1 EU, Canada sign trade deal (BBC) The European
Union and Canada have signed a long-delayed landmark trade deal, following
weeks of uncertainty due to opposition in Belgium. The deal was signed in
Brussels by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and top EU officials.
All 28 EU states approved the deal on Friday when
consensus was reached. The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, known as
Ceta, required all EU member states to endorse it. The deal removes 99% of
tariffs - and officials hope it will generate an increase in trade worth $12bn
(€10.9bn; £9.8bn) a year.
After the agreement was finally signed, Mr Trudeau
said: "Canadians and Europeans share the understanding that in order for
real and meaningful economic growth, we need to create more good, well-paying
jobs for our citizens.
2 Weak pound not a tonic for UK recovery (Phillip
Inman in The Guardian) A tumbling pound is the defibrillator shock that
Britain’s ailing exporters desperately needed to halt their terminal decline.
That’s the message repeated on an almost daily loop by economists for Brexit.
Now that sterling has lost almost a fifth of its value
against the dollar and about 14% against the euro since the referendum, it
follows that the EU referendum vote was the best thing that could happen to the
economy.
Almost overnight, manufacturers have found the price
of their goods abroad have dropped, making them more competitive. They just
need to let the currency work for them, revving up production safe in the
knowledge they can undercut their rivals.
It is a narrow economic argument that uses Germany’s
exporting prowess as a template. With the euro in place, Germany has kept
manufacturing at the heart of its economy, accounting for about 20% of its
national income. The UK manufacturing sector accounts for less than 10%.
Britain needs a sunny postcard from the future now
that the immediate effects of a low pound are making life difficult for
consumers. Import prices are rising and already feeding into shop prices. We’ve
seen the early signs: Apple added £500 to the cost of its latest MacBook Pros
and Unilever’s prices, including for Marmite, leaped by more than 10% at
Morrisons.
The chances of mimicking Germany are slim. Firstly,
there is the currency itself. We have a floating exchange rate against the rest
of the world, which means it goes down in the bad times and up in the good
times. Why would a manufacturing company bet on the currency staying low when a
recovery in the UK’s fortunes will send it back up again?
3 Samsung profit falls 30% (Khaleej Times) Samsung
Electronics has reported an expected 30 percent profit plunge on the back of a
highly damaging recall crisis that hammered the reputation of the world's
largest smartphone maker.
The third quarter earnings were announced just hours
before the start of an annual shareholder meeting which was set to approve the
latest step in a complex generational change of leadership at the family-run
South Korean conglomerate.
Samsung said its operating profit for the
July-September period stood at 5.2 trillion won ($4.6 billion), compared with
7.3 trillion won a year ago. The profit slump was in line with a revised
earning estimate issued by Samsung two weeks earlier after it killed off its
flagship Galaxy Note 7 smartphone due to devices overheating and bursting into
flames.
The Lee family controls the Samsung group companies,
with interests that extend into financial services, hotels, biopharmaceuticals
and fashion, through a complex network of cross ownership. Samsung alone
accounts for around 17 percent of South Korea's GDP and the Note 7 crisis has
impacted the national economy, with the Bank of Korea adjusting its overall
growth forecast.
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