Trade

This sprawling industrial park south of Nairobi was supposed to be a centerpiece of a Clinton-era U.S.-Africa trade program designed to make "Made in Kenya" almost as familiar as clothing labels from China and Taiwan. Well-known American brands, including wrinkle-free Dockers, Gloria Vanderbilt jeans and Izod polo shirts, roll off sewing assembly lines here before being shipped to Target, Sears and other U.S. retailers.

Airline flights. Phone service. Money transfers. Those are among enticing new or expanded business opportunities seen ahead for U.S. companies with Monday's loosening of the U.S. embargo with Cuba. "This is a big deal; it's a significant change in U.S. policy," said former Ambassador David A. Gross, the U.S. coordinator for international communications and information policy and a partner at law firm Wiley Rein.

Trade at international ports is on track to drop more than 10% this year, one of the steepest declines ever, according to a new maritime industry report. Cargo ships will carry 27 million fewer containers by year's end than they did in 2008 -- a reduction roughly equivalent to all of the cargo containers handled by the five busiest U.S. seaports in a typical year, according to London-based Drewry Shipping Consultants' Container Forecaster Report. "There has never been a decline like this before.

With Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton beginning a tour of Asia this week in Tokyo, Japan's economy is suffering from its worst downturn in 35 years, and its prime minister is hanging by his nails to keep his job. Japan's economy, the second-largest in the world after that of the United States, shrank at an annual rate of 12.7% in the final three months of last year, the government said Monday.

Some of them are said to be big enough to accommodate railroad cars. They may reach a depth of 60 feet, and are reported to be equipped with cables and electric motors that move food, fuel -- and probably some of the heaviest rockets that Hamas aims at Israel. They also are one of the main reasons fighting is continuing in the Gaza Strip.

Tourism has surpassed international trade as Los Angeles County's top industry in a new ranking that reflects the growing effect of hotels, shops and restaurants as job creators in Southern California. "This just goes to show that tourism is not just touring the stars' homes and visiting Disneyland," said economist Jack Kyser, author of the report for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. But the news also has a darker side.

Venezuela took control this weekend of a Chinese-built communications satellite, part of a deepening trade relationship that some say illustrates waning U.S. influence in Latin America. Accompanied by Chinese technicians at a communications facility in western Guarico state, President Hugo Chavez presided at a ceremony in which Venezuela formally assumed operation of the Simon Bolivar, a $400-million satellite that China launched in October.

The slowdown at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach is having a ripple effect on the Alameda Corridor, the 20-mile rail route built to speed the flow of cargo from ships to retail shelves. Reacting to a swift erosion in the corridor's traffic and revenue, Fitch Ratings recently placed about $2 billion worth of Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority bonds on a "rating watch negative."

The World Trade Organization has largely sided with the United States in a dispute with China over product piracy, according to official documents released Monday. The ruling, which confirms an interim decision in October, takes Washington one step closer to being able to seek compensation from China for the billions of dollars that U.S. companies say they lose through piracy each year.

Treasury Secretary-designate Timothy F. Geithner on Thursday accused China of "manipulating" its currency, raising the risk of a new U.S.-China trade row. Geithner's comments helped spark a jump in Treasury bond yields, on fears that a trade dispute could dim China's appetite for Treasury debt -- at a time when U.S. financing needs are skyrocketing as the Obama administration ramps up spending to bail out the economy.