Brazil is scrambling to avert punishing 50% U.S. tariffs in a week's time, but high level talks are stalled and U.S. companies are reluctant to confront U.S. President Donald Trump over the issue, officials and industry leaders say, Reuters reported. Trump linked the tariffs, which he has said would come into effect on Aug. 1, to Brazil's treatment of former President Jair Bolsonaro, who is on trial over charges of plotting a coup to stop President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office.
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Brazil’s attorney general is seeking a probe into possible insider trading in the country’s currency markets around the announcement of US tariffs on Brazilian goods, Bloomberg News reported. The request follows local media reports of significant foreign exchange transactions before and after the official tariffs announcement, “suggesting possible use of privileged information (insider trading) by individuals or legal entities,” according to a statement from the Brazilian attorney general’s office.
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Brazilian petrochemical group Unigel is considering filing for judicial recovery (bankruptcy protection) to facilitate a new round of capitalization, ValorInternational.com has learned. The company has already signed non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) with potential investors, who have until October to review its financial data and business turnaround plans. According to sources close to the informal talks, one interested group has made its investment conditional on a bankruptcy filing, a condition Unigel has not resisted.
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Moody’s Ratings upgraded Argentina’s credit ratings and upped its outlook, citing stabilizing and disinflationary macroeconomic reforms, the Wall Street Journal reported. The ratings agency upped the country’s long-term foreign currency sovereign credit ratings and local currency issuer ratings to Caa1 from Caa3 and changed Argentina’s outlook to stable from positive. Moody’s said that the government’s release of distortive exchange controls and reduction in government spending have attracted investment and resulted in real wage increases and greater availability of credit.
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U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs on South Africa could cause around 100,000 job losses, with the agriculture and automotive sectors hardest-hit, central bank governor Lesetja Kganyago said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Kganyago told local radio station 702 that the impact of the 30% tariff, which Africa's biggest economy faces from August 1, could cause significant damage to specific industries.
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The New York federal judge who gave Argentina until yesterday to cede its controlling stake in YPF SA to holders of a $16 billion judgment granted the South American nation a three-day extension to seek a longer delay from an appeals court, Bloomberg News reported. U.S.
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Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said Thursday that he would impose retaliatory tariffs on the United States if President Donald Trump follows through on a pledge to boost import taxes by 50% over the South American country's criminal trial against his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, the Associated Press reported. Lula said he would trigger Brazil's reciprocity law approved by Congress earlier this year if negotiations with the U.S. fail. "If there's no negotiation, the reciprocity law will be put to work.
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While airline bankruptcy news in the U.S. have been dominated by Silver Airways and Spirit Airlines, a number of smaller airlines from around the world have also struggled to the point of having to cease operations over the last year, The Street reported. Founded as a charter and cargo airline meant to link the Western European nation with China, Air Belgium was accruing annual losses of €22 million (roughly $24 million USD) at the time it filed for bankruptcy protection and was ordered to go into liquidation.
Chile, by far the biggest shipper of copper into the U.S., is waiting for details to emerge following President’s Donald Trump’s bombshell comments on tariffs, Bloomberg reported. Trump sent shock-waves through the global copper industry on Tuesday by telling reporters that he would be slapping a 50% levy on copper imports — about double what the market was pricing in. Chile — and particularly state-owned Codelco — would be the most affected producer given the country accounts for about 500,000 metric tons of the total of 700,000 tons of refined metal the US imports a year.
Holders of a defaulted Venezuelan bond, some creditors and bidders that participated in a U.S. auction of shares in the parent of Venezuela-owned refiner Citgo Petroleum filed objections to the auction's recommended outcome, court documents released on Monday showed, Reuters reported. The challenge to the $7.4 billion offer by a group led by a unit of miner Gold Reserve could again derail the sale. Citgo, Venezuela's priced foreign asset, has been put on the auction block to pay creditors who lost billions to the South American country's expropriations and defaults.