Month: June 2017

Global liquor behemoth Diageo said Wednesday it will pay up to $1 billion to buy a tequila brand co-founded by movie star George Clooney.   Clooney founded the Casamigos brand four years ago with partners Rande Gerber and Mike Meldma.   Diageo said it will pay $700 million for Casamigos at first, and then pay another $300 million over 10 years if the brand reaches certain performance milestones.   London-based Diageo’s other brands include Johnnie Walker, Guinness and Captain Morgan.   Clooney and Gerber, an entrepreneur who is married to model Cindy Crawford, have appeared in ads for the brand. Diageo says the founders will continue to promote Casamigos and have a say in its future.   The deal is expected to close in the second half of this year.     …

Lockheed Martin Corp said on Wednesday it had won a $104 million U.S. Air Force contract to develop, produce and field a threat simulator to train combat aircrews to recognize and deal with rapidly evolving threats, such as surface-to-air missiles. Tim Cahill, vice president of air and missile defense systems for Lockheed, said a number of other countries had already expressed interest in the  Advanced Radar Threat System Variant 2, and talks could begin soon on possible sales. Cahill did not estimate the volume of possible future sales, but potential buyers included all countries that plan to operate the stealthy F-35 fighter jet in coming years. “It’s a cool little program,” he said. “This is just the first tranche, but it has the potential to be a really big program for us.” “As the capabilities on the ground from potential threat nations get stronger and better and more capable … it’s very important that the pilots need to train against a system that is actually a high-fidelity simulation of what they would fly against in combat,” he said. The contract calls for development and delivery of a production-ready system and options to produce up to 20 more. Cahill said the truck-mounted system would emit signals that simulated those of current and evolving advanced surface-to-air threats. …

Although Afghan businesses have long wanted to exploit the potential of India’s huge market, trade between the two countries has been hampered due to their tense relations with Pakistan. But a plane loaded in Kabul with 60 tons of medicinal plants landed in New Delhi this week, raising hopes of giving a major boost to commerce between landlocked Afghanistan and India. The flight flagged off the establishment of a new air cargo corridor between the two countries. Along with another, more long-term initiative to develop the Iranian port of Chabahar, India hopes to ease access to conflict-ridden Afghanistan and eventually to Central Asian countries. Pakistan is a barrier Pakistan allows Afghanistan to send a limited amount of perishable goods over its territory to India, through which the shortest and most cost effective land routes lie. However, India is not allowed to send any imports through Pakistani territory. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani decided to establish the air corridor last September after Pakistan rejected fresh calls by the Afghan leader to allow his country to engage in direct trade with India over its territory. Although India is the second largest destination for exports from Afghanistan, this lack of easy access has been a dampener. Air corridor trade In New Delhi, officials hope the new corridor will boost annual trade between the two countries from $700 million to $1 billion in three years and give a lift to exports of Afghanistan’s agricultural and carpet industries. A second …

Travis Kalanick, the combative and troubled CEO of ride-hailing giant Uber, resigned Tuesday under pressure from investors. The company’s board confirmed the move early Tuesday, saying in a statement that Kalanick is taking time to heal from the death of his mother in a boating accident -while giving the company room to fully embrace this new chapter in Uber’s history.” He will remain on the Uber Technologies Inc. board. In a statement, Kalanick said his resignation would help Uber go back to building -rather than be distracted with another fight.” The resignation came after a series of costly missteps by Kalanick and the fast-growing company that he helped found eight years ago. Uber on Monday embarked on a 180-day program to change its image by allowing riders to give drivers tips through the Uber app, something the company had resisted under Kalanick. The San Francisco-based company is trying to reverse damage done to its reputation by revelations of sexual harassment in its offices, allegations of trade secrets theft and an investigation into efforts to mislead government regulators. Uber’s board said in a statement that Kalanick had -always put Uber first.” While building the world’s biggest ride-hailing service, Uber developed a reputation for ruthless tactics that have occasionally outraged government regulators, drivers, riders and its employees. The company’s hard-charging style has led to legal trouble. The U.S. Justice Department is investigating Uber’s past usage of phony software designed to thwart regulators. Uber also is fighting allegations that it relies on a …

The United States Treasury Department announced additional sanctions Tuesday against Russia, pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, and individuals and companies associated with them. The move comes on the heels of a White House meeting Tuesday between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. The increased sanctions is in response to continued Russian support for pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine. Prior to his meeting with Trump, Poroshenko stressed the importance of taking such action before the U.S. president’s meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. The sanctions will target 38 individuals and business entities linked to the continuing conflict in eastern Ukraine. The penalties will remain in place until Russia meets the terms of 2014 and 2015 peace accords reached in Minsk, Belarus. “These designations will maintain pressure on Russia to work toward a diplomatic process that guarantees Ukrainian sovereignty,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said in a statement. “There should be no sanctions relief until Russia meets its obligations under the Minsk agreement.” Among those sanctioned are two high-level Russian officials, Deputy Economy Minister Sergey Nazarov and Russian MP Alexander Babakov. Nazarov, who oversees Russia’s humanitarian aid programs in separatist-controlled areas of Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions, has been designated for materially assisting and sponsoring the separatist campaigns and advocating international investment in Crimea. Babakov, Putin’s special liaison for expatriates, voted in favor of annexing Crimea in 2014 on the grounds that Moscow is obligated to represent ethnic Russians living abroad. Russia’s largest arms producer, Kalashnikov Concern, has been designated …

Chinese stocks will be included for the first time in a leading U.S. index of emerging market shares. The New York-based index giant MSCI said Tuesday that it would add 222 Chinese A shares beginning next year. “International investors have embraced the positive changes in the accessibility of the China A shares market over the last few years, and now all conditions are set for MSCI to proceed with the first step of the inclusion,” Remy Briand, MSCI managing director and chairman of the MSCI Index Policy Committee, said in a release. MSCI’s decision to give the Chinese shares the green light represents a victory for the Chinese government, which has long sought MSCI inclusion because it could help establish Shanghai and Shenzhen as global financial centers. MSCI has in the past cited obstacles such as China’s restrictions on market access and on moving capital in and out of the country. Prior to Tuesday’s decision, it had excluded Chinese shares for three years in a row. “Inclusion in the MSCI index family is a strong signal of greater market openness, and it will undoubtedly help the A share market to attract broader attention and participation of international investors,” said Yannan Chenye, head of China equities research and portfolio manager at Harvest Global investments in Hong Kong. While China celebrated, Argentinian investors reeled as the index compiler defied predictions that the country would be upgraded to emerging-market status, keeping it in its frontier group for at least another year. MSCI also …

Countries that make up the Association of Southeast Asian Nations will be a wellspring of opportunity for the United States because of growth in the region’s digital economy and its young population, researchers say. Those combined forces will “create a much more dynamic [economy] … over the coming decades,” said Satu Limaye, head of the Washington office of the East-West Center, which has conducted research on major trends in Southeast Asia. “You have a young population, very adept at technology, adaptive to innovation, so … they are going to be moving up the supply chain in terms of their comfort with technology-based innovation.” ASEAN is the world’s fastest-growing internet market, with nearly 4 million Southeast Asians coming online every month, according to data from ASEAN Matters for America/America Matters for ASEAN, which was released in May. The report projected that by 2020, up to 480 million Southeast Asians would be online, compared with 260 million in 2016, driven largely by the adoption of smartphones. This young and tech-savvy population, with a growing middle-class base, is projected to help the digital economy grow by 500 percent to around $200 billion by 2025. The report marking ASEAN’s 50th anniversary was published in collaboration with the U.S.-ASEAN Business Council (USABC) and the Singapore-based ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, formerly known as the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. Global players Alexander Feldman, chairman and chief executive of USABC, said ASEAN’s digital dynamism means Southeast Asia-based companies will become global players, and the United States should play …

Ford Motor Co. will export vehicles from China to the U.S. for the first time starting in 2019.   Ford said Tuesday it plans to move production of its Ford Focus small car from the U.S. to China, where it already makes the Focus for Chinese buyers. Ford will continue to make the Focus in Europe, and will also export some variants of the Focus from Europe to the U.S.   Sales of small cars have dropped sharply in the U.S. and companies are seeking to cut costs making them. Ford’s president of global operations Joe Hinrichs said the move to China will save the company $1 billion, including $500 million for canceling plans to build the Focus in Mexico.   Wary of the response from President Donald Trump, who has criticized Ford for making vehicles outside the U.S., Ford said the move won’t cost U.S. jobs. The suburban Detroit plant that currently makes the Focus will be converted late next year to produce the Ford Ranger pickup and Ford Bronco SUV.   Ford also said Tuesday that it plans to invest $900 million in its Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville to make the new, aluminum-sided Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator SUVs. Those vehicles will go on sale this fall and will be exported to more than 55 markets globally, the company said. The investment will secure 1,000 jobs at the Kentucky plant.   But the White House response was muted. Asked Tuesday whether Trump plans to get tougher on …

As South Korea’s new leadership works toward easing long strained inter-Korean relations, U.S. experts are eyeing the country’s conciliatory overtures to the Kim Jong Un regime, worried that a possible resumption of the Kaesong Industrial Complex could provoke discord with the Trump administration. Shortly after South Korean President Moon Jae-in named Cho Myoung-gyun to be his North Korea point man on June 13, Cho, who played a key role in launching the now-stalled economic cooperation project, told reporters, “Operations at the Kaesong Industrial Complex should be restored. I will speak after thoroughly looking into the details.”  That statement caused a flurry of criticism in Washington, with many analysts saying reviving activities at the complex possibly could hurt Washington-Seoul relations and diminish their alliance coordination. Seoul closed the complex in February 2016 as punishment for the regime’s nuclear test and long-range rocket launch. “Reopening the Kaesong Industrial Complex is very problematic from Washington’s perspective,” Sue Mi Terry, a former CIA analyst who specializes in North Korea, told VOA’s Korean Service. Launched in 2004 to enhance cooperation between the two Koreas, the jointly run industrial complex in Kaesong, just north of the border, has reportedly provided $100 million a year in wages to 54,000 North Korean workers and contributed almost $2 billion in trade for Pyongyang. Terry said any conciliatory action that translates into significant financial benefits for Pyongyang contradicts Washington’s North Korea policy, which is focused on thwarting the Kim regime’s nuclear weapons program by severing all possible revenue streams that fund …

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday handed a victory to Chevron Corp. by preventing Ecuadorean villagers and their American lawyer from trying to collect on an $8.65 billion pollution judgment issued against the oil company by a court in Ecuador. The justices turned away an appeal by New York-based lawyer Steven Donziger, who has spent more than to two decades trying to hold Chevron responsible for pollution in the Ecuadorean rain forest, of lower court rulings blocking enforcement in the United States of the 2011 judgment. While not disputing that pollution occurred, San Ramon, California-based Chevron has said it is not liable and that Donziger and his associates orchestrated the writing of a key environmental report and bribed the presiding judge in Ecuador. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan barred enforcement of the judgment in 2014, citing the corruption used to obtain it. The New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last year upheld Kaplan’s decision, citing “a parade of corrupt actions” by Donziger and his associates, including coercion and fraud, culminating in the bribe offer. The 2nd Circuit found that Chevron’s $8.646 billion judgment debt was “clearly traceable” to corrupt conduct by the legal team representing the villagers from the area affected by the pollution. The lengthy legal battle with Chevron has been waged in several countries and was documented in “Crude,” a 2009 documentary film. The plaintiffs have said they plan to continue efforts to enforce the judgment in other countries, regardless of the outcome in …

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday tightened rules on where injury lawsuits may be filed, handing a victory to corporations by undercutting the ability of plaintiffs to bring claims in friendly courts in a case involving litigation over the Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. blood-thinning medication Plavix. The justices, in an 8-1 ruling, threw out a lower court decision allowing hundreds of out-of-state patients who took Plavix to sue the company in California. State courts cannot hear claims against companies that are not based in the state when the alleged injuries did not occur there, the justices ruled. The court last month reached a similar conclusion in a separate case involving out-of-state injury claims against Texas-based BNSF Railway Co. …

Climate change, trade and terrorism were highlighted Monday at a Beijing meeting of foreign affairs officials from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, known collectively as the BRICS nations. The five nations are seeking to further align their views on key issues at a time when President Donald Trump is withdrawing the U.S. from multilateral arrangements such as the Paris climate accords and the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China in the coming year would look to “expand with more broad and wide-ranging cooperation in areas such as trade and commerce and investment.” Together the BRICS countries account for roughly 40 percent of the world population and 20 percent of the global economy. All five countries are members of the G20, although their economic prospects have declined somewhat amid crises in Brazil and South Africa and the effect of sanctions lodged against Russia by the West. South African Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane pointed to climate change as a major concern. “There is one climate and for future generations we must employ every effort at our disposal to reverse the effects of climate change,” she said. Nkoana-Mashabane also pointed to the need to form joint efforts to fight terrorism, sentiments reflected by Vijay Kumar Singh, an Indian External Affairs official. “It is important to enhance BRICS security in counterterrorism matters,” Singh said. Leaders of the five nations are due to meet for a summit in the southeastern Chinese city of Xiamen in September. …