In an interview with The Economist, President Donald Trump whiffed on a batch of economic facts. He got the Canada-U.S. trade balance wrong, misplaced the U.S. in the world ranks of tax burdens and claimed to have coined an economic phrase that’s been familiar to economists for some 80 years. …

A sweeping trade agreement, ranging from banking to beef, has been reached between Washington and Beijing, the U.S. Commerce Department announced on Thursday. “It was pretty much a Herculean accomplishment to get this done,” said U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. “This is more than has been done in the whole …

Kongkaew Vonusak smiles when he recalls the arrival of Chinese investors in his tranquil village in northern Laos in 2014. With them came easy money, he said. The Chinese offered villagers up to $720 per hectare to rent their land, much of it fallow for years, said Kongkaew, 59, the …

Ideas were flying at a brainstorming session to create a slogan for a group of North Carolina Democrats when Catherine Cloud blurted out a phrase that made a colleague’s eyes light up: “Because this is America.” The words were quickly scrawled on a notepad, and the New Hanover County Democratic …

The head of the U.S. Small Business Administration urged American businessmen and entrepreneurs to enter the global market, telling the United Nations on Thursday that just 1 percent of small businesses are currently exporting overseas. Linda McMahon said the nearly 29 million small businesses in America “are the engine of …

The sister of White House adviser Jared Kushner won’t be attending an investor conference in China this weekend as reported after she was criticized for trying to raise money there last weekend, using the lure of a U.S. visa program. Nicole Kushner Meyer, who had been representing her family’s company …

As farmers fret over President Donald Trump’s criticism of international trade agreements, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue is trying to reassure them by creating a top post to oversee trade and foreign agricultural affairs. The new undersecretary position is a sign of Perdue’s efforts to promote the U.S. agricultural industry as …

U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross sees the U.S. semiconductor industry as still dominant globally but said he is worried that it will be threatened by China’s planned investment binge to build up its own chipmaking industry. Ross told Reuters in an interview this week that his agency is considering a …

Bulgaria is seeking private investors to build a nuclear power plant on the Danube River, which was canceled five years ago, Prime Minister Boiko Borisov said during a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday. Sofia canceled the Belene project in 2012 after failing to find foreign investors …

The largest cargo ship ever to visit ports on the U.S. East Coast is so long the Statue of Liberty and Washington Monument could fit end-to-end along its deck and still leave room for Big Ben.   The COSCO Development arrived Thursday at the Port of Savannah after cruising past …

Visits to Florida’s theme-park mecca continued to grow last year, despite tragic headlines from the region, enabling Orlando to keep its bragging rights as the most visited destination in the United States, tourism officials said Thursday. Orlando tourism officials announced that more than 68 million visitors came to the area …

Mexico sent a stark message to U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday, saying an upcoming visit to China in September made it clear Latin America’s No. 2 economy “has lots of other alternatives” amid tense trade negotiations. Mexico is grappling with Trump’s desire to renegotiate the North American Free Trade …

In his workshop near Cairo’s pyramids, Ahmed Saeed Omar has manufactured a mini four-wheeled vehicle that he hopes will fill a gap in the market. Omar’s “mini car,” a rectangular vehicle made of a solid steel body which seats up to six people, is cheaper than the widely-used imported auto …

The answer is corn. The question is, what really changed U.S. President Donald Trump’s mind about saving the North American Free Trade Agreement and trying to revise it only hours after he said the United States was pulling out of the treaty? Edward Goldberg, professor at NYU’s School of Professional …

Iraq and Algeria support the extension of oil production cuts by OPEC and non-OPEC producers through the end of the year to try to boost prices, they said in a joint statement Thursday. The oil ministers of the two countries held a press conference in Baghdad where Iraqi Oil Minister …

Uber provides a transport service and must be licensed, the European Union’s top court said Thursday, in a potential blow to the U.S. firm that says it is merely a digital enabler. “The Uber electronic platform, whilst innovative, falls within the field of transport: Uber can thus be required to …

Uber is launching its private ride-hailing service in the Myanmar commercial capital of Yangon on Thursday, aiming to tap into one of the world’s youngest and fastest-growing online markets. The launch follows Singapore-based GrabTaxi’s debut by about two months. Uber is one of the world’s largest on-demand transportation platforms. It …

Housing foreclosure activity in the United States dropped to the lowest level since 2005 last month, according to a business research group. ATTOM Data Solutions tracks default notices, auctions and bank repossessions across the nation and says the number of actions dropped 23 percent from a year ago. That means …

China’s President Xi Jinping initiated the ambitious Belt and Road development plan but it has become a world plan not tied to his presidency, the Commerce Ministry said Wednesday, days before Xi hosts a global forum on the initiative. The forum in Beijing next week will draw heads of state …

In August, 2014, planners in the northeastern Chinese city of Hunchun argued in state media that it should be included in the “One Belt, One Road” project, Beijing’s vision laid out the previous year of a new Silk Road across Asia to Europe. In 2015, the official Xinhua news agency …

Mexico is embarking on a strategy to combat illegal pipeline thefts that includes going after those who purchase and deal in stolen fuel as well as the thieves, the country’s treasury secretary said Tuesday.   Jose Antonio Meade said it’s a problem that costs Mexico somewhere between 15 billion and …

Four U.S. states filed a lawsuit Tuesday over President Donald Trump’s decision to restart the sale of coal leases on federal lands, saying the Obama-era block of the leasing program was reversed without studying what’s best for the environment and for taxpayers. The attorneys general of California, New Mexico, New …

The U.S. economy won’t achieve the Trump administration’s 3 percent growth goal this year and not until all of its tax, regulatory, trade and energy policies are fully in place, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said on Tuesday. Ross also said trade enforcement actions would be a major tool to cut …

Now onto his third job since finishing high school a decade ago, Festus Chege is hoping his latest venture as a water vendor in Githurai, a growing suburb to the south of Kenya’s capital Nairobi, will pay off. Like many young people from poor families, the 30-year-old passed his high-school …

The U.S. Treasury on Tuesday launched an upgrade of a website to allow for the first time the tracking of all federal government spending categories, which totaled $3.85 trillion last year. The new Beta.USAspending.gov website culminates a three-year initiative to improve the existing USAspending.gov to provide a broader view of …