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LONDON, United Kingdom — British Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt on Sunday talked down the likelihood of tax cuts in this week's budget, pledging "prudent and responsible" measures "for long term growth".

The Chancellor of the Exchequer had been widely expected to cut taxes in Wednesday's budget, in a move seen as a way of closing the gap on the main opposition Labour Party ahead of elections.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's Conservative Party is trailing in the polls with pollsters predicting that Labour leader Keir Starmer in on track to win the keys to number 10 Downing Street at a general election later this year.

Voters, hit by a cost of living crisis, have repeatedly punished the Conservatives in a string of recent by-elections.

With the Bank of England's main interest rate sitting at a 16-year high of 5.25 per cent, millions of voters are also suffering from soaring mortgage repayments.

"It's going to be a prudent and responsible budget for long term growth," Hunt told Sky News television channel.

Official data last month showed Britain had sunk into recession after the economy shrank in the final two quarters of 2023.

While economists predicted that the recession could be short-lived, the data has been a big setback for Sunak, who has placed economic growth as a key priority.

But Hunt said he would not cut taxes at the expense of future generations.

"I think the most unconservative thing I could do would be to cut taxes by increasing borrowing," he told the BBC.

"Because that's just cutting taxes and saying that future generations have to pick the tax up," he added.

Although he would not be drawn on tax measures expected in the budget, Hunt did announce an £800 million ($1.01 billion) package of technology reforms designed to make public services more efficient and reduce paperwork.

As part of the package, police will use drones to assess incidents such as traffic collisions and artificial intelligence (AI) will be deployed to speed up the results of cancer scans in the state-run National Health Service.

"There is too much waste in the system and we want public servants to get back to doing what matters most: teaching our children, keeping us safe and treating us when we're sick," Hunt said in a statement.

According to The Sunday Times, the Office for Budget Responsibility told Hunt on Wednesday that he has £12.8 billion of headroom to play with -- more than £2 billion less than the figure the Treasury is said to have previously been basing its calculations on.

ABU DHABI — A high-level WTO conference ended Saturday with the extension of an e-commerce moratorium but no deals on agriculture and fisheries, throwing into doubt the effectiveness of the multilateral trade body.

The outcomes of the World Trade Organisation's (WTO's) 13th ministerial conference in Abu Dhabi highlighted the sharp divisions between the body´s 164 members amid geopolitical tensions and economic headwinds that are threatening global commerce.

"The WTO needed a good crisis and perhaps this will lead to a realisation that we cannot continue like this," said a senior European Union official participating in the talks.

"We will have to see how we pick up the pieces," the official said, on the condition of anonymity.

Speaking at the closing press conference, the Emirati chair of the so-called MC13 gathering, Thani Al Zeyoudi, acknowledged the shortcomings.

"Despite our best efforts, we failed to agree on some texts which are of great importance to many of our members," said Al Zeyoudi, who also serves as the UAE's foreign trade minister.

For her part, WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said the talks came up "against an international backdrop marked by greater uncertainty than at any time I can remember".

"We have achieved some important things and we have not managed to complete others," she said.

'Wake-up call' 

The WTO, the only international body dealing with the rules of trade between nations, requires full consensus from all members to chalk up deals.

It was hoping MC13 would replicate the landmark success of its 2022 ministerial in Geneva, which yielded a deal on fisheries and saw members agree to restore a now-defunct dispute settlement system by the end of this year.

But the latest ministerial fell short of that objective.

"The unexpected weakness of the overall [MC13] package should... serve as a wake-up call," the secretary-general of the International Chamber of Commerce, John Denton, said in a statement.

"The quick take is that base domestic politics have trumped effective international cooperation this week in Abu Dhabi."

After a 2022 deal that banned subsidies contributing to illegal, undeclared and unregulated fishing, the WTO was hoping to conclude a second package focusing on subsidies that result in overcapacity and overfishing.

Negotiations in recent months at the WTO headquarters in Geneva had enabled a draft text to be brought forward for a second fisheries deal, which provided flexibility and advantages for developing countries.

But some — notably India — demanded further concessions, including transition periods that others consider to be too long.

At MC13, a new draft fisheries agreement was brought forward but it faced strong objections from New Delhi.

"There was basically just one country that was blocking the deal," said EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis, without specifying which member.

Richard Ouellet of Canada's University of Laval said "consensus, which was once the cement of this organisation, has now become the mud in which it is bogged down."

Emirati sway

With farmer protests sweeping Europe and India, agriculture agreements also emerged as a particularly sensitive topic of debate.

Member states were trying to negotiate a text listing the subjects that merit further discussion.

An agriculture package, however, was hampered by a firm demand by India for permanent rules governing public stockholding of food reserves to replace temporary measures adopted by the WTO.

India's insistence on a permanent solution for public stockholding was "impossible to bridge", Dombrovskis said.

Despite failing on agriculture and fisheries, the WTO managed to salvage a moratorium on customs duties for digital transmissions that was extended for another two years.

The moratorium has been regularly extended since 1998, when WTO members first agreed not to impose customs duties on electronic transmission of digital products.

It faced a particularly strong challenge at MC13, with countries led by India and South Africa arguing that it harms customs revenues.

India's Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said on Friday that he allowed the extension to pass "out of respect" to the conference's Emirati chair, whom he called a "good friend".

On dispute settlement reform, the final outcome mainly reiterated the commitment made at MC12 to have a fully and well-functioning dispute settlement system in place by 2024.

Washington, under former President Donald Trump, brought the system to a grinding halt in 2019 by blocking the appointment of new judges to the WTO's appeals court, the organisation's highest dispute settlement authority.

"We wished for more progress on the question of appeal... but we were not able to move forward as fast as we wanted," Dombrovskis said.

TOKYO — Japan's industrial output last month slumped the most since the COVID-19 pandemic, government data showed on Thursday, adding to the gloom for the world's number four economy after going into recession in late 2023.

Output at factories and mines in January was down 7.5 per cent from the previous month — the largest month-on-month decline since May 2020, when covid brought global economies to a standstill.

"Many will attribute the poor January print to the Noto Peninsula earthquake which struck the northwest of Japan's main island on New Year's Day," said Stefan Angrick, senior economist at Moody's Analytics.

But "business forecasts for January had already turned sour by the end of December when a major Japanese car maker announced it would suspend production at one of its subsidiaries", he said.

Mini-vehicle specialist Daihatsu, a Toyota subsidiary, suspended its domestic production for weeks from late December over an embarrassing rigged safety test scandal.

"Adding to this, a series of attacks in the Red Sea hurt trade along a major shipping route connecting Asia to Europe," Angrick said.

Taro Saito at the NLI Research Institute said the "double effect" of the earthquake and auto scandals meant "production dropped sharply, not only in the auto industry but in a range of sectors".

Japan is spending $1.7 billion on rebuilding areas ravaged by the 7.5-magnitude earthquake on January 1, which killed 241 people and devastated parts of the Ishikawa region.

The January output data could also give the Bank of Japan pause as it navigates a move away from long-standing ultra-loose policies while trying to minimise shock to the economy.

"The poor reading adds to a series of disappointing data releases which will make it hard for the Bank of Japan to dial back monetary easing," Angrick said.

"All up, the outlook for the Japanese economy looks incredibly fragile."

The economy shrank 0.1 per cent quarter-on-quarter in the last three months of 2023 after a contraction of 0.8 per cent in the previous period, meaning that Japan was in technical recession in the second half of last year.

ZURICH — British telecoms giant Vodafone is in advanced talks to sell its Italian unit to Switzerland's Swisscom, agreeing on a preliminary price of 8 billion euros ($8.7 billion), the companies said on Wednesday.

Vodafone, which previously rejected offers from French billionaire Xavier Niel's Iliad group, said it has "engaged extensively with several parties to explore market consolidation in Italy".

But the potential transaction with Swisscom "delivers the best combination of value creation, upfront cash proceeds and transaction certainty for Vodafone shareholders".

The two companies, however, cautioned in separate statements that there was no certainty the transaction will ultimately be agreed.

The acquisition of Vodafone Italy would be on a cash and debt-free basis, the companies said.

Swisscom said it would merge Vodafone Italy with its own Italian unit, Fastweb.

Last month, Vodafone rejected a proposal from Iliad to merge their Italian businesses in a deal valuing Vodafone Italy at 10.45 billion euros.

The British mobile phone operator had already rejected an 11.25-billion-euro approach by Iliad and private equity group Apax Partners in February 2022.

Vodafone reported earlier this month that its third-quarter revenues fell 2.3 percent to 11.4 billion euros on poor performances across Italy and Spain.

In late 2023, Vodafone's chief executive Margherita Della Valle announced the sale of its Spanish division to investment fund Zegona for up to five billion euros.

It followed her decision last year to axe 11,000 jobs, or more than 10 percent of Vodafone's global workforce, to slash costs.

Britain's competition regulator, meanwhile, is investigating Vodafone's plan to merge its British mobile phone operations with those of Three UK, owned by Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison.

BARCELONA — Spanish farmers in the north-eastern Catalonia region hit the roads again on Tuesday to protest about the sector's struggles, blocking motorways with tractors including a busy highway linking Spain with southern France.

Demonstrators on the AP-7 motorway began gathering at Pontos some 40 kilometres from the French border, on Monday evening and started blocking the road shortly after midnight, cutting it off in both directions, protesters said.

They also blocked the A2 motorway linking Madrid and Barcelona as part of a string of protests over what they say is unfair competition from outside the EU.

They say such products "do not have to meet the same criteria" that EU member states are required to apply, and they also want Brussels to reduce the red tape, according to a statement from Unio de Pagesos, one of the farmers' unions behind the protest.

Farmers across Europe have been protesting for weeks over what they say are excessively restrictive environmental rules, competition from cheap imports from outside the European Union and low incomes.

Since the start of February, farmers have been mobilising across Spain.

Catalan farmers flexed their muscles earlier this month when a thousand tractors converged on Barcelona.

Thousands marched through Madrid on Monday following a demonstration five days earlier in which 500 tractors trundled into town.

Brussels was also paralysed by protesters on Monday as some 900 tractors took to the streets of the European quarter where EU ministers were huddled to try to streamline rules and reduce the red tape that is fuelling protests across the bloc.

Furious farmers lobbed eggs, burnt tyres and sprayed manure at riot police who hit back with water cannon and teargas.

Since the start of the protests in Spain, unions and protest organisers have met several times with Agriculture Minister Luis Planas who pledged to ask the EU to simplify its common agricultural policy (CAP).

He also agreed to ask Brussels to ensure mirror clauses — which ensure imports respect EU agricultural rules — are imposed on pesticides, and to improve Spain's agri-foodchain legislation so producers are not forced to sell at a loss.

ABU DHABI — The World Trade Organisation (WTO) pushed for reform at a high-level ministerial meeting in Abu Dhabi on Monday, warning that economic headwinds and geopolitical tensions are threatening global commerce and multilateral trading systems.

The WTO's 13th ministerial conference (MC13), scheduled to run until Thursday in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, is the first in two years.

The WTO is hoping for progress, particularly on fishing, agriculture and electronic commerce.

But big deals are unlikely as the body's rules require full consensus among all 164 member states — a tall order in the current climate.

Speaking on the first day of MC13, WTO Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said that "multilateralism is under attack", highlighting a need to "reform the multilateral trading system" and boost international cooperation.

"Looking around, uncertainty and instability are everywhere," the WTO chief said, adding that the world is in an "even tougher place today" compared to two years ago when WTO trade ministers last met.

Okonjo-Iweala did not name countries, but tensions have risen between the West on one side and Russia and China on the other in recent years.

The war in Gaza and related attacks by Yemeni rebels on ships in the Red Sea have added to the challenges.

Reiterating warnings that signs of "fragmentation" are appearing in the global economy, Okonjo-Iweala said trade volumes for 2023 likely fell below the WTO's October forecast. Trade volumes may also not reach WTO's growth estimates for this year, she added.

"If we fragment, it will be very costly to the world, both developed and developing countries," Okonjo-Iweala said.

"Cooperation and trade is vital. If we didn't have it, it would be very difficult for parts of the world to adjust."

'Need to evolve' 

The WTO chief's push for reform was echoed by UAE Minister of State for Foreign Trade, Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, who said he hoped MC13 would serve as a "launch pad" for necessary reforms.

"The world has changed. And institutions like the WTO need to evolve too," European Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said on Monday, adding that "geopolitical tensions are on the rise. We are faced with crises wherever we look."

During the WTO's last ministerial meeting, held at its Geneva headquarters in June 2022, trade ministers nailed down a historic deal banning fisheries subsidies harmful to marine life and agreed to a temporary patent waiver for COVID-19 vaccines.

They also committed themselves to re-establishing a dispute settlement system that Washington had brought to a grinding halt in 2019 after years of blocking the appointment of new judges to the WTO's appeals court.

"Our challenge this week is to... demonstrate that MC12 wasn't a one-off miracle," Okonjo-Iweala said.

"I have seen the US engage more and I have to say they have been quite constructive," she told a press conference, dismissing claims of an American leadership vacuum.

The WTO faces pressure to eke out progress on reform in Abu Dhabi ahead of the possible re-election later this year of Donald Trump as US president.

During his four years in office from 2017 to 2021, Trump threatened to pull the United States out of the trade body and disrupted its ability to settle disputes.

"There will be the US elections in November... so this is the last chance," a diplomatic source in Geneva told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Reform agenda 

On Monday, US Trade Representative Katherine Tai said "reform is squarely on the agenda for this week".

That includes "dispute settlement reform, where the goal is not just to go back to the way things used to be, but rather to provide confidence that the system is fair", she said in a statement.

But Marcelo Olarreaga, economics professor at the University of Geneva, said the other members of the WTO "cannot expect huge concessions" from the administration of US President Joe Biden in an election year.

While there is doubt over progress at the WTO on key issues, there is hope for advances on a new global agreement on tackling fisheries subsidies.

After striking an agreement in 2022, which banned subsidies contributing to illegal, undeclared and unregulated fishing, the WTO hopes to conclude a second deal, this time focusing on subsidies that fuel overcapacity and overfishing.

"We are within sight of ratifying the fisheries subsidies agreement," Okonjo-Iweala said on Monday.

DOHA — Qatar on Sunday announced new plans to expand output from the world's biggest natural gas field, saying it will boost capacity to 142 million tonnes per year before 2030.

The new North Field expansion, named "North Field West", will add a further 16 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) per year to existing expansion plans, Qatari Energy Minister Saad al-Kaabi said at a press conference.

"Recent studies have shown that the North Field contains huge additional gas quantities estimated at 240 trillion cubic feet, which raises the state of Qatar's gas reserves from 1,760 [trillion] to more than 2,000 trillion cubic feet," said Kaabi, who also heads the state-owned QatarEnergy firm.

These results "will enable us to begin developing a new LNG project from the North Field's western sector with a production capacity of about 16 million tonnes per annum", he said.

This will bring Qatar's production capacity to 142 million tons once "the new expansion is completed before the end of this decade" — a nearly 85 per cent rise from current production levels, Kaabi added.

The QatarEnergy chief said the firm will "immediately commence" with engineering works to ensure the expansion is completed on time.

Qatar is one of the world's top LNG producers alongside the United States, Australia and Russia.

Asian countries led by China, Japan and South Korea have been the main market for Qatari gas, but demand has also grown from European countries since Russia's war on Ukraine threw supplies into doubt.

The latest expansion plans follow a flurry of announcements for longterm Qatari gas supply deals.

Earlier this month, Qatar said it would supply 7.5 million tonnes of LNG per year for 20 years to India's Petronet, with the first deliveries expected from May 2028.

And at the end of January, QatarEnergy announced a deal with US-based Excelerate Energy to supply Bangladesh with 1.5 million tonnes of LNG per year for 15 years.

Last year, Qatar inked LNG deals with China's Sinopec, France's Total, Britain's Shell and Italy's Eni.