US, EU join hands

WASHINGTON: The US and the EU joined forces on Friday in a bid to ‘convince’ China that it would be in its best interest to abide by the rules of international trade. The China ‘challenge’ was the main focus of the first meeting on Friday of the Transatlantic Economic Council created at the US-EU summit in April. The debate focused on ‘how does it affect our economies, how does it affect our consumers. How to react if and when China does not fully respect the rules, to put it very mildly’. — AFP

Iran, Pak gas contract

TEHRAN: Iran and Pakistan have finalised a contract for a multi-billion-dollar gas export deal scheduled to be signed within a month, the Iranian oil ministry’s news service Shana reported. “The content of the Peace Pipeline contract has been finalised and all the points prepared by the two sides’ legal experts have been re-read and agreed by the two sides,” Iran’s deputy minister in charge of the project, Hojatollah Ganimifard, was quoted as saying. — AFP

MS dispute hearing

SAN FRANCISCO: The US Department of Justice told a judge it sees no reason to extend restrictive antitrust oversight of Microsoft (MS) Corp, countering a move by several states to keep the software giant under close watch for another five years. “There is no basis for the court to order a five-year extension of the final judgments,” the Justice Department said, citing a lack of evidence provided by the states that such oversight is justified. — AP

EU, US to team up

WASHINGTON: Europe and the US must put ‘equitable economic globalisation’ at the core of their relations just as in 1949 they made NATO the bedrock of global security, EU trade chief Peter Mandelson said. The global economy can only safely absorb the spectacular rise of China — which just overtook Germany as the world’s biggest exporter — and other emerging powers, if Europe and the US jointly push for more free trade, good economic governance and fair investment rules. — AP

Growth lures migrants

LONDON: Rapid economic growth in eastern European countries is providing a big attraction to east European workers, who could soon start to return home from the west, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development said. In the longer term, large numbers of Polish workers in particular are highly likely to return home, according to the chief economist Erik Berghof. — The Guardian