Washington | Reuters — Trade negotiators from the U.S. and Canada accused each other of sabotaging attempts to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement on Tuesday, even as they and Mexico agreed to extend talks into 2018. A round of talks in Washington that lasted seven days failed to find the most basic common […] Read more
NAFTA negotiators trade barbs, agree on extension
U.S. now seeking end to supply management in NAFTA talks
Arlington, Va. | Reuters — U.S. negotiators at talks to update the North American Free Trade Agreement want Canada to dismantle its system of protections for the dairy and poultry sectors — a move Ottawa will reject, a source briefed on the matter said on Monday. The proposal is the latest in a string of […] Read more
Philippines’ Jollibee eyes deals to grow
Manila/Singapore | Reuters — Filipino billionaire Tony Tan Caktiong, who has built Jollibee Foods Corp. into a near-4,000 store purveyor of sweet-style spaghetti, burgers and fried chicken, is looking to buy existing brands in mature markets to help fuel future growth. Dominant at home, where Jollibee has 1,000 eponymous stores welcoming diners with its smiling […] Read more
Appeals court revives California ban on foie gras
Reuters — A U.S. federal appeals court on Friday revived a California state law banning the sale of foie gras made from force-fed birds. The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a January 2015 lower court ruling striking down the law, saying the judge erred in concluding that the ban conflicted with a federal […] Read more
McDonald’s to start cutting global antibiotic use in chickens
Los Angeles | Reuters — McDonald’s Corp. on Wednesday said that it would begin curbing the use of important human antibiotics in its global chicken supply in 2018, as the fast-food giant joins a broad effort to battle dangerous superbugs. McDonald’s is requiring suppliers of its broiler chickens to begin phasing out the use of […] Read more
New vaccine fights illnesses and improves food safety
Reading Time: < 1 minute A new vaccine that combats salmonella bacteria that make pigs and turkeys sick has been developed. Vaccines generally offer protection from one type of salmonella but can leave animals vulnerable to infections from other pathogen types. It can also leave unaffected “commensal” organisms — organisms animals carry but do not adversely affect their hosts. Commensal […] Read more
Troops to help cull fowl in Philippines’ bird flu battle
Manila | Reuters — The Philippines will deploy hundreds of troops to hasten a cull of about 600,000 fowl, the farm minister said on Wednesday, as part of efforts to rein in the Southeast Asian nation’s first outbreak of bird flu. There has been no case of human transmission after the flu was detected on […] Read more
JBS still seeks U.S. unit IPO
Sao Paulo | Reuters — JBS SA will proceed with plans to list a U.S.-based unit when market conditions allow, as the world’s No. 1 meatpacker wrestles with a shareholder revolt over the role of the controlling Batista family in a massive graft scandal. In a Tuesday conference call to discuss second-quarter results, CEO Wesley […] Read more
JBS misses estimates as financial expenses soar
Sao Paulo | Reuters — JBS SA, the world’s largest meatpacker, on Monday reported second-quarter income that missed estimates as a spike in net financial expenses and its struggling South American operations weighed on results. JBS reported quarterly net income of 309.8 million reais (C$123.6 million), below a consensus estimate of 603 million reais and […] Read more
EU summit sought over major egg contamination scare
Brussels | Reuters –– The European Commissioner in charge of food safety has called for a meeting of ministers and national regulatory agencies to discuss a widespread European contamination scare, which has seen shops remove millions of eggs from sale. Tensions have risen between agricultural ministers in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany after traces of […] Read more
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