Italy is planning to formally back China’s multi-trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). It would become the first G7 nation to join the ambitious project which promises to significantly boost global trade. Rome is preparing to sign a memorandum of understanding to officially support the project, championed by Chinese President Xi Jinping, by the end of March, according to Michele Geraci [...]

US agricultural exports to China are forecast to fall significantly in crop year 2019, an official in President Donald Trump’s administration said this week, noting that the damage was a result of the administration’s own trade policies with China. [...]

The US House Judiciary Committee passed a bill on Thursday that would allow the Justice Department to sue members of OPEC for manipulating the oil market. According to Max Keiser, “this little alliance [between OPEC and the US – Ed.] has been going strong since the 1970s,” as the quid pro quo was that the US would buy Saudi oil and the Saudis would buy US debt. [...]

Global central banks bought more bullion last year than at any time since 1971, when the US ended the gold standard. Governments added 651.5 tons of gold to their coffers in 2018, according to the World Gold Council. It said that Russia, China and Turkey are leading the gold-buying spree. [...]

Retail sales in China are poised to surge this year and exceed US retail by more than $100 billion, bringing it the crown as the top global retail market, according to a forecast by research firm eMarketer. [...]

Richard D. Wolff is Professor of Economics Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Amherst where he taught economics from 1973 to 2008. He is currently a Visiting Professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs of the New School University, New York City. Earlier he taught economics at Yale University (1967-1969) and at the City College of the City University of New York (1969-1973 [...]

Chinese investments in North America and Europe fell by 73 percent last year as a result of tightened US scrutiny of foreign takeover deals and Beijing’s restrictions on outbound investments. Data from law firm Baker & McKenzie showed that Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) flows into the United States have also turned negative, falling to the lowest in seven years. [...]

Trade turnover between Russia and China soared by nearly 30 percent in 2018, reaching a record number of $107.06 billion, according to the latest report released by China’s General Administration of Customs (GAC). The agency noted that last year Russian imports of Chinese goods increased by 12 percent to $47.98 billion. [...]

The United States Department of Defense’s supply chains have deteriorated, and they now require significant modernization – and taxpayer funding – if Washington wishes to make war with Russia or China, according to an internal Pentagon report. [...]

Aside from the trade wars, Apple has been hurt by a boycott in China and its own apparent arrogance towards Chinese laws. Apple had to cut its revenue outlook for the latest quarter, citing what it called an "economic deceleration" in China and emerging markets, according to a report by Agence France-Presse. [...]

The Chinese robotic probe Chang'e 4 has landed on the dark side of the moon, becoming the first manmade craft to alight on the unexplored surface, according to reports from Chinese state media. [...]

Tensions between Washington and Beijing have escalated in recent months amid a growing number of US Navy "freedom of navigation" missions in the South China Sea and Chinese efforts to beef up its military presence in territories over which several Asian powers have overlapping claims. [...]

BEIJING (Sputnik) – Liberalization of the Chinese banking legislation provides Russian banks with an opportunity to receive full-fledged licenses for their work in China, Russia's Trade Representative in the Asian country, Sergey Iniushin, told Sputnik. [...]

The wars of words between Donald Trump and Justin Trudeau may have grabbed headlines, but Canada has always remained a faithful US ally, apparently believing it's a safe bet. The strategy, however, has backfired. [...]

China is stepping up its involvement in Syria, not with its military, but with cash. For Beijing, war-torn Syria is an opportunity for reconstruction business. For Damascus, prosperity means peace.China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Syrian counterpart Walid Muallem have shown through their cordial  discussions that Beijing and Damascus are on the same page when it comes to envisaging the [...]

China’s state-owned energy major CNPC has replaced France’s Total in Iran’s South Pars gas project, according to Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh. The French company withdrew from Iran under pressure of US sanctions. [...]

The current trade row between Washington and Beijing escalated in July, when the US announced 25 percent duties on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods, to which Beijing responded by imposing restrictions on the same amount of US imports. [...]

Beijing-Washington trade war could motivate Chinese investors to take a different look at the Russian market and prompt them to bring their capital to Russia in the near future, Managing Director of the Money and Derivatives Markets at Moscow Exchange Igor Marich said. [...]

The US Air Force Chief of Staff has said that both China and Russia are ready to step in to fill a power vacuum in Latin America left by Washington. The United States should pay more attention to Latin America, lest China and Russia take root in the region, US Air Force Chief of Staff David Goldfein said in the wake of a trip to Colombia. [...]

In September, China’s share of US Treasuries holdings had the highest decline since January as ongoing trade tensions with Washington forced the world’s biggest economy to take measures to stabilize its national currency. Still the biggest foreign holder of the US foreign debt, China slashed it’s share by nearly $14 billion, with the country's holdings falling to $1.15 trillion from nearly $ [...]

The US has said it will join Australia in the development of a naval base on Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island to “protect the freedom of the seas,” in a move apparently aimed at curbing China’s presence in the Pacific. Australia, a staunch US ally in the Pacific, had already set its sights on Papua New Guinea’s Lombrum Naval Base on Manus Island earlier in November, seeking to build a de [...]

For the first time, leaders of 21 Asia-Pacific economies have failed to issue a joint communique, as tensions between the US and China over trade and investment poisoned their annual summit. Pointing to the “two big giants in the room,” the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation’s (APEC) chair, Papua New Guinea (PNG) Prime Minister Peter O’Neill, informed Sunday’s closing news conference [...]