Global stocks sank Wednesday after US President Donald Trump said he was not satisfied with talks that are aimed at averting a trade war with China. Equities were also dented by poor eurozone economic data, and as Trump cast doubt on a planned summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. “Trump (is) continuing to drive uncertainty over global trade,” said analyst Joshua Mahony at trading firm IG. “European markets are following their Asian counterparts lower, as a pessimistic tone from Trump is compounded by downbeat economic data,” he added. Markets had surged Monday after US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He said they had agreed to pull back from imposing threatened tariffs on billions of dollars of goods, and continue talks on a variety of trade issues. However, Trump has declared that he was “not satisfied” with the status of the talks, fuelling worries that the world’s top two economies could still slug out an economically pain...
Accounting for a paltry volume of $9 million out of $2.7 billion agricultural exports recorded by the continent to the United States in 2017, the State Department’s Acting Director for Economic and Regional Affairs, Harry Sullivan has urged non-oil exporters to identify consumer preferences and regulatory standards in their target markets to improve market access. To benefit from the extended trade deal, Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) by the U.S, Sullivan said private sector operators must have a clear understanding of the markets they are targeting. According to him, the American market is a competitive and difficult to break into if an exporter does not understand the consumer niche and requirements. “The main thing is that I think that there’s huge potential in Africa. There’s also huge potential for African businesses in the United States. It’s not easy, but I think businesses that have been able to take advantage successfully of the American market have ...