U.S. employers kept up a brisk hiring pace in June by adding 213,000 jobs, a sign of confidence in the economy despite the start of a potentially punishing trade war with China.

The job growth wasn’t enough to keep the unemployment rate from rising from 3.8 percent to 4 percent, the government said Friday. But the jobless rate rose for an encouraging reason: More people felt it was a good time to begin looking for a job, though not all of them immediately found one.

The growing optimism that people can find work suggested that the 9-year old U.S. economic expansion — the second-longest on record — has the momentum to keep chugging along. Yet its path ahead is uncertain. Just hours before the monthly jobs report was released, the Trump administration imposed taxes on $34 billion in Chinese imports, and Beijing hit back with tariffs on the same amount of U.S. goods.

“The tariffs jumble things about what we should expect to see in the next few months,” said Cathy Barrera, chief economist at ZipRecruiter, the online jobs marketplace.

Some companies are likely to respond to the tariffs by putting their hiring plans on hold until the trade picture becomes clearer.

Major U.S. stock indexes were mostly higher in early trading Friday after the jobs report was issued, keeping the market on track for a weekly gain after two weeks of losses.

The June jobs data showed an economy that may be on the cusp of producing stronger pay growth, something that could be disrupted if additional tariffs are imposed. Trump has suggested that more than $500 billion worth of Chinese imports could be taxed in his drive to force Beijing to reform its trade policies, which he insists have unfairly victimized the United States.

Average hourly pay rose just 2.7 percent in June from 12 months earlier. That relatively modest increases means that, after adjusting for inflation, overall wages remain nearly flat. But the average was skewed downward in June because the influx of jobseekers was due mainly to those with only a high school education or less, who are generally paid lower wages,

The ranks of unemployed people seeking jobs jumped by 499,000 in June, which caused the unemployment rate to rise from its previous 18 year-low. With 93 straight months of job growth — a historical record — many employers have said they’re feeling pressure to raise wages. But significant pay gains have yet to emerge in the economic data.

Manufacturers added 36,000 jobs last month; the education and health sector added 54,000. But retailers shed 21,600 jobs, with the losses concentrated at general merchandise stores.

In its report Friday, the government revised up its estimate of job growth in May and April by a combined 37,000. Over the past three months, the economy has produced a robust average monthly job gain of 211,000.

The broader U.S. economy appears sturdy. Economists are forecasting that economic growth accelerated to an annual pace of roughly 4 percent during the April-June quarter, about double the previous quarter’s pace.

Signs of strength have helped bolster hiring despite the difficulty many employers say they’re having in finding enough qualified workers to fill jobs.

Manufacturers and services firms have said in recent surveys that their business is improving despite anxiety about the tariff showdown between the United States and China. Housing starts have climbed 11 percent so far this year. Retail sales jumped a strong 0.8 percent in May in a sign that consumers feel secure enough to spend.

Though economic growth appears to be solid, the gains have been spread unevenly. President Donald Trump’s tax cuts have provided a dose of stimulus this year, but the benefits have been tilted significantly toward wealthy individuals and corporations. Savings from the tax cuts enabled companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index to buy back a record number of shares in the first three months of 2018.

Yet the tax cuts have done little to generate substantial pay growth. Most economists say they still think the low unemployment rate will eventually force more employers to offer higher pay in order to fill jobs.

The economy also faces a substantial threat from the Trump administration’s trade war with China and from other, ongoing trade disputes with U.S. allies, including Canada and Europe. Any escalation in the conflict with China could disrupt hiring as companies grapple with higher import prices and diminished demand for their exports. On Thursday, Trump floated the prospect of imposing tariffs on more than $500 billion in Chinese imports.

The Trump administration has also applied tariffs on steel and aluminum from allies like Canada and Mexico and has threatened to abandon the North American Free Trade Agreement with those two countries. Trump has also spoken about slapping tariffs on imported cars, trucks and auto parts, which General Motors has warned could hurt the U.S. auto industry and drive up car prices.

Automakers added 12,000 jobs in June, but the tariffs could weigh on that industry’s job growth in the coming months.
…

The World Trade Organization is urging nations to resolve trade tensions, warning that restrictive trade measures would have a harmful impact on the global economy.

The group refuses to weigh in on what appears to be the start of a trade war between the United States and China, the world’s two biggest economies. China has reacted to Washington’s decision to slap 25 percent tariffs on $34 billion worth of Chinese goods by reciprocating in kind.

While the Geneva-based WTO will not comment on specific actions, the organization’s director-general, Roberto Azevedo, has sent out a series of tweets warning nations against giving in to protectionist impulses.

Azevedo says a new WTO monitoring report on trade measures enacted by the G-20 countries indicates a disturbing increase in trade restrictions by major economies. In his tweet, the WTO chief says recent developments show that more restrictive measures are on the way.

His spokesman, Dan Pruzin, says Azevedo fears the deterioration in trade relations may be worse than previously anticipated and is likely to have very serious consequences.

“The fallout from these measures is already being felt,” Pruzin said. “Companies are hesitating to invest, markets are getting jittery, some prices are rising. With further escalation, the effects would only grow in magnitude, hitting jobs and growth in the countries involved and sending economic shock waves around the world.” 

President Donald Trump has threatened that the United States might quit the WTO if it is not treated fairly.

“I will just say that no U.S. official in Geneva has given any indication in any of the meetings here in Geneva that the United States intends to withdraw from the WTO,” Pruzin told VOA.

WTO chief Azevedo is urging all parties to sit down and discuss ways of tackling the issues at the root of the growing trade tensions.
…

The world’s two biggest economies have fired the opening shots in a trade war that could have wide-ranging consequences for consumers, workers, companies, investors and political leaders.

The United States slapped a 25 percent tax on $34 billion worth of Chinese imports starting Friday, and China is retaliating with taxes on an equal amount of U.S. products, including soybeans, pork and electric cars.

The United States accuses China of using predatory tactics in a push to supplant U.S. technological dominance. The tactics include forcing American companies to hand over technology in exchange for access to the Chinese market, as well as outright cyber-theft. Trump’s tariffs are meant to pressure Beijing to reform its trade policies.

Though the first exchange of tariffs is unlikely to inflict much economic harm on either nation, the damage could soon escalate. President Donald Trump, who has boasted that winning a trade war will be easy, said Thursday that he’s prepared to impose tariffs on up to $550 billion in Chinese imports — a figure that exceeds the $506 billion in goods that China actually shipped to the United States last year.

Escalating tariffs would likely raise prices for consumers, inflate costs for companies that rely on imported parts, rattle financial markets, cause some layoffs and slow business investment as executives wait to see whether the Trump administration can reach a truce with Beijing. The damage would threaten to undo many of the economic benefits of last year’s tax cuts.

A full-fledged trade war, economists at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and elsewhere warn, risks tipping the U.S. economy into recession.

And those caught in the initial line of fire — U.S. farmers facing tariffs on their exports to China, for instance — are already hunkered down and fearing the worst. The price of U.S. soybeans has plunged 17 percent over the past month on fears that Chinese tariffs will cut off American farmers from a market that buys about 60 percent of their soybean exports.

“For soybean producers like me this is a direct financial hit,” Brent Bible, a soy and corn producer in Romney, Indiana, said in a statement from the advocacy group Farmers for Free Trade. “This is money out of my pocket. These tariffs could mean the difference between a profit and a loss for an entire year’s worth of work out in the field, and that’s only in the near term.”

Even before the first shots were fired, the prospect of a trade war was worrying investors. The Dow Jones industrial average has shed nearly 1,000 points since June 11.

The Chinese currency, the yuan, has dropped 3.5 percent against the U.S. dollar over the past month, giving Chinese companies a price edge over their U.S. competition. The drop might reflect a deliberate devaluation by the Chinese government to signal Beijing’s “displeasure over the state of trade negotiations,” according to a report Thursday from the Institute of International Finance, a banking trade group.

The Trump administration sought to limit the impact of the tariffs on U.S. households by targeting Chinese industrial goods, not consumer products, for the first round of tariffs. But that step drives up costs for U.S. companies that rely on Chinese-made machinery or components and may force them to pass them along to their business customers, and eventually to consumers.

If you like Chick-fil-A sandwiches, for instance, you may feel the impact of the tariffs. Charlie Souhrada, a vice president of the North American Food Equipment Manufacturers, says the duties could raise the cost of a pressure cooker made by one of its members, Henny Penny. Chick-fil-A uses the cooker for its sandwiches. The administration has placed “these import taxes squarely on the shoulders of manufacturers and by extension consumers,” Souhrada said.

The Federal Reserve is already picking up signs that the threat of a trade war is causing businesses to rethink investment plans. In the minutes from its June 12-13 meeting, the Fed’s policymaking committee noted: “Contacts in some districts indicated that plans for capital spending had been scaled back or postponed as a result of uncertainty over trade policy,”

And if Trump extends the tariffs to $550 billion in Chinese imports, there’s no way consumers could avoid being caught in the crossfire: The taxes would have to hit consumer products like televisions and cellphones.

Consider what happened to the price of washing machines that were subjected to a separate series of Trump tariffs in January. Over the past year, their price has surged more than 8 percent, compared with a slight drop in overall appliance prices.

Even the first round of tariffs means that “American consumers are one step closer to feeling the full effects of a trade war,” said Matthew Shay, president of the National Retail Federation.

“These tariffs will do nothing to protect U.S. jobs, but they will undermine the benefits of tax reform and drive up prices for a wide range of products as diverse as tool sets, batteries, remote controls, flash drives and thermostats,” Shay said. “And students could pay more for the mini-refrigerator they need in their dorm room as they head back to college this fall… a strategy based on unilateral tariffs is the wrong approach, and it has to stop.”
…

Drivers of Kenya’s digital taxis shut down operations Monday in protest of what they term as exploitative corporate practices. They say the firms are charging low rates to their clients, yet imposing high commissions on the drivers, leading them to work longer hours with little pay.

The Digital Taxi Association of Kenya, representing more than 2,000 digital taxi drivers, is in the fourth day of a protest that has seen drivers switch off their services, stalling transportation in the country.

The drivers say client charges have reduced over time as more digital taxi apps enter the market, but their commissions to the taxi firms have remained the same.

The drivers are demanding a review of their rates and working conditions. Through their association, they want the digital taxi services to double their client rates and reduce driver commissions to the companies so they can earn decent wages.

“The fare itself, it has been very low from the word go,” said Anthony Maina, an Uber driver in Kenya. “The percentage after they get their commission, we get very little returns.”

The main digital taxi services in Kenya are the American brand Uber and Estonian Taxify, as well as at least three others.

Uber charges a 25 percent commission on each ride, while apps like Taxify charge 15 percent. The drivers want rates at least doubled per kilometer, and commissions slashed to 10 percent.

Kenya Digital Taxi Services Director David Muteru is calling on Kenya’s Ministry of Transport to resolve the issue.

“All these things are happening where we have government agencies who can [take care of all these things] without having pressure from us,” Muteru said. “It is not our wish to come here and start demonstrating. Our demand is that we must have regulations. [The pricing] is very skewed in favor of the app companies to the detriment of drivers.”

Maina says Uber reduced the maximum working hours from 18 to 12 in an effort to better the working conditions, but drivers overwork to earn more to meet expenses.

“We cannot afford daily maintenance, he said. “An example, each and every day you have to fuel the vehicle, you have to wash the car, and if you happen to be in the city center, you have to pay the city council. All those expenses, when you put them together and maybe you do not own the vehicle yourself, you have to pay the partner and you know fuel has been going up every day and they are not adjusting their commission or fare. So that has been a big problem for us.”

Earlier in the week, Uber drivers in South Africa also went on strike to protest the 25 percent fee charged by Uber.

Digital Taxi Association representatives in Kenya are in negotiations with the taxi firms and Kenya’s Ministry of Transport as their strike continues.
…

Міжнародні резерви України станом на 1 липня становили 17 мільярдів 978 мільйонів доларів США, за червень вони скоротилися більш як на відсоток у зв’язку зі здійсненням платежів за державним боргом, номінованим в іноземній валюті, повідомив Національний банк України 5 липня.

За даними регулятора, понад 552 мільйони доларів були спрямовані на обслуговування та погашення за облігаціями внутрішньої державної позики (ОВДП), номінованими в іноземній валюті. Ще 162 мільйони доларів протягом червня уряд та НБУ сплатили на користь Міжнародного валютного фонду.

Основним джерелом поповнення резервів у червні стали надходження на користь уряду від розміщення нових ОВДП, номінованих в іноземній валюті, у сумі понад 539 мільйони доларів.

Купівля Національним банком валюти на міжбанківському ринку припинила бути головним джерелом поповнення резервів, яким була в минулі місяці.

«З огляду на певне погіршення зовнішньої цінової кон’юнктури для товарів українського експорту і спад інтересів міжнародних інвесторів до ринків, що розвиваються, можливості Національного банку викуповувати надлишкову пропозицію іноземної валюти без тиску на обмінний курс гривні були обмежені», – вказано в повідомленні.

Читайте також: Порошенко підписав закон про валюту 

Станом на 1 липня 2018 року обсяг міжнародних резервів покриває 3,2 місяця майбутнього імпорту і є достатнім для виконання зобов’язань України та поточних операцій уряду і НБУ.
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South Africa has become one of the biggest markets for illegal cigarette sales and is losing out on 7 billion rand ($514 million) a year in potential tax revenue, a report funded by a tobacco industry group said on Thursday.

The study carried out by Ipsos found illegal cigarette trade spiked between 2014 and 2017 after a probe into the underground industry was dropped by the South African Revenue Service (SARS) under suspended commissioner Tom Moyane.

Moyane, an ally of former President Jacob Zuma, is the main focus of an ongoing SARS commission of inquiry over allegations of widespread corruption at the tax agency under his watch. He denies any wrongdoing.

Former head of enforcement at SARS, Gene Ravele, told the inquiry last week the decision to drop the investigation into illegal tobacco trade was intended to let it continue.

“After I left [in 2015], there was no inspections at cigarette factories. It was planned,” said Ravele.

A packet of cigarettes should incur a minimum tax of 17.85 rand ($1.31), yet packs are sold on the black market for as little as 5 rand as manufacturers dodge official sales channels to avoid paying tax, the Ipsos study found.

Three-quarters of all South Africa’s informal vendors — totaling 100,000 — sell illegal cigarettes in an industry that was worth 15 billion rand ($1.10 billion) over the last three years, the report said.

“Independent superettes, corner cafes and general dealers are the key channels for ultra-cheap brands, with hawkers providing a key entry point, mainly through the loose cigarette sales,” Ipsos head of measurement Zibusiso Ngulube said. “These manufacturers are perfectly primed to continue to grow at a fast rate.”

The study was funded by The Tobacco Institute of Southern Africa, which includes arms of global manufacturers like Philip Morris International, Alliance One and British American Tobacco.
…

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday she would back lowering European Union tariffs on U.S. car imports, responding to an offer from Washington to abandon threatened levies on European cars in return for concessions.

“When we want to negotiate tariffs, on cars for example, we need a common European position and we are still working on it,” Merkel said.

U.S. President Donald Trump threatened last month to impose a 20-percent import tariff on all EU-assembled vehicles, which could upend the industry’s current business model for selling cars in the United States.

According to an industry source, the U.S. ambassador to Germany told German car bosses from BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen at a meeting on Wednesday that Trump could abandon such threats if the EU scrapped duties on U.S. cars imported into the bloc.

Merkel said any move to cut tariffs on U.S. vehicles would require reductions on those imported from other countries to conform with World Trade Organization rules.

“I would be ready to support negotiations on reducing tariffs, but we would not be able to do this only with the U.S.,” she said.

German automotive trade body VDA said any suggestions about mutually removing tariffs and other trade barriers were positive signals.

“But it is clear that the negotiations are exclusively being held at a political level,” it said in a statement.

Current U.S. import tariff rates on cars are 2.5 percent and on trucks 25 percent. The EU has a 10 percent levy on car imports from the United States.

Trump hit the EU, Canada and Mexico with tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum at the start of June, ending exemptions that had been in place since March.

The EU executive responded by imposing its own import duties of 25 percent on a range of U.S. goods, including steel and aluminum products, farm produce such as sweetcorn and peanuts, bourbon, jeans and motor-bikes.

Trump’s protectionist trade policies, which also target Chinese imports, have raised fears of a full-blown and protracted trade war that threatens to damage the world economy.

 
…

Національна акціонерна компанія «Нафтогаз України» заявила 5 липня, що російський «Газпром» «свідомо маніпулює словами і підмінює поняття», коли твердить, що арешт активів «Північних потоків» у Швейцарії не відновлений.

«Вищий суд швейцарського кантону Цуґ призупинив дію рішення місцевого органу зі стягнення боргів про виключення акцій Nord Stream AG та Nord Stream 2 AG з переліку арештованого майна. Фактично рішення суду означає відновлення арешту на період як мінімум до моменту прийняття судом рішення щодо скарги Нафтогазу на рішення органу зі стягнення боргів», – вказує «Нафтогаз» у мережі Twitter.

Згодом українська компанія додатково розтлумачила рішення так, як вона його розуміє.

«Блумберг: Газпром каже, що акції Північних потоків повернули до переліку заарештованих активів тимчасово. Пояснюємо: 1. Суд наклав арешт. 2. Виконавча служба викреслила акції з переліку арештованого майна, бо «Газпром» сказав, що «ихтамнет». 3. Вищий суд скасував п.2. Повернулися до п. 1», – додали в «Нафтогазі».

Кількома годинами раніше 5 липня в «Газпромі» вказали, що «заява «Нафтогазу України» про те, що суд кантону Цуґ (Швейцарія) поновив арешт акцій Nord Stream AG і Nord Stream 2 AG, не відповідає дійсності». За даними «Газпрому», швейцарський суд 29 червня 2018 року призупинив дію виключення акцій Nord Stream AG і Nord Stream 2 AG зі складених приставами сертифікатів про накладення забезпечувальних заходів на активи «Газпрому» в цих компаніях.

«Виняток щодо акцій призупинений на термін розгляду заяви «Нафтогазу України» про оскарження дій судових приставів», – вказувала з посиланням на «Газпром» російська державна агенція економічної інформації «Прайм».

Вищий суд швейцарського кантону Цуґ відновив арешт акцій Nord Stream AG та Nord Stream 2 AG, які належать російській компанії «Газпром», повідомила прес-служба НАК «Нафтогаз України» 4 липня.

Читайте також: Арешт активів «Газпрому». Як «Нафтогазу України» повернути собі гроші?

30 травня «Нафтогаз» повідомив, що почав процес стягнення з російського «Газпрому» боргу в близько 2,6 мільярда доларів відповідно до рішення Стокгольмського арбітражу в справах щодо постачання і транзиту газу.

Стокгольмський арбітраж розглядав спір «Нафтогазу» і «Газпрому» про умови контракту на поставку і транзит газу, укладеного в 2009 році на 10 років. Сторони висували одна до одної претензії на кілька мільярдів доларів.
…

Trade rhetoric is spilling into the real world of jobs and consumer goods. The United States is set to impose tariffs on $34 billion worth of goods from China on July 6. Beijing is fighting back with its own $34 billion of tariffs on American goods. As VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports, investors are understandably on edge.
…

United States Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell reportedly told German auto makers Wednesday the U.S. would back off threats of tariffs on European car imports in exchange for the European Union’s elimination of duties on U.S. cars.

The German newspaper Handelsblatt reported Grenell told BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen executives of the proposal during a meeting Wednesday at the embassy in Berlin.

Daimler and Volkswagen declined to comment and BMW was not immediately available for comment, the report said.

The reported proposal comes after the European Union warned U.S. President Donald Trump last Friday the potential indirect costs of imposing tariffs on cars could amount to $294 billion.

The EU report, submitted to the U.S. Commerce Department, maintained the tariffs would disrupt cross-border supply chains in the automotive industry. The report said the tariffs could possibly trigger higher U.S. industrial costs, raise consumer prices, hurt exports and cost jobs.  

The World Trade Organization said Wednesday trade barriers being set by world economic powers could jeopardize the global economic recovery.

“This continued escalation poses a serious threat to growth and recovery in all countries, and we are beginning to see this reflected in some forward-looking indicators,” WTO Director General Roberto Azevendo said.

Azevendo did not expound on his remarks, but the WTO’s quarter trade outlook indicator in May suggested trade growth in the second quarter would decelerate.

 
…

30 травня «Нафтогаз» повідомив, що почав процес стягнення з російського «Газпрому» боргу в близько 2,6 мільярда доларів
…

European businesses are unsettled as they watch the U.S. and China collide over trade. And for good reason: the nascent global trade war could represent the biggest single threat to the economic upswing that has helped the region get past its financial crisis.

In theory, some European companies could benefit, jumping into market niches if Chinese businesses are kept out of the U.S. market. But that would only be a few companies or sectors.

When your entire economy is heavily dependent on trade, an overall slowdown in global commerce caused by tit-for-tat import taxes provokes fear and undermines confidence.

And that’s just what’s happening in Europe. By one measure, business confidence has fallen in six of the past seven months in Germany, where exports are almost half of annual economic output.

“It’s worth all our efforts to defuse this conflict, so it doesn’t become a war,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday.

The U.S. is due to put tariffs on $34 billion worth of Chinese goods on Friday. The Chinese will respond with tariffs on an equivalent value of U.S. products such as soybeans, seafood and crude oil.

Amid all this, Europe has its own trade dispute with the U.S. After the U.S. put tariffs on steel and aluminum from many allies, including the European Union, the 28-country bloc responded with import taxes on some $3.25 billion of U.S. goods. The Trump administration is also studying the option of putting tariffs on cars, which would significantly escalate the confrontation.

The head of the EU’s executive, Jean-Claude Juncker, will head to Washington in late July to try to personally persuade Trump against further measures targeting Europe.

The disputes over trade threaten to spoil the good times for Europe’s economy.

Growth last year was the strongest in a decade, since before the global financial crisis. While that has eased in recent quarters, the economy is still strong enough to create jobs. The number of unemployed fell by 125,000 in May, leaving unemployment in the 19 countries that use the euro at 8.4 percent, the lowest since 2008 and down from a high of 12.1 percent in 2013.

“Trade tensions stoked by U.S. President Donald Trump are clouding the economic outlook in Europe,” wrote analysts at Berenberg bank in London. They rated the trade risk ahead of troubles from Italy’s heavy debt load or faster than expected interest rate increases from the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Many European companies would suffer because they both produce and sell goods in the U.S. and China, the world’s biggest economies.

For example, tariffs that China is expected to impose Friday on U.S.-made autos would hit German carmakers Daimler and BMW since they both make vehicles in the United States and export them to China.

Daimler has already lowered its outlook for profits, citing higher than expected costs from the new tariffs. BMW warned in a letter to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross on Friday that tariffs would make it harder for it to sell in China the vehicles it builds at its factory in Spartanburg, South Carolina, “potentially leading to a strongly reduced export volumes and negative effects on investment and employment in the United States.”

Last year, BMW exported 272,000 vehicles from the Spartanburg plant, more than half its total production. Of those, 81,000 — worth $2.37 billion — went to China. BMW says its exports reduced the U.S. trade deficit by around $1 billion.

By themselves, the tariffs that take effect Friday won’t immediately have a dramatic impact on global trade. The fear is that retaliation will spiral, hitting the total amount of global commerce.

Even if the overall effect is to harm growth, there could be benefits for some European companies and sectors. Economists Alicia Garcia Herrero and Jianwei Xu at the French bank Natixis say that European makers of cars, aircraft, chemicals, computer chips and factory machinery could in theory snare market share by substituting for Chinese or American products in the two markets. But that’s only if Europe’s own trade dispute with the U.S. does not escalate — a big if.

Europe is waiting to see whether the Trump administration will go ahead separately with tariffs on auto imports. European companies like BMW, Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen’s Porsche and Audi divisions, and Fiat Chrysler send $46.6 billion worth of vehicles every year to the U.S. Some 13.3 million people, or 6.1 percent of the employed population of the EU, work in the automotive sector, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers Association.

“Europe cannot win anything” on an overall basis “for one obvious reason: we are net exporters,” said Garcia Herrero, chief economist for Asia Pacific at Natixis and a senior fellow at European research institute Bruegel. “But we should not understate the view that some sectors could get something out of a U.S.-China trade war.”

Amid the brewing conflict, China has sought to get Europe on its side, putting on a diplomatic charm offensive during visits by Merkel and French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe. The EU and China agreed last month to deepen commercial ties and support trade rules. But the EU remains a close, longtime ally of the U.S. on a range of issues, despite the current tensions with the Trump administration.

One negative outcome for Europe, Herrero said, would be if Trump can push the Chinese into a trade agreement aimed at reducing the U.S. trade deficit. The additional U.S. goods to China could come at the expense of European competitors.

“If China concedes to the U.S. proposed agreement, the whole situation faced by the EU would be much tougher,” she and Xu wrote in a research note. “For China to massively reduce its trade surplus with the U.S., it has to in some way substitute its imports away from the EU to the U.S., which would have a significant negative impact on the EU producers.”
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Президент Петро Порошенко заявив про внесення до Верховної Ради закон про податок на виведений капітал з урахуванням пропозицій про відповідні бюджетні компенсації. Це сталося на зустрічі президента з представниками українського та зарубіжного бізнесу в Києві 4 липня.

Порошенко назвав закон про податок на виведений капітал «спільним боєм за економічну свободу України».

Експерти МВФ висловлювали стурбованість з приводу ймовірних втрат доходів державного бюджету внаслідок заміни податком на виведений капітал чинного податку на додану вартість.

Президент підкреслив, що «цей законопроект не має і не буде входити в жодні протиріччя з Міжнародним валютним фондом». За його словами, документ вступить в дію лише тоді, коли в бюджеті будуть передбачені відповідні компенсатори, відзначає прес-служба глави держави.

Порошенко неодноразово називав впровадження податку на виведений капітал одним з головних пріоритетів на 2018 рік.
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Президент України Петро Порошенко підписав 4 липня ухвалений парламентом закон «Про валюту і валютні операції».

«Це ще один акт економічної свободи і наша спільна перемога!» – вказав Порошенко в мережі Twitter.

Верховна Рада 21 червня ухвалила у цілому законопроект «Про валюту і валютні операції», який спершу називався «Про валюту». За документ, ініційований президентом, після ряду невдалих спроб проголосували 228 парламентарів.

Закон прийде на зміну застарілим декрету Кабінету міністрів «Про систему валютного регулювання і валютного контролю» від 1993 року, закону «Про порядок здійснення розрахунків в іноземній валюті» від 1994 року, передбачає зміни до деяких інших законодавчих актів України.

Згідно з презентацією Національного банку до відповідного законопроекту, новий закон передбачає принцип «Дозволено все, що прямо не заборонено законом».

Зокрема, за новим законом банки зможуть проводити валютні операції без додаткових ліцензій, бізнес – отримувати кредити у нерезидентів без їх реєстрації, а громадяни – інвестувати кошти за кордон без індивідуальних ліцензій НБУ.

Також закон поступово скасує встановлений для бізнесу максимальний термін розрахунків за експортно-імпортними контрактами у межах 180 днів і санкції за порушення у вигляді штрафу в розмірі 100% суми операції і заборони на проведення зовнішньоекономічної діяльності.

Крім того, новий закон скасує валютний контроль дрібних розрахунків, залишивши лише вже діючий фінансовий моніторинг операцій в сумі зі 150 тисяч гривень.
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