closely held Duo Security Inc., bolstering its cybersecurity offerings as the networking-gear maker looks to build a more predictable revenue stream from subscription-software sales.
General Motors Co. is seeking an exemption to a 25% U.S. tariff on its Chinese-made Buick Envision sport utility, in a move to prevent the key model in the brand’s U.S. lineup from becoming a victim of the U.S.-China trade war, reports Reuters.
Blue Apron Holdings Inc. disclosed increasing customer losses, as the meal-kit maker struggles to fix logistical problems dogging its complex operations.
Relativity Media LLC and Netflix Inc. settled a long-running dispute over a lucrative licensing contract, clearing the way for a proposed sale of the Hollywood studio and an end to its second bankruptcy proceeding.
American International Group Inc.’s second-quarter earnings took a hit on a slump in income from the insurer’s investment portfolio, reports Bloomberg.
Peloton Interactive Inc. is raising a $550 million round of financing as the maker of video-streaming stationary bikes contemplates an initial public offering as soon as next year.
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New rules proposed by the Treasury Department could affect big U.S. wine producers that also import wines. PHOTO: RICK BOWMER/ASSOCIATED PRESS
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The Trump administration is challenging a tax benefit that gives the wine industry more than $50 million annually and blocking beer and spirits makers from using the same break.
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The Trump administration is proposing to freeze fuel-efficiency standards for cars and light trucks in 2020, a move that will ease rules for auto makers and also likely intensify a legal fight with California.
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The Trump administration has reduced steep tariffs it imposed earlier this year on newsprint from Canada, offering at least a partial reprieve to the already beleaguered U.S. newspaper industry, which had struggled to absorb the additional costs.
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A General Electric Co. engineer with ties to Chinese companies was arrested and accused of stealing files related to proprietary power-turbine technology, which the FBI says he elaborately concealed to avoid detection.
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Investors are questioning whether Dubai’s young financial center can police itself as the meltdown of its marquee private-equity firm highlights broader concerns about placing money in the region.
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Less than a third of 800 U.K. business leaders surveyed have carried out contingency planning on Brexit, the Institute of Directors said on Friday, reports Reuters.
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Truckers are ordering new rigs as retailers, consumer-goods distributors and other companies are reporting tight capacity. PHOTO: SCOTT OLSON/GETTY IMAGES
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U.S. orders for heavy-duty trucks hit a record high last month, as carriers riding a white-hot freight market lined up for new big rigs during what is normally the slowest month for equipment purchases.
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The Bank of England raised its benchmark interest rate to its highest level in almost a decade, highlighting the central bank's concern about rising inflation.
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Senior U.S. and Mexican officials on Thursday sought to hammer out new rules for the auto trade at the center of negotiations to overhaul the North American Free Trade Agreement, while Canadian officials sat out the latest talks amid persistent tension between Ottawa and Washington.
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Eurozone retail sales rose for the second straight month in June, in a sign that consumer spending is holding up in the face of rising energy prices, reports the Financial Times.
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The number of U.S. workers filing new applications for unemployment benefits ticked slightly higher last week but continued to hover near the lowest levels since the late 1960s.
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Honeywell International Inc., a Morris Plains, N.J., technology and manufacturing company, appointed Greg Lewis as chief financial officer, effective August 3, 2018. Mr. Lewis succeeds Tom Szlosek, who is retiring.
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Mr. Lewis has served as the company's vice president, corporate finance since May 2018. He will receive a base salary of $700,000 and will have a target annual incentive compensation opportunity of 100% of annual base salary, Honeywell said in a filing.
Raisio Oyj, a Finnish food and chemical company, said that Chief Financial Officer Antti Elevuori has resigned from his position. Mr. Elevuori will continue in his duties until switching to an unspecified new employer in November, Raisio said. A search has been launched for his replacement.
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Every weekend we select a handful of in-depth articles we think are worth a bit of your time, either because they peel back the layers on a compelling business story, or somehow make us look at business in a different light.
We all have times when we wonder, “Am I at the right company? Am I in the right job? And is this all there is?” Questions like these are especially pressing for mid-career professionals. The Harvard Business Review has some recommendations for how to respond to them.
Agricultural businesses across the U.S. are reeling from retaliatory tariffs sparked by President Trump’s global trade offensive -- levies imposed on a wide range of American goods from soybeans and pork to ginseng and cranberries, writes the Wall Street Journal. The duties have deepened a downturn that was already sapping incomes in the U.S. Farm Belt.
When the floodwaters have receded and fires have burned out, many U.S. homeowners are hit with another disaster: inadequate insurance, reports the Wall Street Journal.
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