Business news with words agricultural+trade. 20 news.

Agricultural futures traded mixed Monday on the Chicago Board of Trade.

For South Texas corn farmer Brian Jones, the lifting of the last agricultural tariffs under NAFTA on Tuesday could make for a more profitable new year.

Soybeans jumped Wednesday on the Chicago Board of Trade, while other agricultural futures also rose.

SICHUAN Changhong Electric Co, China's second-biggest TV maker, has grabbed the lion's share of government-financed home appliance sales in rural areas. China promised to give farmers subsidies, about 13 percent, for buying household electrical appliances, in a bid to stimulate sluggish rural consumption and reduce the rising trade surplus, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Commerce said over the weekend. "We are a major player in the deal and we occupy at least 50 percent shares of the TV sales (in the subsided sales in the rural areas)," Chen Ning, Changhong's vice president, told Shanghai Daily yesterday. Changhong will provide TVs, which costs less than 1,500 yuan (US$202) each, and some mobile phones for the subsidized purchase program. The pilot program will be launched in Shandong, Henan and Sichuan, the three major agricultural provinces, according to Chen. Farmers in the provinces can buy color TV sets, refrigerators and mobile phones with

CHINA is promising to give farmers subsidies for purchasing household electric appliances in a bid to stimulate the sluggish rural consumption and reduce the rising trade surplus. A pilot program will initially be launched in the three major agricultural provinces of Shandong, Henan and Sichuan, where farmers who buy color TV sets, refrigerators and mobile phones can get subsidies worth 13 percent of the prices, the Ministry of Finance said on Saturday. A total of 197 types of the three categories, especially produced for the rural markets, would be available from this month through May next year, and air conditioners and washing machines would be included in the future, Zeng Xiaoan, an official with the ministry, said. So far, the government has signed cooperative deals with 15 household appliance makers and 21 dealers. "The move is meant to give farmers more benefits and divert more government expenditure into the consumer sector from fixed asset investment and

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Financial exchanges will be closing early on Monday in anticipation of the Christmas holiday. The New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq capital and global markets and the American Stock Exchange will all close at 1 p.m. At the New York Mercantile Exchange, the Comex division will observe an early close at 12:30 p.m., with the Nymex to call it a day as of 1:30 p.m. Electronic markets will be open until 5:15 p.m., and there will be no overnight session, Nymex said. Electronic markets will resume trading at 6 p.m. for the Dec. 26 trade date, according to Nymex. At the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, floor trading in foreign exchange, interest rates, weather options and real-estate options is scheduled to pack it in at noon, with CME commodity options ending at 12:02 and CME equity indexes closing at 12:15 p.m. CME Globex trading will follow a similar schedule and remain closed until 5 p.m. on Christmas, Dec. 25, the exchange said. And at the Chicago Board of Trade, there will be phased early closings in the agricultural, financial and equity pits starting at noon, with electronic trading due to end soon thereafter. Dow-AIG and metals trading will observe normal CBOT hours on Monday. The CBOT said electronic trading will resume starting at 6 a.m. on Dec. 26.

CHINA is promising to give farmers subsidies for purchasing household electric appliances in a bid to stimulate the sluggish rural consumption and reduce the rising trade surplus. A pilot program will initially be launched in the three major agricultural provinces of Shandong, Henan and Sichuan, where farmers who buy color TV sets, refrigerators and mobile phones can get subsidies worth 13 percent of the prices, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. A total of 197 types of the three categories, especially produced for the rural markets, would be available from December 2007 through May next year and air conditioners and washing machines would be included in the future, Zeng Xiaoan, an official with the ministry, said. So far, the government has signed cooperative agreements with 15 household appliance makers, including Haier, Hisense and Changhong, and 21 dealers. "The move is meant to give farmers more benefits and divert more government expenditure into the

Corn and soybean prices advanced Friday on the Chicago Board of Trade.

Legitimate importers, who pay high import duties, face stiff competition from this illegal grey market, even though smuggling is gradually diminishing with trade liberalisation and declining tariffs, according to the report issued by the USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service.

THE African Union called on its 53 member nations to resist pressure from the European Union to swiftly sign trade accords that would oblige them to open up their markets to a wider range of goods and services. "Speeding up these negotiations will bring no benefits," Alpha Oumar Konare, chairman of the African Union commission, said at the EU-Africa summit in Lisbon on Saturday, adding that a hasty deal might come at "a tremendous cost to rural African populations and to African industry.'' "We need to take the necessary time to conclude fair agreements, he said. "There are so many questions that need replies." Bloomberg News reported a series of preferential trade agreements between the 27-nation EU and 78 African, Caribbean and Pacific countries is due to expire at the end of the year. The EU is pressing for the adoption of new economic partnership agreements, which are often referred to as EPAs and cover trade in agricultural and industrial

Futures for agricultural products rallied sharply Friday on the Chicago Board of Trade.

Agricultural futures finished in a mixed range Monday on the Chicago Board of Trade.

Futures for agricultural products mostly rose Monday on the Chicago Board of Trade.

Agricultural futures finished mostly lower Monday on on the Chicago Board of Trade.

Agricultural futures traded narrowly mixed Monday on the Chicago Board of Trade.

CME Group Inc. is keeping a close eye on its onetime rival. After acquiring the Chicago Board of Trade for about $12 billion in July, CME is getting ready to install, for the first time, a set of cameras on the agricultural trading floor. The cameras, designed to help CME's market regulation ...

The European Union and South Korea are this week expected to clash over tariff reductions on cars and the liberalisation of agricultural imports when they hold bilateral trade talks

CHEN Shuling was among the "green" entrepreneurs who are cashing in on the business opportunities at the ongoing Fifth China Agricultural Trade Fair. "We've signed letters of intent for sales with more than 30 purchasers," said the sales manager of Jizhou Green Food Co Ltd, based in north China's port city of Tianjin. "A lot of visitors bought 'green' food products at our exhibition stand despite the much higher prices. This impresses me very much," she said on Saturday, the first day of the four-day fair in Jinan, capital of east China's Shandong Province. The trade fair attracted more than 1,600 food companies from home and abroad and 300 international purchasers. Many of the food sellers promoted the safety of their products. "For example, our apples are pesticide free," Chen said. "They sell well although their price is more than twice that of common apples." Jizhou Green Food Co Ltd is only one of the companies that have

Swiss cheese offers a surprising model for European agricultural reform AMONG European reactionaries, on left and right, it is a cherished tenet that globalisation is the enemy of decent cheese. Not for nothing was the slogan "McDonald's out, let's keep the Roquefort" chanted when Jose Bove, a media-savvy French farmer, achieved worldwide fame for "dismantling" a half-built branch of the hamburger chain in 1999. Local traditions, small-scale production by hand, the use of tasty raw milk: all these good things are said to be at threat from the homogenising, cost-cutting impulses of global capitalism. So it is striking to discover that Switzerland, home not just of serious cheese, but also of one of the world's most protected farm sectors (worse even than the European Union) is taking a big bet that the future of Gruyere and Emmental is best secured by embracing international competition. Unnoticed by the wider world, this summer saw the near-total liberalisation of Swiss-EU cheese trade. This ended years of import barriers that doubled the cost of some EU cheese on Swiss shelves, as well as export subsidies that dumped half-priced Emmental in places like Italy (thus, in a final lunacy, luring thrifty Swiss housewives to cross the border to buy their cheese).

Talks on agricultural trade are set resume Monday in the latest session of the Doha round of world trade negotiations.