03/21/19

America removed India from its Generalised System of Preferences, which lowers the barriers of entry for trade on certain goods, claiming that India had failed to provide equal access to its markets.

Donald Trump has stepped up his complaints against India's trade practices, notably its stiff tariffs on imports of American motorcycles. Meanwhile, in a blow to Mr Trump, America's trade deficit in goods was $891bn in 2018, a record.

Huawei launched a lawsuit against the American government over its ban on the company's telecoms equipment from official networks. America says that the Chinese firm represents a security threat, which it denies.

In Canada a court heard America's request for the extradition of Meng Wanzhou, Huawei's chief financial officer. Mark Carney said that "constructive developments" had reduced the Bank of England's estimate of the economic damage that would result from a disorderly Brexit.

The bank had previously put the cost to the economy at around 8% of GDP. Mr Carney said that had fallen by about 3.5 percentage points but continued to warn of a "material" shock.

The bank also reported that the potential disruption to cross-border financial services had been mitigated in Britain, but it criticised the EU for a lack of action on its part. Of the thousands of businesses that have spoken to the bank, half are unprepared for a no-deal Brexit.

Of the half that do have plans, 50% claim to be "as prepared as we can be". Lyft filed for an IPO, overtaking Uber, its bigger rival in the ride-hailing business, in the race to float on the stockmarket.

Lyft will probably list in April on the NASDAQ exchange. Uber is expected to launch its IPO later this year. GAP decided to hive off its Old Navy business into a separately listed company.

Old Navy sells a cheaper clothing range than GAP-branded apparel and provides almost half of the GAP company's sales. GAP became big when it cottoned on to the fashion for pastel colours in the 1980s, but it has struggled recently, announcing more store closures.

Days after defeating the government's appeal against its takeover of Time Warner, AT&T undertook a broad restructuring of the business. A newly created WarnerMedia Entertainment will house a string of assets, including HBO.