The US Treasury is open to removing Russian aluminum producer United Co Rusal from a US sanctions list, US Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin said on Friday, adding that the objective is “not to put Rusal out of business.”
Mnuchin’s comment was the latest sign that the Trump administration is trying to aid sanctions-hit Rusal, the world’s second-largest aluminum producer, which has taken a series of steps to try to appease the US government and get the restrictions lifted.
The US Treasury in April imposed sanctions against billionaire Oleg Deripaska and the eight companies in which he is a large shareholder, including Rusal, in response to what it called “malign activities” by Russia.
However, the sanctions caused havoc in the global aluminum market, prompting several countries and companies to successfully lobby Treasury for a softening of the terms on Rusal.
“The company has approached us on certain delisting issues [from the Specially Designated Nationals List],” Mnuchin said in an interview with Reuters in Sao Paulo ahead of G20 finance meetings in Argentina this weekend.
“I’m not going to go into the exact specifics of what those proposals are and where we stand on them, but, yes, if we can find an acceptable solution, that is our objective,” Mnuchin said.
“Our objective is not to put Rusal out of business,” he added, acknowledging that Rusal is important to the global aluminum market.
Last month Rusal shareholders elected a new board of directors dominated by independent directors and operational managers.
Deripaska and a team of his top managers in May stepped down from Rusal’s board of directors and are currently working on several options to reduce his control over the company.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
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New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last