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WASHINGTON — Senior American, Canadian and Mexican officials ended on Friday a week of talks without a deal to modernise the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Instead, they agreed to resume negotiations soon, ahead of a deadline next week issued by US House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan.

The failure to secure a quick deal underscores uncertainty over the agreement, which US President Donald Trump on Friday said “has been a horrible, horrible disaster for this country”.

Trump, who blames the 1994 pact for US manufacturing job losses to lower-cost Mexico, often threatens to walk away unless the other two member countries agree to major changes.

After meeting for barely half an hour on Friday, the top Mexican and Canadian politicians involved in the talks to update the agreement made it clear that big differences remained.

Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said officials would continue working in Washington while ministers returned home for consultations.

“We plan to meet again as needed, which I think will be soon... The negotiation will take as long as it takes to get a good deal,” she told reporters after the meeting.

Pressure to reach a deal increased this week after Speaker Ryan said he needed to be notified of a new NAFTA by May 17 to give the current Congress a chance of passing it.

US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has said he wants a deal in place soon to avoid potential political problems stemming from Mexico’s July 1 presidential vote and US midterm congressional elections in November.

In a statement, Lighthizer said the United States was ready to continue working with Mexico and Canada but made no mention of a deadline. 

Friday’s talks were the first involving all three of the top officials in the NAFTA negotiations —Freeland, Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo and Lighthizer — since the latest round started on Monday.

Mexico has not agreed to a US proposal to boost North American content for autos made in the NAFTA region, one of the main sticking points. Guajardo said his team tried hard during the week to bridge the gap.

“We’re not going to sacrifice the quality of an agreement because of pressure of time,” he said.

Financial markets are nervous about the damage a US withdrawal could inflict on the highly integrated North American economy. Canada’s central bank governor and other policymakers complain that uncertainty over the pact is hitting business investment.

Guajardo, who wants to reach an agreement on all the principal aspects of a modernised NAFTA before sealing a new deal, says plenty of other issues were outstanding.

Drafting new rules of origin governing what percentage of a car needs to be sourced from the NAFTA region to avoid tariffs has been at the center of the talks.

It forms a key plank of the Trump administration’s aim to boost jobs and investment in the United States.

Officials and industry sources say the three sides have been gradually narrowing their differences on autos.

However, several other major issues are still unresolved, including US demands for a sunset clause that would allow NAFTA to expire if it is not renegotiated every five years, and elimination of settlement panels for trade disputes.

LONDON — The Bank of England (BoE)  on Thursday left its key interest rate at 0.50 per cent as it slashed the growth forecast for the British economy less than one year before Brexit.

The decision met expectations following a raft of gloomy economic data pointing to slowing growth and weaker inflation, as Britain readies for its exit from the European Union in March 2019.

“For the majority of [BoE] members, an increase in bank rate was not required at this meeting,” read minutes from the meeting of the bank’s nine-strong monetary policy committee (MPC).

“All members agree that any future increases in bank rate are likely to be at a gradual pace and to a limited extent.”

Freezing weather 

The bank cut its forecast for growth in the British economy to 1.4 per cent this year from 1.8 per cent, after freezing weather at the start of the year impacted many sectors.

Nevertheless, BoE governor Mark Carney expressed optimism over the “resilient” economy.

The “underlying pace of growth remains more resilient than the headline data suggests”, Carney said in a press conference following the decision.

The BoE, meanwhile, kept its 2019 and 2020 growth projections broadly unchanged.

Economist Chris Williamson, at consultancy IHS Markit, said the fact that the bank retained its medium term outlook “leaves expectations alive for rates to rise later in the year”.

Only a few weeks ago, economists were predicting a hike in borrowing costs to 0.75 per cent this month but recent gloomy data changed the outlook.

Official figures have since shown that the economy grew at its slowest pace in more than five years in the first quarter of 2018.

“Weaker than expected GDP for the first quarter and falling inflation made it impossible for the MPC to justify a hike in interest rates,” said analyst Jacob Deppe at trading platform Infinox.

“To have hiked bank rate would have contradicted all economic logic.”

Gross domestic product expanded by just 0.1 per cent in the three months to March. That was the weakest growth rate since 2012.

 ‘Appropriate’ 

The bank added on Thursday that policymakers still believed that a rate hike would be “appropriate” at some point to bring inflation under control.

Recent data also showed UK inflation unexpectedly slowed in March to 2.5 per cent — the lowest level in a year.

However, it remains stubbornly above the BoE’s government-set target level of 2 per cent.

“An ongoing tightening of monetary policy over the forecast period would be appropriate to return inflation sustainably to its target at a conventional horizon,” the minutes added.

UK inflation had jumped last year after Britain voted to leave the European Union in 2016.

The Brexit referendum pushed down the pound, in turn hiking the cost of imported goods. But sterling has since recovered somewhat. 

The BoE added on Thursday that sluggish economic activity was enough to convince the majority of MPC members to maintain the status quo.

NEW YORK — Oil prices rose more than 2 per cent on Wednesday, climbing to near three-and–a-half-year high.

The rise came in the aftermath of US President Trump’s decision to abandon a nuclear deal with Iran and his announcing the "highest level" of sanctions against Iran, a member of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

Ignoring pleas by allies, Trump on Tuesday pulled out of a 2015 international deal with Iran, making investors nervous about rising risks of conflict in the Middle East and about oil supplies in a tight market.

The United States will likely reimpose sanctions against Iran after 180 days, unless some other agreement is reached.

Brent crude futures rose $2.02 to $76.87 a barrel, a 2.7 per cent gain, by 10:52am EST (14:52 GMT). The session high of $77.43 a barrel was the highest since November 2014.

US West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose 2.6 per cent, or $1.79 to $70.85 a barrel.

Prices extended gains after US Energy Information Administration (EIA) data showed that domestic crude inventories fell 2.2 million barrels in the latest week, far exceeding forecasts for a decrease of 719,000 barrels.

The EIA report helped lift US gasoline futures to $2.1674 a gallon, the highest since Hurricane Harvey sent prices surging in August. US heating oil futures surged to $2.2258 a gallon, the highest since February 2015. 

Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub rose 1.4 million barrels, EIA said.

Iran reemerged as a major oil exporter in 2016 after international sanctions against it were lifted in return for curbs on its nuclear programme. The country, the third-biggest producer of crude within OPEC, exported about 2.6 million barrels per day (bpd) in April.

Analysts' estimates of the possible reduction in Iranian crude supplies as a result of any new US sanctions range from 200,000bpd to 1 million bpd.

Investment bank Goldman Sachs said in a note that Trump's announcement brought upside risks to its forecast that Brent crude will hit $82.50 a barrel by the summer.

Several refiners in Asia said they were seeking alternatives to Iranian supplies.

A number of countries have already cut reliance on Iranian oil, as well as other "traditional" sources of supply, due to a surge in cheaper US crude exports.

Volumes jumped for all key crude oil futures contracts as investors took new positions and refiners hedged to protect themselves from higher feedstock prices. 

Saudi Arabia said it would work with other producers to lessen the impact of any shortage in oil supplies. The country has been leading efforts since 2017 to withhold production to prop up prices. 

Kuwaiti Oil Minister Bakhit Al Rashidi said his country will work with OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers to limit impact of any possible shortage in supplies, state news agency KUNA reported.

BEIJING — China's surplus with the United States widened in April, underlining an imbalance between the economic titans as they struggle to reach an agreement on averting a potentially damaging trade war.

The figures will likely reinforce Washington's determination after high-level talks in Beijing last week ended with both sides admitting there were big differences to overcome, with threats of tariffs on billions of dollars of goods casting a shadow.

The record imbalance is at the heart of US President Donald Trump's anger at what he describes as Beijing's unfair trade practices that are hurting American companies and destroying jobs.

Customs data showed the surplus grew 4.2 per cent on-year to $22.2 billion last month, with exports rising by a tenth and imports up more than 20 per cent.

Compared with March, the surplus was up 43.9 per cent, though analysts say seasonal factors such as Chinese New Year had dampened exports for the month.

Attention now turns to a visit next week by a delegation led by Chinese Vice Premier Liu He — considered President Xi Jinping's right-hand man on economic issues — hoping to iron out the differences.

However, there are concerns about the chances of success.

"We don't expect all core differences in the US-China trade relationship to be resolved," Wang Tao, chief China economist in Hong Kong for UBS, wrote in a recent report.

"Lingering trade tension and uncertainty will likely negatively affect China's export orders and related business investment," he said, according to Bloomberg News.

China ranks 110th, or "mostly unfree", on a global ranking of economic freedom put out by the conservative American think tank Heritage Foundation.

The two countries have been engaging in high-stakes negotiations to head off the threatened tariffs — Washington has targeted $150 billion in Chinese imports while Beijing put $50 billion of US goods on the firing line.

China's trade with the wider world also continued to improve, Tuesday's figures showed, after it posted a rare deficit in March.

Exports surged 12.9 per cent on-year, while imports rose 21.5 per cent — both figures beating expectations.

"The data suggest that foreign demand for Chinese goods has started to soften, with the prospect of possible US tariffs weighing on the outlook," said Julian Evans-Pritchard, China Economist at Capital Economics, in a note.

The strong import figures point to growing demand within China, a boon for the country's transition to consumption-fuelled growth from a decades-long dependence on exports and investment, analysts say.

"While softer foreign demand is being largely offset by domestic strength for now, the headwinds to growth from slower credit creation look set to increase," said Evans-Pritchard. 

AMMAN — According to figures released by Airport International Group, Queen Alia International Airport (QAIA) welcomed 1,814,157 passengers during Q1 of 2018, at an increase of 8.5 per cent in year-to-date passenger numbers as compared to the same period last year.

QAIA also witnessed 16,609 aircraft movements and handled 24,690 tonnes of cargo throughout the first quarter, marking a 1.8 per cent decrease and 8.8 per cent increase, respectively.

In March 2018, the airport registered a total of 646,579 passengers, which indicates a substantial 13.3 per cent rise from March 2017 and the third monthly passenger record to be broken, according to a statement of the Airport International Group. 

AMMAN — Upon an official visit by the Belgian and Luxembourg Trade Mission, the Belgian embassy on Tuesday awarded the Order of the Crown from King Philippe of Belgium to two Jordanian business owners.

These were Shukri Salfiti, CEO of Baker’s Choice, and Shermeen Dajani, founder and CEO of PanMed Energy. This was in recognition of their distinguished efforts in generating business between Jordan and Belgium, according to an embassy statement.

Belgian Ambassador Hendrik Van de Velde hosted a reception on Tuesday in honour of the two Jordanian business owners. “This prestigious decoration is a token of appreciation to foreign nationals by His Majesty King Phillipe of Belgium,” the ambassador said in a speech welcoming the guests.

The event was also intended to further connect companies from Jordan with counterparts in Belgium and Luxembourg.

Minister of Industry, Trade and Supply Yarub Qudah, in addition to other officials and business representatives from Jordan, Belgium and Luxembourg were present at the event. In 2017, Belgium was Jordan’s first and largest export market in Europe, according to the statement. 

LONDON/TOKYO — Takeda Pharmaceutical agreed to buy London-listed Shire for £45.3 billion ($61.50 billion) on Tuesday, marking the biggest deal yet in a wave of transactions sweeping the drugs industry.

The acquisition — assuming it wins the backing of shareholders — will be the largest overseas purchase by a Japanese company and propel Takeda, led by Frenchman Christophe Weber, into the top ten rankings of global drug makers. 

The tie-up crowns a hectic few months of M&A activity as big drug makers look to improve their pipelines by bringing in promising medicines developed by younger companies.

The enlarged group will be a Japanese national champion in pharmaceuticals and a leader in gastroenterology, neuroscience, oncology, rare diseases and blood-derived therapies, used for serious conditions such as haemophilia.

The agreement came on the last day for Takeda to make a firm bid. Shire had rejected four previous offers, due to price concerns and the fact that the Japanese company is proposing to pay for much of the acquisition in stock.

The final deal is approximately 46 per cent cash and 54 per cent stock, leaving Shire shareholders owning around half of the combined group. 

Shire investors will receive $30.33 in cash and either 0.839 new Takeda shares or 1.678 Takeda American depositary shares for each share, the companies said, valuing the offer at £48.17 a share based on the latest price and exchange rate.

That is a 60 per cent premium to the price before Takeda first declared its interest six weeks ago.

Shire’s shares were trading 4 per cent up on the previous close at just over £40 by 10:00 GMT, still well under the agreed price and indicating that some uncertainty remains.

“I think it is a good deal for Shire shareholders but not everybody may think that. However, the risk is that if shareholders vote this down then the shares are going to go down a lot,” said Polar Capital Fund Manager Dan Mahony, who owns both Shire and Takeda stock.

The deal must get the support of 75 per cent of Shire’s voting shareholders. While some of them do not want to hold Takeda paper, Weber told reporters he believed investors would back the transaction.

“Their board and our board is confident that both shareholders will see the benefit of the acquisition,” he said.

Jefferies analysts said they expected the shares to trade at a relatively wide discount to the offer, given investor unease over the large stock component and the fact that the deal is not expected to close until the first half of 2019. 

The deal also needs two-thirds approval from Takeda shareholders. 

NEW YORK — The dollar hit its highest level against a basket of currencies so far in 2018 as investors increased bets that rising interest rates in the United States would boost the greenback, while traders unwound their bearish positions on the currency.

The index that tracks the dollar against a basket of currencies climbed to 92.974, its highest since December.

It was last up 0.2 per cent at 92.792.

Speculators trimmed their bets on a falling dollar to the lowest in seven weeks last week, based on data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission released on Friday.

Friday’s somewhat disappointing US payrolls report, which showed hiring and wage growth fell short of expectations, did not alter traders’ outlook for further rate increases from the Federal Reserve.

“Nevertheless, the data was still expansionary, showing tepid but positive growth,” Boris Schlossberg, managing director of FX strategy at BK Asset Management in New York, said of the April jobs data. 

“In contrast, today news from the eurozone only added to the sense of dread in the region as consumer spending slowed materially,” he added. 

Traders have scaled back expectations on the timing of when the European Central Bank may raise interest rates following a spate of disappointing regional economic readings.

The euro broke below $1.19 for the first time this year in the aftermath of weaker-than-expected data on German industrial orders and eurozone investor sentiment.

The euro shed 0.33 per cent at $1.1918 after touching $1.1896, the lowest in more than four months.

The British pound traded up 0.25 per cent at $1.3560, bouncing off a four-month low of $1.3487 set last week.

Sterling has slumped in the past fortnight as investors reversed expectations of a rate hike at the Bank of England’s upcoming meeting on Thursday amid soft domestic data.

UK financial markets were closed for a bank holiday.

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand will also meet on Thursday and is expected to hold its key interest rate at a record low of 1.75 per cent.

The Kiwi was down 0.2 per cent at $0.7008, holding above its year-to-date low of $0.6985 set last week, Reuters data showed. 

PARIS — Air France must become more competitive or it risks being further outpaced by rivals, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Sunday, piling pressure on unions and the carrier's management to resolve a stand-off over pay.

The dispute at Air France-KLM's French brand deepened on Friday when staff rejected a pay deal, prompting the group's CEO to resign and raising questions over the airline's capacity to cut costs and reform.

"If Air France does not make efforts to become more competitive, allowing this flagship to be at the same level at Lufthansa and other airline companies, Air France will disappear," Le Maire told BFM television. He added that the government would not come to the carrier's rescue. 

The turmoil has coincided with other strike action as rail workers press on with rolling stoppages to protest President Emmanuel Macron's planned overhaul of the state-run train operator SNCF.

French travellers have faced transport misery since early April, and Le Maire said the drag on economic growth from the strikes stood at around 0.1 percentage points of output as tourism and the transport of raw materials took a hit. 

Air France-KLM's board is due to decide on May 15 on its plan to fill the management vacuum. Until then, Air France executives do not have a mandate to continue negotiations with unions, meaning the dispute is likely to drag on. 

Strikes have already cost the company 300 million euros ($359 million) and stoppages by pilots, ground staff and other workers are due to resume on May 7 and May 8. Close to 85 per cent of flights are likely to run on Monday, the carrier said. 

"Air France deplores the decision to go ahead with the strikes as we enter a period that will not enable negotiations to continue in order to put an end to it," the airline said in a statement. 

Air France-KLM CEO Jean-Marc Janaillac, who will stay on until May 15, had been battling to cut costs at the French firm to keep up with competition from Gulf carriers and low-cost airlines.

Unions had been demanding a salary hike of 5 per cent in 2018 alone, and staff rejected a management pay deal offering 7 per cent wage increase over four years. 

Le Maire called the union demands unjustified, and urged both sides to resume talks.

Mumbai- The Indian government's attempt to sell debt-laden national carrier Air India is in danger of hitting the skids as a key deadline looms with no bidder in sight.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's administration announced in March that it would privatise the beleaguered airline. But the plan has struggled to get off the ground with several prospective buyers ruling themselves out.

"Conditions put forth by the government with regards to debt and employee costs are restrictive and have put off investors," aviation expert Amrit Pandurangi told AFP.

"The government needs to address the concerns of the private investors if the stake sale is to move forward," the independent analyst added.

Air India, founded in 1932, was once the country's monopoly airline, known affectionately as the "Maharaja of the skies".

But it has been haemorrhaging money for years as it has slowly lost market share to low-cost private players in one of the world's fastest-growing airline markets.

Successive governments pumped in billions of dollars to keep it afloat before Modi's cabinet last year gave the go-ahead to start the process of selling the flagship carrier.

The government wants to sell a 76 percent stake in the 86-year-old airline and offload $5.1 billion of its debt in what would be one of India's biggest ever divestments.

However the proposal has failed to fly with several major airlines, including IndiGo, now India's number-one airline, and Jet Airways, which said last month they were out of the running after reviewing government bid documents.

Analysts say the company's large debts and generous pension schemes are putting off buyers.

Air India is about $8 billion in the red and reported losses of almost 58 billion rupees ($866 million) for the financial year ending March 2017.

"We don't think any of the Indian airlines have the financial strength to bid for Air India," said Binit Somaia, South Asia Director at the Centre for Aviation (CAPA), told AFP.

- 'Back to drawing board' -

Airlines are also being deterred by the sale terms, experts say.

The documents state that the buyer has to purchase all of Air India's six entities, three of which are loss-making.

IndiGo said it was interested only in Air India's international routes and not its loss-making domestic operations.

"IndiGo has been a highly successful carrier. It is a good decision on their part to focus on organic growth," said Somaia.

Under any deal the government would retain a 24 percent stake.

Its insistence that the winning bidder cannot merge the airline with existing businesses as long as the government keeps its stake is seen as a key stumbling block.

Last week the government was forced to extend its deadline to May 31 for companies to submit an expression of interest after none was received.

Indian media reports say the tea-to-steel conglomerate Tata Group, which founded the airline before it was nationalised in 1946, is the best hope for a sale.

Others have suggested that Lufthansa, Etihad Airways and the British Airways-led International Airlines Group might come forward. The three carriers declined to comment to AFP.

Singapore Airlines, which has a partnership with Tata in Indian airline Vistara, has also been touted. A spokeswoman told AFP that it will "keep its options open".

Commentators say it will be very difficult politically for Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party Hindu nationalist government to sell the state carrier to a foreign group, making a domestic-international partnership most likely.

But first it looks like it will have to ease its sale terms to attract any formal bids.

"If the deal in its current form doesn't go through the government will have to go back to (the) drawing board and relook at the deal structure," Manish Agarwal, of PricewaterhouseCoopers, told AFP.