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Global trade: G-20 addresses currency tensions

The Group of 20 economic powers concluded a weekend meeting in South Korea with a pledge to refrain from weakening their currencies, but left the specifics for another day, said Christian Oliver and Song Jung-a in the Financial Times. “The exchange rate issue has been pushed to the top of the G-20 agenda by months of wrangling over allegations of currency manipulation” by China and the U.S. China is under pressure to revalue its currency upward, while the U.S. has been criticized for allowing the dollar to plummet in a bid to boost exports. A joint communiqué issued at the meeting’s close included a thinly veiled warning to the U.S. to avoid “excess volatility” in exchange rates.

“China has absolutely nothing to worry about,” said Jim Fink in InvestingDaily.com. Although it was, along with the U.S., the clear target of the G-20’s warnings, the group has no enforcement mechanism to punish countries that keep their currencies artificially low. China knows it has to allow its currency, the renminbi, to appreciate over time to spur domestic consumption, but it’s determined to follow its own timetable. And there’s nothing the G-20 can do to speed it up.

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iPad: Apple’s rivals enter the fray

“A raft of rivals” to Apple’s iPad tablet computer are poised to enter the marketplace, said Shayndi Raice in The Wall Street Journal. Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy Tab will be available in Verizon stores Nov. 11, and BlackBerry maker Research in Motion will follow with its PlayBook in January. Both the Samsung and the RiM tablets feature 7-inch diagonal screens; the iPad’s screen measures 9.7 inches diagonally. Morgan Stanley estimates Apple will sell 30 million iPads worldwide next year, “while non-Apple tablets will skyrocket to 20 million.”

Offshore drilling: BP sells Gulf of Mexico oil fields

Scrambling to raise funds to pay for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, BP has agreed to sell four oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico to Japan’s Marubeni Oil and Gas, said Graeme Wearden in the London Guardian. The four fields together produce about 15,000 barrels a day. BP, which is “more interested in exploring for new prospects in the region” than in exploiting existing wells, will raise $650 million from the sale. It expects to pay up to $30 billion in costs and fines related to the spill.

Tax havens: U.S. drops prosecution of UBS

Having succeeded in “piercing the veil of Swiss bank secrecy,” the Justice Department has dismissed “a landmark criminal case” against Swiss banking giant UBS, said David Voreacos in Bloomberg.com. In February 2009, the Justice Department deferred prosecution against UBS. In return, UBS paid $780 million in fines, admitted fostering tax evasion by Americans, and handed over the names of U.S. account holders. Before charges were dropped last week, UBS had given nearly 5,000 names to U.S. prosecutors, and about 15,000 Americans had confessed to hiding money in secret offshore accounts.

Lawsuits: Drug defects cost Glaxo $750 million

Drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline agreed this week to pay the U.S. government $750 million to settle allegations that it knowingly “sold adulterated and improperly made drugs,” said Pete Williams in MSNBC.com. The settlement follows an investigation of Glaxo’s plant in Cidra, Puerto Rico, which omitted active ingredients from some drugs and mislabeled others. Antidepressant Paxil and skin ointment Bactroban were among the defective products. Former Glaxo manager Cheryl Eckard, who blew the whistle on the flaws, will collect $96 million of the settlement.