Canada on Monday said it will begin to ease pandemic restrictions at the U.S./Canada border next month, allowing U.S. citizens and permanent residents living in the U.S. who are fully vaccinated with Canadian-authorized vaccines to enter for nonessential travel without quarantining, The Washington Post. The decision, which takes effect Aug. 9, follows months of criticism from U.S.
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India's central bank has ordered Mastercard to stop adding new customers for failing to comply with the country's data storage rules, escalating a dispute between Indian authorities and U.S. financial services groups over the control of customer data, the Financial Times reported. The Reserve Bank of India said that Mastercard had not complied with rules introduced in 2018 that bar payment companies from transferring customer data overseas. The regulations, which were fiercely resisted by U.S. payment companies, required all financial data to be stored exclusively in India.
The European Union has agreed to delay a corporate tax plan for the bloc following pressure from the U.S. administration and in a bid to facilitate a broader global tax deal, but EU member Ireland reiterated its criticisms of the wider reform, Reuters reported. The world's 20 largest economies endorsed on Saturday a plan for a global overhaul of corporate tax that would introduce a minimum tax rate and change the way large companies like Amazon and Google are taxed, based partly on where they sell their products and services rather than on the location of their headquarters.
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European Union antitrust regulators may revamp decades-old rules covering the market power of companies to take into account cases such as when tech giants offer products for free while harvesting users' data, or the impact of deals on innovation. Reuters reported. The comments from the European Commission on Monday followed feedback from national competition watchdogs, experts and other parties during a 16-month consultation of the Commission's rule known as the market definition notice.
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The part owner of Chilean bank Itau Corpbanca on Thursday secured court approval in Delaware to fend off any potential creditor attempts to collect debts owed as it works to restructure in the U.S., Reuters reported. Corp Group Banking SA (CGB), represented by Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, filed for chapter 11 protection on June 25 to restructure nearly $2 billion in debt. That figure includes $500 million in bonds issued under New York law on which the company has defaulted. CGB, which is controlled by Chilean billionaire Alvaro Saieh, holds 26.2% of the bank’s common equity.
Suppliers to Walmart, Target, Amazon.com and other major retailers told Reuters they are placing holiday orders for Chinese-made merchandise weeks earlier this year, as a global shipping backlog threatens to leave many gift buyers empty-handed this Christmas shopping season. Reuters surveyed nearly a dozen suppliers and retailers of everything from toys to computer equipment in the United States and Europe.
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Vietnam's growing dominance as a furniture exporter is at risk as trade authorities in the U.S., its biggest market, probe the country's timber industry and its ties to illegal logging abroad, Nikkei Asia reported. The sector has boomed in recent years, thanks in part to former U.S. President Donald Trump's trade war with China, which saw tariffs as high as 25% slapped on Chinese furniture exports. Vietnam, in fact, overtook China last year in furniture exports to the U.S., shipping $7.4 billion worth of the goods, compared with China's $7.3 billion, reported Vietnam News Agency.
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Corp Group Banking SA, a Chilean financial holding company controlled by billionaire Alvaro Saieh, filed for bankruptcy after the coronavirus pandemic sparked an economic slowdown that worsened fortunes in the banking sector, Bloomberg News reported. The Santiago-based company on Friday sought chapter 11 protection from creditors in the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. The move was expected after the company skipped an interest payment last year on $500 million of 6.75% notes due 2023 and didn’t cure it when a grace period expired Oct. 15.
President Joe Biden’s administration rejected Nicolas Maduro’s call for relief from U.S. sanctions, saying the Venezuelan leader needs to do more toward restoring democracy before penalties would be lifted, Bloomberg News reported. Maduro, a target of crippling U.S. sanctions under former President Donald Trump, reached out to Biden in an exclusive Bloomberg interview last week, calling on him to lift sanctions, normalize relations and end the “demonization of Venezuela.” Responding to Maduro’s comments, a State Department spokesman said a U.S.
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EAGLE Hospitality Real Estate Investment Trust (EH-Reit), which is part of Singapore-based Eagle Hospitality Trust (EHT), has received net proceeds of about U.S. $153.9 million following the sale of five chapter 11 properties, the Singapore Business Times reported. The net proceeds have been partially used to repay the debtor-in-possession facility and the stalking horse "break up" fee, EH-Reit trustee DBS Trustee said in a bourse filing on Thursday. The balance remaining is around $109.7 million, which will go to repaying ongoing post-petition expenses and pre-petition creditors.
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