tybs
like that one!
Beijing 'Sweetens' Cloud Computing Offer As Mnuchin Says Agreement Reached On 'Enforcement Offices'
Yesterday, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin confirmed during an interview with CNBC that the issue of enforcement of a US-China trade deal, believed to be one of the most troublesome obstacles to a final agreement, had finally been resolved after both sides agreed to open 'enforcement offices' in their respective countries. This followed reports last week that Trump would give China until 2025 to make good on its promises, including massive purchases of agricultural goods, effectively punting the task of enforcement to his successor.
The agreement was finally struck during a call with Liu He, the Chinese vice premier and head trade negotiator, on Tuesday. But just because the enforcement issue has been "pretty much" resolved, doesn't mean that the deal will be completed within a month, as President Trump has said.
"We’ve pretty much agreed on an enforcement mechanism,” Mnuchin said during the interview. "We’ve agreed that both sides will establish enforcement offices that will deal with the ongoing matters. This is something both sides are taking very seriously."
On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal published another optimistic trade update, claiming that China has 'sweetened' its offer to open up its market to US cloud computing companies following extensive lobbying by trade negotiators and, get this, Amazon CEO and Trump nemesis Jeff Bezos. US negotiators had rejected a previous proposal last week, saying it was "inadequate."
Per WSJ, the new offer would involve issuing licenses for foreign businesses to operate data centers on the mainland, and lifting a 50% equity cap that requires foreign companies like Amazon to seek out domestic partners.
With the enforcement issue resolved, and Beijing having passed a law intended to stop forced technology transfers and IP theft, the main issues up for debate now focus squarely on access for American tech firms like Amazon, Microsoft and Apple. These companies have invested millions of dollars in China already, but have been hamstrung by restrictive regulations. The new proposal expands on an offer made by Premier Li Kequiang had proposed during a meeting with tech executives, which was panned as "weak and unrealistic."
The second proposal followed a meeting earlier this week between US tech firms and China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the country's top tech regulator.
merican tech firms like Amazon have already formed partnerships with Chinese firms to gain entree to the mainland economy.
Given the regulatory hurdles, some foreign companies have formed partnerships with local cloud companies, licensing technologies and have them run data centers in China.
Amazon Web Services, for example, partners with Beijing Sinnet Technology Co. to operate the AWS China cloud-computing service in the Beijing region. Sinnet owns the hardware while AWS says it provides technology, guidance and expertise to Sinnet.
Still, the new proposal didn't address the issue of data transfers. Under current Chinese law, American tech firms must store data from their Chinese operations on the mainland. But the US is insisting that this rule be changed as part of a final deal.
Setting aside issues of market access, the biggest obstacle to a final deal remains Washington's insistence that some of its trade war tariffs be maintained, at least in the near term, to ensure compliance with the deal. Beijing has repeatedly insisted that all tariffs be dropped.
As the two sides appear to have made little progress on the issue, it's worth wondering: Will Trump cave on this to salvage his deal and secure a major PR victory as the 2020 race heats up?
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-04-11/beijing-sweetens-offer-cloud-computing-mnuchin-says-agreement-reached-enforcement
(WTF is munchkins doing here?)
Newmont shareholders OK $10 billion Goldcorp takeover, creating biggest gold producer
TORONTO (Reuters) - Newmont Mining shareholders on Thursday approved the company’s $10 billion takeover of Goldcorp Inc which is set to create the world’s biggest gold producer with assets across the Americas, Africa and Australia.
About 98 percent of votes at a special meeting were in support of Newmont’s proposal to issue new stock to fund its takeover of Goldcorp, the Denver-based company said in a statement. Goldcorp’s investors voted to approve the acquisition last week.
The deal, the biggest takeover in the gold sector’s history according to Refinitiv data, faced some initial opposition from Newmont investors who said it overly favored Goldcorp shareholders. But they rallied behind the proposal on the promise of a special dividend.
The 88-cent-per-share special dividend will be paid on May 1 to those who hold Newmont shares as of April 17, according to the statement.
Newmont shares were 0.7 percent lower at $36.01 in morning trading in New York, in line with the benchmark S&P/TSX Global Gold Index. Goldcorp shares slipped 0.26 percent to C$15.41 in Toronto.
“We thank Newmont’s shareholders for their overwhelming support for this compelling value creation opportunity as we build the world’s leading gold company,” Newmont Chief Executive Gary Goldberg said in the statement.
The new company, to be called Newmont Goldcorp, will overtake current market leader Barrick Gold Corp in annual production, churning out 6 million to 7 million ounces of gold annually over the next 10 years, compared with Barrick’s forecast of 5.1 million to 5.6 million ounces for 2019.
Newmont Goldcorp expects to shed between $1 billion and $1.5 billion of assets to focus on its most promising operations. This, combined with mines Barrick plans to sell in the wake of its acquisition of Randgold Resources, is expected by analysts to fuel a flurry of deals in a sector that has been focused on cutting costs rather than pursuing growth for several years.
Newmont’s acquisition of Goldcorp had faced several hurdles, beginning with Barrick’s hostile takeover bid for Newmont in February, which required it to abandon its deal with Goldcorp.
That was resolved through the creation of a joint venture of Newmont and Barrick’s operations in Nevada, which was estimated to create $4.7 billion in synergies.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-newmont-m-a-goldcorp-idUSKCN1RN25U
Baker
this is finally approved and puts to bed a very long issue with gold miner's. Goes back a long time.