The United States is looking for new tools and wants to build on its free trade agreements with Latin American nations, as part of its efforts to counter Chinese influence in the region. Washington intends to strengthen the U.S. position in the region through changes to the Development Finance Corporation, its development agency for lower and middle-income countries. The effort would include supporting changes at the Inter-American Development Bank, another development bank for Latin America; the Inter-American Dialogue, a policy institute; and the Organization of American States.

The United States and Taiwan are set to sign first deal under a new trade framework called the U.S.-Taiwan Initiative on 21st Century Trade, which has been discussed between the two sides since last August. The two sides want to boost ties at a time when tensions have heightened with China over Taiwan. The new initiative has come into fruition after Washington excluded Taiwan from its larger pan-Asian trade initiative, the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF). Taiwan’s Office of Trade Negotiations said in a brief statement the first agreement under the framework would be signed in Washington on Thursday morning U.S. time, but gave no other details. The U.S. Trade Representative’s office said Deputy United States Trade Representative Bianchi would attend the event, but also did not elaborate.

Canada’s second-largest pension fund Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) has suspended making private deals in China and will shut down its office in Shanghai later this year. The pension fund is currently conducting its regional investment efforts from Singapore, and it still has business interests in China. Earlier in April, Canada’s third largest pension fund Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP) also closed down its China equity investment team based in Hong Kong. In February, it was reported that Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC had reduced private investments in China. 

The U.S. government closely scrutinizes exports to China and last year denied or took no action on a quarter of requests in order to block sales that would advance Beijing’s military advancements. Last year, 5,064 export and re-export licenses were reviewed and 26% were denied or returned without action, Commerce Department assistant secretary Kendler said in a written testimony for a Senate Baking Committee hearing on Wednesday. 

Sweden’s power grid operator Svenska Kraftnat ordered Germany’s Uniper, the operator of mothballed Oresundsverket power station in Malmö, to restart the plant in case of a deteriorating security situation causes supply disruptions. The grid operator said the plant in Sweden’s south, which has been idled since 2016, should be recommissioned as part of the country’s power reserve by 2025. The plant was mainly running on gas before being shut down, but it can also burn oil. 

Two U.S. energy majors ExxonMobil and Chevron are looking to tap Algeria’s vast resources of natural gas as they are in advanced talks for exploration and production deals in the North African nation. Algeria holds huge conventional natural gas reserves, and it is also estimated to have the third–largest shale gas reserves in the world after China and Argentina. ExxonMobil and Chevron could complete the talks on the deals with Algerian state-held oil and gas firm Sonatrach by the end of this year.

The United States is looking for new tools and wants to build on its free trade agreements with Latin American nations, as part of its efforts to counter Chinese influence in the region. Washington intends to strengthen the U.S. position in the region through changes to the Development Finance Corporation, its development agency for lower and middle-income countries. The effort would include supporting changes at the Inter-American Development Bank, another development bank for Latin America; the Inter-American Dialogue, a policy institute; and the Organization of American States.

The Canadian government commits to providing up to C$3 billion loans for Trans Mountain Corp (TMC), which is building an over-budget and long-delayed oil pipeline expansion to Canada’s Pacific Coast. The news came from Export Development Canada, which says two new loan guarantees had been signed in late March and early May. Last year the government, which bought the Trans Mountain pipeline in 2018 to ensure the expansion got developed, provided a C$10 billion loan guarantee to TMC. 

Danish energy company Orsted and Irish utility ESB signed an agreement on Thursday to jointly develop an offshore wind portfolio in Ireland. Orsted will become a 50% partner in a series of offshore wind development projects off Ireland’s coast. According to the Danish company, the partnership has the potential to deliver up to five gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy and complementary renewable hydrogen projects. The Irish Government aims to generate 80% of the country’s electricity from renewable sources, including to reach 5 GW offshore wind by 2030, the Irish minister for enterprise, trade and employment, Coveney said. 

Germany and Denmark have signed a deal to connect at least 3 GW of wind energy generation capacity from the Danish island of Bornholm to the mainland starting from the 2030s. Under the agreement, 2 gigawatts will be transmitted to Germany and 1.2 gigawatts go to mainland Denmark, according to a statement by Germany’s economy minister Habeck. 

Exxon Mobil said on Wednesday it signed a carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) contract with U.S. steelmaker Nucor Corporation, a first for the energy giant from a hard to abate industry. Exxon last year launched a business dedicated to making money from burying underground carbon dioxide (CO2) produced by companies looking to reduce their own atmospheric emissions. The U.S. oil producer is targeting a market it calculates has potential to reach $4 trillion globally by 2050.

The European Union at the end of March provisionally agreed to reform permitting processes to accelerate wind and solar deployment as part of revisions to the 2018 EU Renewable Energy Directive, as the bloc aims to reach a new higher renewable energy target of 42.5% of gross energy consumption by 2030. Due to complex administrative processes and a lack of resources at approval authorities, permitting of renewable projects currently takes several years, and 80 GW of new wind capacity is waiting for permitting, including 59 GW onshore. The revisions to the Directive strengthen last year’s emergency permitting measures, which set a two-year maximum for permitting new projects and one year for repowering projects, require member states to create accelerated deployment areas and define solar and wind as projects of overriding public interest. Under the revisions, the deadlines would apply to all permit applications submitted from January 2023, including grid connection and environmental impact assessments (EIAs).

Poland and Hungary decided to ban imports of grain and other food products from Ukraine to protect local agriculture, the two governments said on Saturday after a flood of supply depressed prices across eastern Europe. After Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year, large quantities of Ukrainian grains, which are cheaper than European Union products, ended up staying in central and eastern European states due to logistical bottlenecks, causing prices to plummet and hit sales of local farmers. In a letter to the European Commission last month, the prime ministers of five eastern European countries said the scale of the increase in products like grains, oilseeds, eggs, poultry and sugar had been “unprecedented”, and said tariffs on Ukrainian agricultural imports should potentially be considered.

The two biggest Western exporters of Russian grains, Cargill and Viterra, said they would halt purchases for export, a decision which will give local companies more control over shipments. Cargill will exporting grain sourced by the company in Russia from July, but will continue to buy cargoes from other firms. Glencore subsidiary Viterra is planning to exit the Russian export market and is expected to announce its decision in the near future. Both companies have been ranked as top six exporters of Russian wheat in the first half of the season. Russian grain is vital to global crop trade and food security. Its agricultural products aren’t under sanction, but trade can be complicated by restrictions on Russian banks and state companies. International grain traders have also faced pressure to leave from Moscow and the local industry.

Brazil’s wheat imports from Russia is expected to rise this year as competitive prices are set to help the Latin American nation partially replace lost volumes from Argentina, the harvest season of which is forecast to be weak in 2022-23. Brazil has been looking for alternatives to supplies from Argentina, which have plunged to a multi-year low of 122,500 tons in OCtober from 475,000 tons a year earlier. Meanwhile, imports from the United States have soared, totaling 101,200 tons in October up from just 16,500 tons in October last year. Other than the U.S., Russian wheat has also made a return to the Brazilian market after a break of a few years. Russia exported 31,100 tons in October, and two vessels carrying 61,500 tons are also on their way to the South American nation. A further 38,300 tons of Russian wheat is also earmarked for Brazil. 

Norway’s Yara, one of the world’s largest fertilizer producers, is set to cut ammonia production due to soaring gas prices. The move could result in a fertilizer shortage for Europe’s crops. Ammonia is a key input in producing fertilizers. Without its usage, crop yields will deteriorate, as nutrients removed from soil during harvesting are not replenished. Yara has been warning the world faces an extreme food shortage due to high gas prices, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and sanctions on Russian fertilizer producers.  

The Biden administration is set to sign a deal that would allow General Electric to manufacture jet engines in India powering Indian military aircraft. A deal that will finalize joint production is expected to be signed and announced when Biden hosts Indian Prime Minister Modi in Washington on June 22. The White House in January said it received an application from India to jointly produce the jet engines in the country. The Biden administration has been looking to deepen ties with India as it considers developing relations in military and technology could act as a counterweight to China’s influence in the region. 

South Korea’s arms exports have more than doubled to reach $17 billion in 2022 from $7.25 billion a year before, thanks in large part to its $13.7 billion arms deal with Poland, Seoul’s biggest ever, which the government hopes will lay the groundwork for a ramp up in the country’s military-industrial complex. The country’s defense industry hopes to take advantage of Europe’s hunger for weapons in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.  The arms deal with NATO-member Poland last year included hundreds of Chunmoo rocket launchers, K2 tanks, K9 self-propelled howitzers, and FA-50 fighter aircraft. The deal’s value and the number of weapons involved made it stand out even among the world’s biggest defense players.

The U.S. State Department approved the potential sale of CH-47F Chinook helicopters and related equipment to Germany for as much as $8.5 billion, the Pentagon said on Thursday. Germany had announced its intention to buy 60 Boeing-made heavy-lift helicopters last year to replace its aging CH-53 fleet.  The package includes 140 engines including 20 spares, missile warning systems, radios, transponders, navigation systems, a suite of modifications and technical support, the Pentagon said.

Israeli defense firms are looking for sales opportunities in Europe to restock inventories depleted by donations to Ukraine, as Russia’s invasion has led to a major increase in defense spending across the region. European nations have been looking to balance the needs of Ukraine with resupplying their own stockpiles and purchasing new systems to prepare for potential future conflicts. Israel’s big three defense contractors, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Elbit Systems have been aiming to take advantage of the spending spree. In mid-April, for example, Israel’s Defense Ministry said it was in advanced talks with Germany to sell Arrow 3 air defense system. Finland, meanwhile, is acquiring the David’s Sling missile defense system, and Greece has announced a deal to acquire Spike missiles and drones.

Ford announced on Thursday it agreed with Tesla for its electric vehicles (EVs) to gain access to more than 12,000 Tesla Superchargers across North America from early 2024. The agreement marks the first time a major automaker embraces Tesla’s proprietary charging standard, while giving Ford access to the biggest network of high-speed chargers in the United States and Canada. Access to charging stations is considered one of the main hurdles so far to broader adoption of EVs. Tesla said last November it would open its proprietary charging design to other automakers and charging network operators. A Tesla-developed adapter will provide Ford EVs fitted with the Combined Charging System (CCS) port access to Tesla’s V3 Superchargers. Ford will equip future EVs with Tesla’s own charging standard, removing the need for an adapter for direct access to Tesla Superchargers, starting in 2025.

The United States and Canada on Tuesday announced the first binational electric vehicle (EV) corridor between Kalamazoo, Michigan and Canada’s Quebec City that will have EV chargers every 50 miles along the 900-mile route. U.S. Transportation Secretary Buttigieg, Canada’s Minister of Transport Alghabra, Michigan Governor Whitmer and Detroit Mayor Duggan were present during the announcement ceremony. 

Norway’s oil and energy ministry said it is planning to nationalize most of the country’s gas pipeline infrastructure when many existing concessions expire in 2028. Since Russia invaded Ukraine last year and subsequently cut most pipeline gas flows, Norway has become the largest supplier of natural gas to Europe. Most of the Norwegian gas is delivered to Europe via a network of pipelines stretching around 9,000 kilometers. The ministry said it would send a letter to license holders “signaling the state aims to make use of the right of repatriation at the end of the license period”.

Italy’s biggest utility Enel announced on Thursday its plans to build over 2 million DC electric vehicle (EV) chargers across North America, 10,000 of which will be deployed in the United States. U.S. retailer Walmart has also announced last week it would build its own EV charging stations by 2030, following a pledge by Biden to build a network of 500,000 public EV chargers nationwide. The Biden administration announced the final rules for the $7.5. billion federal programme, which requires the chargers be manufactured domestically. 

Australian lithium miner European Lithium and Saudi Obeikan Group signed a binding agreement to jointly develop and operate a lithium hydroxide processing plant in Saudi Arabia through an incorporated 50-50 joint venture. The capital investment for the project will be fully funded by the JV, with European Lithium’s equity contribution expected to be in-kind, subject to a valuation. Under the agreement, the Australian miner will grant the JV company exclusive purchasing rights to spodumene mined from its Wolfsberg Lithium Project in Austria.

French miner Eramet and Chinese steelmaker Tsingshan are planning to jointly invest more than $1.7 billion in two stages of a lithium production project in Argentina. The two companies are looking to start production in Argentina next year under a first phase that Eramet has estimated will represent about $550 million in capital expenditure. The French miner said it is also studying a second phase to triple output as demand for lithium is set to soar with increasing electric vehicle (EV) adoption. The decision for the second phase is expected by the end of 2023. 

The Democratic Republic of Congo overtook Peru in 2022 to become the world’s second biggest copper exporter, as the shift in position highlights important trends such as social unrest and political instability impacting investment in the South American nation, which causes more money to flow into Africa’s rich resources. Peru had sat comfortably as the biggest copper producer and exporter behind neighboring Chile for years thanks to a wave of projects earlier this century that has largely dried up. In recent years, political upheaval and community protests have helped keep the country’s copper exports fairly flat.

Zimbabwe asks lithium miners operating in the country to process the battery metal domestically and could implement a possible tax on exports of lithium concentrate in the future, the country’s mining minister Chitando said on Wednesday. The African nation holds significant amounts of lithium reserves, which Zimbabwe hopes will help spur its ailing economy. Chinese firms including Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt, Sinomine Resource Group, Chengxin Lithium Group and Canmax Technologies have spent more than $1 billion over the past two years to acquire and develop lithium projects in Zimbabwe.

Chinese e-commerce conglomerate Alibaba Group is planning to split into six units and explore fundraising or listing for most of them, it announced on Tuesday, in a major restructuring as Beijing vows to end regulatory crackdown and support private enterprises. The U.S.-listed shares of the company, which have lost nearly 70% of their value since the curbs were imposed in late 2020, rose more than 14%. Alibaba said this would be the biggest revamp in its 24-year history, which would see it split into six units; Cloud Intelligence Group, Taobao Tmall Commerce Group, Local Services Group, Cainiao Smart Logistics Group, Global Digital Commerce Group and Digital Media and Entertainment Group.

Rapid technological advances in artificial intelligence (AI) technology, such as the ChatGPT generative AI app are complicating European Union efforts to implement landmark AI laws. The European Commission first proposed rules nearly two years ago to protect citizens from the potential dangers of the emerging technology, which have taken the world by storm in recent months, raking in massive investment and record consumer popularity.

China has acquired minority stakes with special rights in units of Alibaba Group and Tencent Holdings, suggesting the government extending control over the country’s internet sphere. It’s been five years since Beijing has started to take 1golden shares” in private online media and content companies, and in recent years has ramped up such activities in companies which have massive amount of user data. The stakes taken over the last four months in the Alibaba units are the first ones to come to light for the e-commerce firm. Alibaba has been one of the most prominent targets of China’s two-year-long regulatory crackdown on tech giants.

Chinese fintech giant Ant Group’s founder Ma is set to cede his control of the company as it prepares for a regulatory driven restructuring. Beijing’s regulatory crackdown was triggered soon after its $37 billion initial public offering (IPO) was scratched two years ago. Ant’s IPO, which would have been the world’s largest, was cancelled at the last minute in November 2020, leading to a forced restructuring of the financial technology firm and speculation the Chinese billionaire would have to relinquish control.

India’s largest conglomerate Tata Group has signed an outline deal on Friday on building a lithium-ion cell factory, with an investment of about 130 billion rupees ($1.58 billion), as part of the nation’s efforts to create its own electric vehicle (EV) supply chain. India’s car market is still small compared to the size of its population. Tata Motors currently dominates the country’s EV sales, which made up just 1% of India’s total car sales of about 3.8 million units last year. 

Airbus is nearing a potential record breaking deal to sell 500 A320 family narrow-body passenger jets to India’s largest carrier IndiGo.The European plane maker has emerged as front-runner for an order eclipsing Air India’s historic provisional purchase of 470 jets in February. According to Airbus list prices, such a deal would be worth around $50 billion, but would typically be worth less than half this because of traditional airline industry discounts for bulk deals. Airbus and Boeing are also still competing in separate talks to sell 25 A330neo or Boeing 787 wide-body jets to the same airline.

French President Macron first hosted Yang, the CEO of Taiwanese battery maker ProLogium, in Paris in July last year. 10 months after that meeting the Taiwanese company chose the northern French city of Dunkirk as home of its first European battery plant. Macron and Yang made together the announcement that ProLogium had picked the northern French port, ahead of sites in Germany and the Netherlands for its first EV battery gigafactory outside Taiwan. It is one of four such gigafactories Macron hopes will transform the poor, former coal mining area near Belgium into a hub for the EV battery industry, creating jobs and helping to put France at the forefront of Europe’s energy transition. The fact that France offered generous subsidies to batter manufacturers and a relaxation of EU state aid rules for green energy projects have played a big part in investment decisions. 

Germany, Europe’s largest economy and one of the continent’s staunchest proponents of energy transition, is also home to largest chemicals industry, which produces plastics, paints, acids and other key materials critical for manufacturers and heavy industries that constitute the traditional backbone of the German economy. As most chemical plants are powered by natural gas or coal, as well as crude oil, Germany’s plans to phase out fossil fuels over the coming decades represents a threat for the chemicals industry. One of the biggest challenges for German policymakers in the coming years and decades will be to balance keeping viability of the sector key for the country’s economy while retooling its energy system. 

E-commerce sites operated by China’s Tencent Holdings and Alibaba Group have been added to the U.S. government’s “Notorious markets” list. The list has identified a total of 42 online and 35 physical markets, which were accused of contributing to trademark counterfeiting and copyright piracy. 

Alibaba Group announced reorganization of its Chinese and international e-commerce business and appointed a new CFO. The company has been dealing with China’s regulatory crackdown as well as increasing competition and a slowing economy. The Chinese tech giant will form two new units: international digital commerce and China digital commerce in order to become more agile and accelerate growth. 

China plans to ban companies from going public in foreign stock exchanges through variable interest entities (VIEs). The loophole was long used by Chinese tech companies to attract foreign investors. 

The UK competition regulator, Competition and Markets Authority, is expected to cancel Meta Platforms’ acquisition of online GIF platform Giphy in the next few days.

Two Republican lawmakers; Representative McCaul, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Gallagher, chairman of the House select committee on China, urged the Biden administration to rally U.S. allies, including Japan and South Korea, against China’s “economic aggression” in the wake of Beijing’s ban on purchases of U.S. chipmaker Micron’s memory chips. The two lawmakers sent a letter to U.S. Commerce Secretary Raimondo, calling on the administration to take action after China targeted the biggest U.S. memory chip maker.

Chile’s government expects its new lithium strategy to expand international trade ties and bring in more foreign investment into the country’s lithium industry. President Boric’s administration has been in talks with more than 40 investors from more than a dozen nations interested in investing in the country’s lithium sector, Chile’s deputy prime minister Sanhueza said.

Officials from G7 group of the world’s most developed economies will meet next week to discuss risks posed by generative artificial intelligence (AI) applications such as ChatGPT. The group, which includes the United States, the European Union and Japan, agreed last week to create an intergovernmental forum called the “Hiroshima AI process” to discuss issues around the fast-growing AI tools. First such meeting will be held on May 30 and officials will considers issues such as intellectual property protection, disinformation and how the technology should be governed, Japan’s communications minister Matsumoto said.

The German government on Wednesday passed a draft law to create a framework for a hydrogen core network scheduled to come online by 2032, as Berlin tries to phase out fossil fuels and become carbon-neutral by 2045. Germany sees hydrogen as a key fuel in order to both create a greener economy and reduce reliance on fuel imports, particularly those from Russia, which dropped last year in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.