TRADE: "Tyre War" Strains U.S.-China Relations

U.S. President Barack Obama's decision last week to impose tariffs on Chinese tyre imports has sparked a war of words with Beijing, which could lead to retaliatory tariffs and a possible World Trade Organisation (WTO) investigation into U.S. use of emergency tariffs against one of its biggest trading partner.

ECONOMY-US: Obama Presses Reforms Ahead of G20 Meet

U.S. President Barack Obama called Monday for stricter regulation in the financial industries and warned firms that are considering large bonuses for their executives to remember the debt they owe to taxpayers and the federal government for bailing them out last year.

ECONOMY-US: Activists Demand Real Change as Foreclosures Mount

Hundreds of thousands of people in the U.S. continue to lose their homes each month in an ongoing crisis that is wreaking chaos on communities, advocates say.

G20: Moving Up BRIC by BRIC

Every one of these 'G' meetings becomes now an occasion for the developing countries - say the emerging economies - to turn that extra energy into a louder voice in the business of global decision-taking.

G20: More May Be Needed, to Do More

The tests are coming thick and fast. After the G20 summit in Washington last year, the G20 in London in April, and the G8 in L'Aquila that was substantially a G20, the G20 finance ministers are meeting in London this Friday and Saturday ahead of the G20 gathering in Pittsburgh later this month.

TRADE: Will Obama Steer New Course in Delhi and Pittsburgh?

A "mini-ministerial" meeting has been convened by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Delhi to help member countries draft a roadmap to conclude the troubled Doha round and set the stage for the G20 later this month and the WTO ministerial in Geneva in November.

CARIBBEAN: Returning to the IMF, on Their Own Terms

In 1995, then Jamaican Prime Minister PJ Patterson had a few choice words for the International Monetary Fund (IMF). "Goodbye, ta-ta, au revoir," he said.

FINANCE: Congress, Activists Push for Conditions on IMF Funding

Development groups and some U.S. lawmakers are urging the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama to use its power on the governing board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to make the global financial body more transparent, democratic and responsive to the needs of its poorest borrowers.

Q&A: Tax Havens, Bank Secrecy, and Tricks

At a recent conference in Miami organised by Offshore Alert, a specialised media organisation focused on financial crime, IPS correspondent Lucy Komisar sat down with veteran investigator Bob Roach to discuss the hurdles facing regulators trying to crack down on tax havens, which cost the U.S. alone an estimated 100 billion dollars annually.

DEVELOPMENT: China Lends Support to U.N. Finance Summit

China has lent its support to a U.N. finance summit where developing countries are pressing to air their grievances over how the global economic crisis has affected the world’s poorest. Yet, for the largest developing country the crisis remains a debacle with a silver lining - a matchless opportunity to accomplish its dream of regaining the regional and global clout it once held, and fast forward its ambitions.

Q&A: U.N.’s Enormous Potential Being Marginalised

An international conference on the global financial crisis - hosted by the United Nations - is being marginalised by Western countries which have refused to send any of their political leaders to the meeting.

POLITICS: Women’s Groups Seek Gender Equity at U.N. Summit

An international coalition of non-governmental organisations (NGOs), mostly comprised of women’s groups, is calling for a "gender equitable" response to the global financial crisis, which is to be debated at a U.N. summit of world leaders next week.

POLITICS: Developing Countries Fight for Say at U.N. Crisis Meet

The postponement of a major U.N. General Assembly conference to address the global economic crisis and its impact on development is seen by some civil society groups and analysts as a sign of the conflicting interests between the world's richest and poorest countries.

U.S.: NGOs Oppose Nearly 100-Billion-Dollar Pledge to IMF

A broad coalition of civil society groups, as well as some U.S. lawmakers, is fighting what they call a "blank cheque" from the U.S. to expand funding for the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

CARIBBEAN: Govts Seek “Clarity” from IMF, G20

When the G20 countries met in London earlier this year and agreed to pump more money into the coffers of major financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the news was largely greeted with enthusiasm by developing nations, particularly those in the 15-member Caribbean Community (CARICOM) region.

ECONOMY-INDIA: Tax Haven Loot Turns Election Issue*

General elections currently being contested in India have brought an unusual issue to the fore - the repatriation of more than a trillion dollars believed to have been stashed away in Swiss and other tax havens.

ECONOMY: Crisis Pushing Key Poverty Goals Out of Reach

The global economic crisis has created a "development emergency" that will put at least some of the U.N.'s key poverty-reducing 2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) out of reach for many countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, according to a new report released Friday by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

ECONOMY: Struggle to Solve Crisis Moves to IMF, World Bank

Efforts to pull the global economy out of its nosedive enter a new phase this weekend amid warnings the decline is steeper than previously thought and signs the cockpit crew continue to jostle for the joystick.

ECONOMY: Caribbean Bleeding Jobs, With No End in Sight

Earlier this month, the Chinese bauxite mining and processing company Bosai Minerals announced plans to lay off about 20 percent of its nearly 600-member workforce from its mines in southeastern Guyana.

DEVELOPMENT: IMF, Reform Thyself, Groups Say

Ahead of the annual meetings of the world's biggest international financial institutions this weekend, calls are growing for the United Nations to take new initiatives on financing for development in poor countries.

ECONOMY: U.N. Summit Seeks Collective Response to Crisis

The president of the 192-member U.N. General Assembly, Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, dismisses the G20 bloc of economically advanced countries as unrepresentative of the international community.