Angola News Wire

The United States has decided to almost double the duties on Canadian softwood lumber from most producers to 17.9%, Canadian Trade Minister Mary Ng said on Wednesday, adding that Canada is “extremely disappointed.”

The current rate for most companies is about 9%.

Ng said that the U.S. Department of Commerce on Wednesday issued the final results of the second administrative reviews of its anti-dumping and countervailing duty orders regarding certain softwood lumber products from Canada.

“Canada is extremely disappointed that the United States has decided to increase the unfair duties it is imposing on Canadian softwood lumber from most producers to 17.9%,” Ng said in a statement. “Canada calls on the United States to cease imposing these unwarranted duties on Canadian softwood lumber products.”

The U.S. Commerce Department and the U.S. Trade Representative’s office did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday night. Earlier this year, Washington announced plans to double the duties on imports of Canadian lumber and requested a dispute panel on Canada’s dairy import quotas.

Canada’s softwood lumber industry is a key component of the country’s forestry sector, which contributed more than $25 billion to the nation’s gross domestic product in 2020 and employed nearly 185,000 workers. The British Columbia Lumber Trade Council also expressed disappointment.

Ng said that “following completion of any legal challenges under the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement’s (CUSMA) Chapter 10 or in U.S. courts, these new anti-dumping and countervailing duty rates will apply retroactively to softwood lumber exports to the United States from companies that were subject to the second administrative reviews.”

“These unjustified duties harm Canadian communities, businesses, and workers,” she said, adding: “They are also a tax on U.S. consumers.”

 

Source: Voice of America

The U.S. space agency NASA has launched a spacecraft on a mission to test the ability to knock an asteroid off a potentially harmful collision course with Earth.

The Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, will take 10 months to reach the asteroid Dimorphos before slamming into it at 24,000 kilometers per hour.

Dimorphos does not pose any danger to Earth, but gives scientists a way to examine the concept of moving a potentially harmful object far enough and early enough off its course so that it flies past Earth.

The DART spacecraft is about the size of a small car and carries a briefcase-sized craft that will be deployed shortly before the impact to record video of the event.

NASA says the mission costs about $330 million.

 

 

Source: Voice of America

 

U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday reappointed Jerome Powell to a second term as chair of the country’s central bank, the Federal Reserve, saying that Powell has played a pivotal role in helping the United States recover from the worst of the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Biden’s reappointment of Powell, 68, to one of the most important economic policy positions in the world, ends weeks of speculation in financial markets and in Washington political circles. Some progressive Democrats in Congress had pushed Biden to name Fed Governor Lael Brainard to head the Fed, but the president instead named her as vice chair.

Biden’s decision to tap Powell, a Republican and former private equity executive, to another four-year term is a rare instance in which he renamed a key official first appointed by his Republican predecessor, Donald Trump.

At the White House, Biden said he named a Republican rather than a Democrat because “we need stability and independence at the Fed.” He said Powell has “broad bipartisan support” in a politically divided country.

The president called Powell “the right person to see us through” the recovery from the damage caused by the pandemic and the fastest increase in U.S. consumer prices in 31 years — a 6.2% annualized surge in October.

Investors mostly greeted the Powell reappointment favorably, with two of the three major U.S. stock indexes — the Dow Jones average of 30 key stocks and the broader S&P 500 — up sharply throughout trading on Monday, although the technology-heavy Nasdaq index fell.

In politically fractious Washington, Powell is expected to again win Senate confirmation. Of the 84 lawmakers who voted for him four years ago, 68 of them are still in office, equally split between Democrats and Republicans.

One Powell opponent, Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, said she would vote against his reappointment while supporting Brainard’s nomination. Warren cited what she says are Powell’s “failures on regulation, climate and ethics.”

Powell was first named to the Fed’s seven-member policy-making board a decade ago by then-President Barack Obama, another Democrat, before being elevated to Fed chair by Trump. Biden also has three other current or upcoming vacancies to fill on the Fed board, which broadly sets economic policy for the U.S., the world’s largest economy.

Biden said the U.S. has made “remarkable progress over the last 10 months in getting Americans back to work and getting our economy moving again,” and praised the work of Powell and Brainard. Under Powell, the Fed provided stimulus money to boost the recovery.

“As I’ve said before, we can’t just return to where we were before the pandemic, we need to build our economy back better, and I’m confident that Chair Powell and Dr. Brainard’s focus on keeping inflation low, prices stable, and delivering full employment will make our economy stronger than ever before,” Biden said in a statement.

“Together, they also share my deep belief that urgent action is needed to address the economic risks posed by climate change and stay ahead of emerging risks in our financial system,” the president said.

“Fundamentally, if we want to continue to build on the economic success of this year, we need stability and independence at the Federal Reserve – and I have full confidence after their trial by fire over the last 20 months that Chair Powell and Dr. Brainard will provide the strong leadership our country needs,” Biden said.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, herself a former Fed chair, praised Powell’s reappointment, as did several Republican senators.

“The steady leadership of Chair Powell & the Federal Reserve helped ensure our economy was able to recover from a once-in-a-generation health & economic crisis,” Yellen said. “I’m pleased our economy will continue to benefit from his stewardship, & the expertise & experience of Lael Brainard.”

Source: Voice of America

A Sydney restaurant is using a Chinese-made, multi-lingual hospitality robot to address chronic staff shortages as Australia’s economy begins to recover from COVID-19 lockdowns and border closures.

The robot waiter is programmed to know the layout of the tables and delivers food from the kitchen. It is also multi-lingual, programmed to communicate in English and Mandarin. The so-called BellaBot is built by the Chinese firm PuduTech.

Each machine costs about $17,000. They can be leased for $34 per day for each device, or the equivalent of two hours’ wages for restaurant staff. The devices are in use in other Australian restaurants and imports into Australia appear to be unaffected by recent trade tensions between the two countries.

Liarne Schai, the co-owner of the Matterhorn Restaurant in Sydney, is delighted with her new mechanical staff member.

“Ah, love the robot. Love the robot, she makes my life a lot easier. It is like a tower that has got four trays. It will carry eight of our dinner plates in one go. She is geo-mapped to the floor (customer names, location of tables, etc.) The robot knows where all our tables are,” Schai said.

Australia’s hospitality workforce has traditionally relied on international students. They have, however, been restricted from entering after Australia closed its borders to most foreign nationals in March 2020 in an effort to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

Labor shortages are affecting not only hospitality in Australia, but a range of industries from construction to information technology.

Liarne Schai says she has tried for months without success to recruit workers.

“It is the biggest issue we have at the moment. We have been running ads for chefs, for waiters, for kitchen hands for six months and we have had zero applicants. We are offering above award wages, we are offering bonuses, we are offering everything you can think of to attract appropriate staff and I am not even getting inappropriate staff, or untrained staff. I am just getting nobody.”

Labor shortages should ease when Australia reopens its borders to foreign nationals, but analysts expect many vacancies will remain unfilled.

Employer groups have demanded that Australia increase its intake of migrant workers.

Australia’s official unemployment rate stands at 5.2%.

But with more than 700,000 Australians without a job, there are calls for the government to boost domestic training programs and wages.

Source: Voice of America