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The Reserve Bank has appointed Sean Mills as Assistant Governor and Head of Operations. Mr Mills will take up his appointment on 29 November 2017. He is currently Chief Information Officer at the Department of Corrections.
As Assistant Governor and Head of Operations, Mr Mills will replace Deputy Governor Geoff Bascand, who will take up the Head of Financial Stability role on 27 September, when Grant Spencer becomes Acting Governor for six months.
“Mr Mills is an experienced senior leader and business governance chair, has worked on a number of cross-government strategic initiatives, and has over 15 years’ prior experience in the finance sector,” Governor Graeme Wheeler said.
Mr Mills has previously been Head of IT Service Delivery at the Ministry of Social Development, where he contributed extensively to the operating performance of MSD’s technical services. From 1996 – 2006, he held several IT senior management roles at the ANZ Bank.
Departments that will report to Mr Mills are Communications, Currency Property and Security, Financial Services, Human Resources, Knowledge Services, and Risk Assessment and Assurance.
| A RBNZ release || August 29, 2017 |||
Kotahi, New Zealand’s largest supply chain collaborator and Pro Kinetics, one of Australia’s leading supply chain management businesses have struck a strategic partnership to strengthen their Australian businesses and trans-Tasman trade.
Pro Kinetics’ landside capability complements our ocean freight offering and will allow us to deliver on our aim to simplify the export / import supply chain by providing seamless end-to-end integrated digital solutions.
Kotahi Chief Executive David Ross said Kotahi and Pro Kinetics currently provide ocean freight and landside services to a number of joint customers and the time is right to share synergies.
“Pro Kinetics’ landside capability complements our ocean freight offering and will allow us to deliver on our aim to simplify the export / import supply chain by providing seamless end-to-end integrated digital solutions.”
“Furthermore, the partnership will allow Kotahi to strategically align container reuse between New Zealand and Australia. Our differentiation will be the ability to create value for customers by better matching New Zealand’s high export flows with Australia’s high import flows.”
“Opportunities to align cargo flows and reposition equipment across the Tasman will bring these markets closer to unlock value and reduce waste in the supply chain. Pro Kinetics is a like-minded strategic partner. They complement our future direction to deliver digital supply chain management and enhanced service to bring even greater value to our customers,” he said.
Pro Kinetics General Manager George Garth said: “We have great connections and knowledge, innovative digital solutions for documentation and customs clearance, and together with Kotahi’s ocean freight capability, we have a compelling new offer in Australia.”
“We share Kotahi’s approach to drive digitisation and technology development in supply chain management. We’re aligned on a digital journey to provide customers with an enhanced experience,” he said.
Pro Kinetics and Kotahi will offer customs clearance and documentation, export, import and coastal shipping, ocean freight, landside transport and warehousing. Going forward the Pro Kinetics and Kotahi team will be based in Melbourne.
| A joint release || August 29, 2017 |||
KUCHING: New Zealand is keen to further enhance its ties with Sarawak, especially in the areas of education and tourism.
Its High Commissioner in Malaysia Dr John Subritzky said given there are many Malaysians coming to New Zealand to study, education is something that his country and Sarawak can work on a lot more.
He said tourism between Malaysia and New Zealand had also grown a lot, where many New Zealand tourists are coming to Malaysia and many Malaysian tourists, including Sarawakians, are going to New Zealand.
Subritzky said the purpose of his visit to Sarawak is to meet a wide range of government, business and political leaders, exploring how New Zealand and Sarawak are able to further enhance their ties, especially in areas such as trade, cultural and indigenous links aside from education and tourism.
“Sarawak and New Zealand share particularly warm links through the Colombo Plan and the deployment of New Zealand defence force personnel in support of Sarawak’s defence during the Confrontation.
“Indeed, my visit will coincide with a visit to Kuching of New Zealand veterans from the Emergency and Confrontation conflicts, probably the last visit they will do as a group to Malaysia,” he said after paying a courtesy call on Minister in the Chief Minister’s Office (Integrity and Ombudsman) Datuk Talib Zulpilip at the latter’s office here yesterday.
Subritzky said he was glad to have the opportunity to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the relationship between New Zealand and Sarawak, and Malaysia as a whole.
He noted that New Zealand and Malaysia shared an enduring friendship based on strong political, economic, education and tourism links.
Subritzky is here for an official visit until tomorrow.
While here, he is scheduled to pay courtesy calls on State Secretary Tan Sri Datuk Amar Mohamad Morshidi Abdul Ghani, Chief Minister Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg, Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas and Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Datuk Amar Dr James Masing today (Aug 29).
| A Borneo Post release || August 29, 2017 |||
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.— U.S. industry veteran Paul Lew has been named CEO of the newly restructured Edco cycling company, now based in Arizona.
The historic brand — it was formed in 1867 in Couvet, Switzerland, and began making bike parts in 1902 — was purchased about ten years ago by Rob van Hoek and partners and has been operating as Edco Engineering BV in the Netherlands until recently.
In early summer, a major supplier filed a bankruptcy suit against Edco Engineering BV for failure to meet its financial obligations. This filing was approved by the Netherlands government in August and the company's assets were subsequently purchased by Best Top Industrial. Lew described Best Top as a well-established composite manufacturer in the sporting goods sector, whose corporate offices are in New Zealand. Janey Tiernan, a New Zealander currently based in Sydney, Australia, is the chair for the private equity team behind the new Edco, Lew said.
Lew, best known as owner of Lew Composites and then director of technology and innovation at Reynolds Cycling, became involved with Edco in early 2016. He left Reynolds to set up a U.S.-owned company that licensed the Edco brand from Edco Engineering BV.
Lew's U.S. company was completely separate from the now-bankrupt European company. Although it used many of the same suppliers, it bought and paid for its own inventory and was not in debt to any of them, Lew said. Lew was in charge of product development globally for Edco.
Lew shut down the U.S. operation in May 2017 but remained in touch with the New Zealand executives, who asked him to consult with them as they relaunched Edco after acquiring the brand through the bankruptcy. In August, soon after the bankruptcy became public, they invited Lew to join the company as CEO.
He told BRAIN that the new EDCO company will now be headquartered in Scottsdale. Lew and Tiernan plan to negotiate new contracts with former and potential customers at both the Eurobike and Interbike shows.
Lew also remains a vice chairman of the WFSGI wheel committee and planned to attend that committee's meeting at Eurobike.
| A BicycleRetailer release || August 28, 2017 |||
SAN FRANCISCO — Uber chose Dara Khosrowshahi, who leads the online travel company Expedia, to be its chief executive on Sunday, two people with knowledge of the decision said. The selection capped a contentious search process as the ride-hailing company seeks to move past a turbulent period.
Mr. Khosrowshahi emerged as the leading candidate from a field of three finalists over a weekend of Uber board meetings, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the details were confidential.
Continue to read the full article here on the NYTimes | August 28, 2017 |||
Yesterday’s release of Treasury’s Pre-Election Economic and Fiscal Update (PREFU) provides a fairly sobering forecast of our ability to grow wealth in and for New Zealand, say the New Zealand Manufacturers and Exporters Association.
NZMEA Chief Executive, Dieter Adam says, “We have to face the reality of our lack of economic development in New Zealand. And now is the right time to challenge New Zealand’s leading parties to tell us what they are going to do to push our economy towards a more prosperous future for everyone.”
“For the next four years (2018 to 2021) Treasury forecasts a decline in the rate of absolute GDP growth in 2020 and 2021, with a similar decline in the export growth rate, down to just over 2% in 2020 and 2021. By then we’ll be four years away from the current Government’s goal of growing the share of exports to GDP to 40%, and further away from reaching that goal than ever.
“These observations sit alongside our own, and Statistics New Zealand’s data on exports of elaborately transformed goods, which have been in decline for the past 18 months or so.
“Treasury’s forecasts for the increase in GDP, as modest as they may be, are still based largely on a growth of labour inputs due to immigration for 2018. After that, miraculously, labour productivity will take over as the main driver of GDP growth. When it comes to explaining what this expectation is based on, given that for the last three years, for example, we saw virtually no productivity growth in our economy, the report remains silent, but states that “productivity growth may be slower than assumed if labour inputs grow more strongly than expected” - meaning if the forecast drop in immigration numbers doesn’t eventuate.
“So, what have we actually got here? An economy projected to grow at modest rates overall, especially in the second half of the outlook period (2020 to 2021), and growth rates for Real GDP per capita, the real measure of wealth creation, of 1.2% and 1.0% in the same period. And all of that based on a miraculous increase in labour productivity from around zero currently to between 1.5% and 1.8% from 2019 onwards.
“We suggest it is time we have a serious debate on how we can sustainably improve our ability to grow wealth in this country. Growing wealth, so we have more money to pay for a better health system, better education, and other public services. You can’t do that if most of the growth in your economy comes from immigration, or when many people’s perception of increased wealth comes from rising asset prices fuelled by ever-increasing private debt.
“Growth in wealth comes from growing the output per hour worked – and that, as the late Sir Paul Callaghan kept reminding us, will only happen if we achieve growth in those sectors of our economy that produce and export high-value products and services. Our manufacturers, together with other sectors of our productive economy, stand ready to contribute. It’s about time the major political parties did their bit by making this a key focus of their efforts” says Dieter.
| An NZMEA release || August 24, 2017 |||
A slightly softer growth forecast is the main feature of largely unchanged Pre-election Fiscal Update compared to the Budget forecasts three months ago, Finance Minister Steven Joyce says.
“The softer growth New Zealand has experienced in the six months to March flows through to a lower starting point in the 2017/2018 year,” Mr Joyce says.
“The net effect is that growth is slightly lower through the forecast period – averaging 3.0 per cent over the next four years rather than the 3.1 per cent predicted in the Budget.
“The other notable change is that Treasury expects the labour market to be tighter over the next four years, with lower unemployment and stronger nominal and real wage growth.
“Treasury forecasts unemployment to drop to 4.3 per cent by June 2020 and for the average annual wage to increase from $58,900 at March 2017 to $65,700 by 2021, a $1300 per annum improvement on the Budget forecast.”
Other changes to the forecasts include:
Most other elements of the forecast remain very similar to budget predictions, with nominal GDP, migration levels and budget surpluses largely unchanged, although the timing of budget surpluses has changed.
“The Budget surplus is expected to be $2.1 billion higher in the year just finished,” Mr Joyce says. “However Treasury expects the lower growth forecast to result in surpluses that are $1.8 billion lower over the next four years. The net effect is about even.
“The Government’s strong fiscal management means that New Zealand is one of the few OECD countries to be posting fiscal surpluses. This hard-won position is underpinning the Government’s strong economic plan which is delivering jobs and steady real wage growth for New Zealanders.”
The large infrastructure spend committed to in Budget 2017 means that residual cash remains broadly in balance until the 2019/20 financial year.
“There is limited room for any additional expenditure beyond what is already proposed in these forecasts until the 2020 financial year when there is expected to be a $1.7 billion cash surplus. Anything significant in the meantime would involve more borrowing or raising additional tax revenues,” Mr Joyce says.
The PREFU forecasts include the following budget spending commitments:
• $7 billion in additional operating expenditure over four years in Budget
2017 which commenced on 1 July 2017.
• $1.7 billion per annum ($6.8 billion over four years) operating
allowance to be allocated for Budget 2018, increasing by 2 per cent
each subsequent budget.
• $32.5 billion in total capital infrastructure investment between 1 July
2018 and 30 June 2021.
• $6.5 billion over four years ($2 billion per annum in out years) for the
Government’s Family Incomes package commencing on 1 April 2018.
“Government annual operating expenditure in these forecasts increases from $77 billion to $90 billion over the next four years, which is sufficient for significant ongoing improvement in the provision of public services,” Mr Joyce says.
| SA Beehive release || August 23, 2017 |||
Auckland Airport has today announced its financial results for the 12 months ended 30 June 2017.
Sir Henry van der Heyden, Auckland Airport’s chair, says, “The 2017 financial year was another strong year of growth right across our business with the company continuing to focus on upgrading its airport infrastructure, growing and supporting tourism and providing the best possible customer experience during a time of significant change.”
“To help accommodate the ongoing increase in passengers and aircraft, we continued to spend more than $1 million every working day on our core airport infrastructure. There are now 44 aeronautical projects underway across the airport each in excess of $1 million and we plan to invest around $2 billion in aeronautical capital expenditure by the 2022 financial year. During the 2017 financial year, we progressed the upgrade of our international departure area and the extension of Pier B of the international terminal to provide two more aircraft gates and expanded departure lounges. We also further developed our airfield including upgrading existing and building new remote aircraft stands.”
“We have continued to sustainably grow travel markets to increase our air connectivity – which is essential for a city and country reliant on tourism and trade for its economic prosperity. We have also maintained our support for the New Zealand tourism industry, especially the operators who provide our international visitors with high-quality experiences. We also joined with other industry leaders to encourage the Government to develop new and innovative ways to upgrade tourism infrastructure.”
“Auckland Airport remained focused on its customers during the 2017 financial year, ensuring their journeys through the airport are fast and efficient and they have a range of options when parking, shopping or staying here. Improving travel times and flows around the airport precinct has been a top priority for the company in the 2017 financial year and we also continued to advocate to central and local government the need for better public transport services and state highway access to and from the airport.”
“We fast-tracked a number of planned roading and transport improvements on our own network to improve traffic flows, including upgrading the Puhinui Road roundabout, upgrading the traffic light phasing and lane configurations at the airport’s George Bolt Memorial Drive and Tom Pearce Drive intersection, and updating the lane configurations at the airport’s George Bolt Memorial Drive and Laurence Stevens Drive roundabout. We also announced, in June 2017, the details of four new transport projects as part of our longer-term plan to improve travel around the airport over the next three years.”
“Late in the 2017 financial year we announced our new aeronautical prices for the next five financial years – the result of a year-long consultation process with airlines on investment plans, operations and pricing. The outcome of that consultation process, in real terms, sees average annual international passenger charges reducing by 1.7% per annum and domestic passenger charges increasing by just 0.8% per annum over the next five years. We also confirmed that a runway land charge of $1.19 (excluding GST) per passenger will likely be introduced from the start of the 2021 financial year once certain operational and construction triggers are met.”
“Together, our modest price changes for the 2018–2022 financial years and our $2 billion infrastructure investment plan will deliver significant benefits for passengers. The new pricing and capital expenditure programme also balances the needs of passengers, the airport community, the tourism industry, our investors and the airlines – ensuring Auckland Airport has the infrastructure it needs to continue connecting Auckland with New Zealand and New Zealand with the world.”
“The 2017 financial year also saw Auckland Airport continue to focus on a wide range of activities to improve educational, employment and environmental outcomes at the airport, in our local communities and across the Auckland region. Ara, our airport jobs and skills hub, continues to deliver real benefits, providing more than 1,300 training opportunities and placing 190 people into jobs – 82% of whom were South Aucklanders.”
In the year to 30 June 2017 the total number of passengers using Auckland Airport increased by 10.2% to 19 million. Domestic passengers were up 8.9% to 8.6 million, international passengers (excluding transit passengers) were up 11% to 9.7 million and international transit passengers were up 16.8% to 0.7 million.
Total revenue was up 9.7% to $629.3 million, while operating expenses were up 8.8% to $156.2 million. Earnings before interest expense, taxation, depreciation, fair value adjustments and investments in associates (EBITDAFI) increased 9.9% to $473.1 million.
The total share of the underlying profit from associates was $14.9 million for the 2017 financial year, up 29.6%. The underlying profit share from Queenstown Airport was up 57.9% to $3 million and the share from the Novotel hotel, in which Auckland Airport increased its shareholding to 40% in February 2017, was up 58.8% to $2.7 million. The underlying profit share from North Queensland Airports was up 16.5% to $9.2 million.
Total profit after tax was up 26.9% to $332.9 million, while underlying profit after tax was up 16.5% to $247.8 million. As a result, underlying earnings per share is up 16.2% to 20.8 cents. Auckland Airport’s final dividend for the 2017 financial year is up 16.7% to 10.5 cents per share, delivering a total dividend of 20.5 cents, an increase of 17.1% compared with the 2016 financial year. The final dividend will be imputed at the company tax rate of 28% and will be paid on 20 October 2017 to shareholders who are on the register at the close of business on 6 October 2017. Auckland Airport’s performance in the 2017 financial year means the five-year average annual shareholder return is 26.3%.
“In the 2017 financial year we undertook a review of our 24.55% investment in North Queensland Airports (NQA). We believe NQA is a highly attractive asset and a great investment with a strong growth strategy and a new and highly capable management team. However, our review has confirmed that while NQA is a quality asset, it is not integral to our current business strategy.”
“During the 2017 financial year, the Board elected to reinstate our dividend reinvestment plan to provide funding flexibility to support our investment in new infrastructure and growth opportunities. The dividend reinvestment plan will again be in place for the 2017 financial year final dividend, enabling shareholders to elect to purchase Auckland Airport shares at a 2.5% discount to market price, instead of receiving the dividend as cash.”
“We expect underlying profit after tax (excluding any fair value changes and other one-off items) for the 2018 financial year to be between $248 million and $257 million. This guidance would deliver underlying earnings per share growth of up to 3.7% compared with the 2017 financial year and reflects the impact of our new aeronautical prices commencing in the 2018 financial year.”
“As always, this guidance is subject to any material adverse events, significant one-off expenses, non-cash fair value changes to property, and deterioration as a result of global market conditions or other unforeseeable circumstances,” concludes Sir Henry.
Air New Zealand has today announced earnings before taxation for the 2017 financial year of $527 million, compared to $663 million in the prior year - the second highest result in the airline’s history. Net profit after taxation was $382 million.
Chairman Tony Carter praised the strong result, acknowledging the airline’s staff for their continued focus on driving profitable network growth during a period of significant new competition.
A 2017 final fully imputed dividend of 11.0 cents per share has been declared, an increase of ten percent on the prior year, bringing the full year declared ordinary dividends to 21.0 cents per share.
“Based on the airline’s strong financial position, future capital commitments and improving trading environment, the Board felt it appropriate to increase the dividend,” says Mr Carter. The final dividend will be paid on 18 September 2017 to investors on record at the close of business on 8 September 2017.
In recognition of the result, the Board has awarded a Company Performance Bonus of up to $1,700 to be paid next week to approximately 8,500 Air New Zealanders who do not have other incentive programmes as part of their employment agreement.
Chief Executive Officer Christopher Luxon says 2017 has been an exciting and productive year and credits the airline’s staff for their outstanding contribution.
“This year Air New Zealand faced an unprecedented increase in the level of competition from some of the world’s largest airlines and effectively rose to the challenge. The impressive way our team responded to the new competition while at the same time achieving commercial, customer and cultural excellence, helped to deliver our second highest profit ever,” says Mr Luxon.
The airline’s loyalty programme, AirpointsTM, continues to grow at an impressive rate, with more than 2.5 million members, up 16 percent on the prior year. Australia is the largest offshore market for Airpoints members, and has grown by more than 17 percent in the past 12 months.
In 2018, Air New Zealand will continue growing its comprehensive domestic network. The airline sees opportunity coming from inbound tourism as well as strong domestic tourism. Following the rollout of last year's Northland marketing campaign, A Summer of Safety, a key element of Air New Zealand's growth strategy will involve continued support to regional stakeholders in developing attractive tourism propositions.
Internationally, the airline’s strategy to enter key markets with the help of revenue-sharing alliance partners and strong market development plans has helped drive successful expansion. In the coming year, Air New Zealand’s offshore growth will focus on the Japan market with the addition of Haneda, as well as increasing services during peak season across routes in the Pacific Islands and North and South America.
Mr Luxon says that recent announcements regarding competitor capacity rationalisation support the airline’s view of a stronger revenue environment in the coming year.
Outlook
Looking forward to the year ahead, the airline is optimistic about the overall market dynamics. Based upon current market conditions and assuming an average jet fuel price of US$60 per barrel (which represents the average over the past two months), the airline is aiming to improve upon 2017 earnings.
2017 highlights
Click here to download video of Air New Zealand Chief Executive Officer Christopher Luxon discussing the company result.
The first round of long-awaited talks on modernizing NAFTA finished Sunday, with Canada, Mexico and the United States issuing a statement that they had made "detailed conceptual presentations" of their positions. Negotiators from the three countries will meet again in Mexico on September 1 to continue trying to revise the trade pact. But while all say they are keen to see a new deal emerge, they still have to navigate the political risks attached to any commercial agreement.
Donald Trump´s promise to renegotiate trade deals was a key plank of his "America First" campaign platform. One of his first acts in the White House was to withdraw the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) with countries in Asia-Pacific and the Americas, including Australia, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. Meanwhile, negotiations between Washington and the European Union for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) have not resumed since Barack Obama left office.
Speculation now centers on the future of the North American Free Trade Agreement, typically seen by many economists as at least a qualified success story. Since 1994, trade between the United States, Mexico and Canada has more than tripled, forming a trading bloc with a combined GDP of around 20 trillion dollars.
However, prominent representatives of both the left and right, from Bernie Sanders and Ralph Nader to Ross Perot and Pat Buchanan, have long criticized the agreement for contributing to a hollowing out of the country´s manufacturing industry and lost U.S. jobs, partly because of increased trade deficits with Mexico and Canada. Right-wingers also accuse NAFTA of undermining U.S. sovereignty and opening up the United States to what they see as an increasing threat from drugs, crime and immigration from Mexico.
From a different standpoint, even some previous advocates of NAFTA have become less enthusiastic about the deal. This is partly because the three countries have been unable to fully address challenging issues like tightened border security.
NAFTA is also seen to have stalled because Mexico, Canada and the United States have increasingly preferred to push bilateral solutions rather than addressing opportunities and problems trilaterally. A key rationale for the prevailing lack of triliteralism in the continent is that the NAFTA architects from Canada and Mexico wanted to curb EU-type political institution building they feared would lead to a Brussels-style bureaucracy dominated by Washington.
Equally, Washington has generally disliked the idea of developing any pan-North American political institutions that could rein in U.S. autonomy.
Trump jumped into this cauldron of criticism in the 2016 election campaign by calling NAFTA "the worst trade deal maybe ever signed anywhere, but certainly ever signed in this country." In key electoral states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, his championing of an anti-international trade agenda helped win him significant support last November. (In April, Trump told Reuters that he had been "psyched" to terminate NAFTA, but changed his mind after Canada and Mexico asked for it to be renegotiated instead.)
Many U.S. businesses have urged that forthcoming negotiations should not jeopardize existing market access, and that the key negotiating principle should, in the words of United States Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Lighthizer, be to "do no harm." Now the USTR and the administration must assess exactly how much overhaul is politically necessary to meet the expectations generated by Trump´s statement that "we´re going to make some very big changes or we are going to get rid of NAFTA once and for all."
The renegotiations have high political stakes for Canada and Mexico too. If agreement cannot be reached before the Mexican presidential election on July 1, 2018, negotiators could have to deal with NAFTA skeptic and current poll favorite Andrés Manuel López Obrador. The left-wing populist has positioned himself as a critic of Trump and the U.S. president´s "campaign of hatred" against Mexico since the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign.
Uncertainty over NAFTA, the TPP and Trump´s trade policies in general, could create a significant political vacuum. That, in turn, could give China a gap to exploit - a gap Beijing is waiting to take. Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Li Baoding said last year, "protectionism is rearing its ugly head...China believes we should set up a new plan to...sustain momentum for the early establishment of free trade areas."
Beijing´s alternative vision includes a Free Trade Area of Asia Pacific (FTAAP), a long-term goal to link Pacific Rim economies from China to Chile that has been debated since 2004. In the shorter term, Beijing is also pushing a free trade pact, for which discussions have been underway since 2012, known as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). That would include the 10 ASEAN members plus India, Australia, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand, but not the United States.
RCEP, which is smaller in scope to FTAAP, would create one of the largest free trade zones in the world. Collectively, RCEP countries account for around a quarter of global GDP, and some 46 percent of the global population.
While Chinese President Xi Jinping has asserted that RCEP and FTAAP do not "go against existing free trade arrangements," Beijing and Washington have for years had contrasting visions of shaping the regional order through formulation of NAFTA and TPP on one hand, and RCEP and FTAA on the other. From China´s perspective, RCEP and FTAAP would be more conducive to its national interests.
This is not least because, unlike TPP, Beijing would be explicitly part of the new economic agreements and able to shape their design by creating trade deals with China at the center. Reflecting this, former U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman has despaired that Washington will now "be left on the sidelines as others move forward."
Continued uncertainty over Trump´s trade stance will only increase the prospects of China taking the lead in the competition for regional trade integration. This will potentially not just consolidate Beijing´s own regional power and its global political and economic influence, but also damage hard-won U.S. credibility with its local and international trading allies. No wonder that many in Washington recognize a lot is at stake in the NAFTA talks, and that a great deal of effort will be required in coming months to see a breakthrough. (Reporting by Andrew Hammond)
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/reuters/article-4811154/Commentary-The-elephant-room-NAFTA-talks.html#ixzz4qTJwoPwHFollow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook || August 21, 2017 |||
Palace of the Alhambra, Spain
By: Charles Nathaniel Worsley (1862-1923)
From the collection of Sir Heaton Rhodes
Oil on canvas - 118cm x 162cm
Valued $12,000 - $18,000
Offers invited over $9,000
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242
Mount Egmont with Lake
By: John Philemon Backhouse (1845-1908)
Oil on Sea Shell - 13cm x 14cm
Valued $2,000-$3,000
Offers invited over $1,500
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242
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