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Yum Brands Inc. said it’s shopping for a buyer for its Long John Silver’s and A&W All-American Food Restaurants to focus on international expansion.
The company, which also operates Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC, said the chains don’t fit in with its long-term growth strategy, and it doesn’t expect the sale to have a material effect on its ongoing earnings or cash flow. Get the full story »
A group of U.S. senators, on the eve of Chinese President Hu Jintao’s arrival in the United States, said the time has come for U.S. congressional action on China’s currency policies.
Democratic Senator Charles Schumer said Beijing’s currency practices give Chinese companies an unfair trade advantage and have acted like “a boot on the throat” of U.S. economic recovery. Get the full story »
China is allowing U.S. currency traders to have a crack at its tightly controlled currency, the yuan, but analysts say the move will have more impact on international politics than markets.
“It’s a peace offering to the rest of the world,” said Dean Popplewell, chief currency strategist at the Toronto office of the Oanda Corp., a currency trading services company. Get the full story »
China’s yuan currency remains “substantially undervalued” and it is in Beijing’s own interest to let it appreciate more rapidly to ward off inflation risks, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Wednesday. Get the full story »
BYD Co Ltd., a Chinese car and battery maker backed by Warren Buffett, expects to enter the mass U.S. auto market in the first quarter of 2012, starting with its e6 electric car model, its chairman said on Monday. Get the full story »
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has announced that it will set up its first office outside the United States in China in a bid to reduce the amount of dangerous products reaching the American market. Get the full story »
A powerful virus targeting smart phones in China running Google Inc’s Android operating system may represent the most sophisticated bug to target mobile devices to date, security researchers said on Thursday. Get the full story »
A beekeeper stirs honey at an apiary near Wuhan of Hubei Province, China. (China Photos/Getty Images)
Honey companies and importers are launching a program in January to try to stop the flow of illegally sourced honey from coming into the country.
The True Source Honey Initiative is an effort by a handful of producers and importers looking to certify the origin and purity of the honey sold to U.S. consumers in jars and products such as cereals, snacks and glazes. Get the full story »
China has raised fresh international trade concerns after slashing export quotas on rare earths minerals, used in the manufacture of high-tech devices, risking action from the United States at the World Trade Organization.
China, which produces about 97 percent of the global supply of rare earth minerals, cut its export quotas by 35 percent for the first half of 2011 versus a year ago, saying it wanted to preserve ample reserves, but warned against basing its total 2011 export quota on the first half figures. Get the full story »
February marks the start of the year of the rabbit in the Chinese lunar calendar.
It may be an auspicious sign for Playboy Enterprises Inc., which opened a nightclub in Macau last month as it seeks to expand its business by licensing the trademark bunny head logo on lifestyle products in Asia, its fastest growing region.
The company, founded by Hugh Hefner in 1953, also plans to open a Playboy Mansion in 2012 in Macau, a former Portuguese colony on the southern coast of China, and has been busy cutting deals to sell Playboy-branded merchandise across Asia.
Deere & Co., the world’s largest maker of agricultural equipment, will invest $50 million in a new manufacturing plant in China to make construction equipment. Get the full story »
McDonald’s Corp. plans to double the number of its restaurants in China to 2,000 by 2013, a senior executive said on Wednesday as it speeds up expansion in the fastest growing major economy.
The top global fast food chain, which opened its first outlet in the southern boom town of Shenzhen 20 years ago, is facing fierce competition with Yum Brands Inc., the parent of Pizza Hut and KFC, which has roughly 3,700 outlets in China. Get the full story »
The U.S. government on Monday welcomed a World Trade Organization ruling that upheld President Barack Obama’s controversial decision last year to slap duties on Chinese-made tires to protect U.S. workers from a market-disrupting surge in imports.
“This is a major victory for the United States and particularly for American workers and businesses,” U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said in a statement. Get the full story »
Only one in five Americans believe that the U.S. has the world’s strongest economy, while 47 percent believe that China deserves that honor, according to a new poll released Wednesday by Northbrook-based Allstate Corp. and the National Journal.
It’s the first time that the Allstate-National Journal Heartland Monitor Poll has posed the question.
The survey also found that 67 percent of Americans believe that their financial situation will get worse or remain the same in 2011, rather than improve. Get the full story »
