“Today’s milestone agreement among the G-7 paves the way for crucial and concerted action to support the world’s low-income countries, ensuring that no country is left behind in the global economic recovery from coronavirus,” British finance minister Rishi Sunak said.
The news was welcomed by IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, who said the G-7 finance ministers’ meeting was “productive.”
Last year, the IMF said it wanted the allocation of SDRs to rise to the equivalent of $500 billion from the $293 billion agreed at the time of the last expansion in 2009, just after the global financial crisis.
That expansion was opposed by President Donald Trump.
Last month, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said she would like an expansion but wanted greater transparency about how the SDRs would be used and traded.
Even if Yellen wins consensus for an SDR allocation that falls below the threshold requiring approval by the U.S. Congress — about $679 billion based on today’s exchange rates — the U.S. domestic politics are tricky.
Congressional Republicans have already complained the move would fail to target the countries in most need of the funds but would provide free cash reserves to China, Iran and other countries seen as adversaries by the Trump administration.
Elanco defends safety of flea and tick collars
Elanco Animal Health said on Friday it was backing the safety of its popular pet collars to repel flea and ticks after a congressional subcommittee asked for the product to be recalled following reports linking it to hundreds of pet deaths.
No market action is warranted and media reports on hundreds of deaths among pets are based on “raw data,” the maker of pet medicines and products said in a statement.
USA Today and Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting this month reported 1,698 related pet deaths linked to the collars since 2012, citing documents by the Environmental Protection Agency.
“Thorough investigation of available data has shown no established link between exposure to the active ingredients in Seresto and pet deaths,” Tony Rumschlag, senior director for technical consultants at Elanco, said.
The EPA did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The chair of the House Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy sent a letter to Elanco on Thursday, asking the company to temporarily recall the collars and issue full customer refunds.
The letter said the committee believed the actual number of deaths and injuries could be much higher since consumers might not know that these events should be reported to the EPA, which needs to register such complaints since the collars contain pesticides.
Elanco said the reported rate of adverse events in the United States was 0.3 percent, based on more than 25 million Seresto collars sold since 2012.
The company acquired Seresto through its deal for Bayer’s animal health business last year.
Walmart has removed rules requiring sellers on its marketplace website to be registered in the United States — an attempt to close the e-commerce gap with Amazon and tap into China’s vast network of manufacturers. This month, the world’s largest retailer began opening up its third-party marketplace to foreign sellers, who no longer need a U.S. address or business tax identification. Walmart is looking to expand its marketplace, where suppliers can offer their products via the company’s website, and the services that branch off it, like fulfillment and advertising. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Johnson & Johnson’s multiple sclerosis treatment, Ponvory, the company’s unit Janssen Pharmaceutical said on Friday. The FDA approved Ponvory as a daily oral drug to treat relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis, a debilitating neurological condition in which the immune system eats away at the protective covering of nerves.
India’s federal government has urged a Delhi court to restrain Facebook’s WhatsApp from implementing a controversial privacy policy, intensifying pressure on the popular messaging service in its biggest market by users. The government alleged that WhatsApp’s proposed policy violates India’s technology laws on several counts.
