By Asif Shahzad

ISLAMABAD – Pakistan is likely to get $4 billion from friendly countries this month to bridge a gap in foreign reserves highlighted by the International Monetary Fund, the country’s finance minister said, two days after sealing a deal with the lender.

The IMF has reached a staff level agreement with Pakistan that would pave the way for a disbursement of $1.17 billion. The board is also considering adding $1 billion to a $6 billion programme agreed in 2019.

“As per the IMF, there is a $4 billion gap,” the minister, Miftah Ismail, told a news conference in Islamabad, referring to the shortfall in foreign reserves.

“We will, God willing, fill this gap in the month of July,” he said. “We think that we will get $1.2 billion in deferred oil payment from a friendly country. We think that a foreign country will invest between $1.5 to $2 billion in stocks on a G2G (government-to-government) basis, and another friendly country will perhaps give us gas on deferred payment and another friendly country will make some deposits.”

Depleting reserves, a widening current account deficit and the depreciation of the Pakistani rupee against the U.S. dollar have left the South Asian nation facing a balance of payment crisis.

Without the IMF deal, which should open up other avenues for external finance, Ismail said the country could have headed towards default.

He said the country will also get around $6 billion from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank in FY2022-2023.

Pakistan secured a $6 billion IMF programme in 2019, but less than half of that amount has been disbursed to date.

Pakistan’s central bank has hiked its key interest rate to 15% to curb inflation, which hit 21.3% in June.

(Reporting by Asif Shahzad; Editing by Christina Fincher)

By Tim Hepher

LONDON -A UK judge on Friday rejected an attempt by Airbus to invoke a De Gaulle-era law restricting the way it responds to foreign courts, as a high-profile dispute with Qatar Airways became mired in a growing debate over cross-border legal powers.

Qatar Airways is suing France-based Airbus for $1.4 billion over damage to the painted surface and anti-lightning system on A350 jets, saying safety could be at risk from a design defect. Airbus acknowledges quality flaws but insists the jets are safe.

Now, the two sides must provide each other with thousands of pages of documents as their dispute heads towards a rare London aerospace trial in mid-2023, barring an elusive settlement.

Airbus says it is prevented from directly handing over documents sought by Qatar Airways by a 1968 law that stops French companies from handing over sensitive economic details to foreign courts, without a special mechanism in place.

The planemaker applied to a UK judge for permission to appoint a special commissioner responsible for transmitting the documents to Qatar Airways, something it had already done to assist UK authorities during a bribery investigation.

Airbus said that failing to set up such a conduit would expose the company to criminal charges in France.

“This is not something entirely novel, weird or wacky that we are proposing,” its lawyer Rupert Allen told a division of the High Court in an online hearing on Friday.

Judge David Waksman, however, rejected the request, awarding costs to Qatar Airways.

The 1968 law – widely referred to as the “French blocking statute” – was designed to protect French companies from oppressive foreign court demands especially from the United States, with which Paris was locked in an economic Cold War.

“That in my judgment is a million miles away from what this case is all about,” Judge David Waksman said.

“This is hardly the example of an unwilling, vulnerable French company that has now found itself having to cope with a highly intrusive and oppressive form of discovery,” he said.

JURISDICTION DEBATE

He also criticised the planemaker for slowness over the request for a special disclosure mechanism.

The jurisdictional row coincides with a simmering political debate in the UK over the rights of British and foreign courts following Britain’s exit from the European Union.

Tensions flared again last month when the European Court of Human Rights, which is separate from the EU, blocked Britain’s move to deport some asylum seekers to Rwanda.

At least one of the candidates to replace Boris Johnson as UK prime minister has pledged to withdraw from the court.

Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab, who is not standing in the Conservative leadership race, has said Britain will stay in the ECHR but that it is “legitimate to push back”.

In France, a corruption case that led to a record 3.6 billion euro $3.63 billion) fine against Airbus from Britain, France and the United States in 2020 also fuelled a debate over the extra-territorial reach of U.S. prosecutors against French companies.

Airbus said throughout the four-year investigation that it was co-operating with all domestic and foreign agencies.

Friday’s ruling came after Qatar Airways urged the judge to invoke the authority of English courts, which both sides had chosen to settle any disputes in their jetliner contracts.

“Complying with a foreign law is no defence against non-compliance” with English courts, Qatar’s lawyer Philip Shepherd said.

Airbus said in an emailed statement it had sought to comply with applicable laws rather than limit disclosure. Qatar Airways had no immediate comment on the judgment.

($1 = 0.9915 euros)

(Reporting by Tim HepherEditing by Barbara Lewis and Mark Potter)

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia – Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said on Saturday more investment was needed in fossil fuel and clean energy technologies to meet global demand, and that unrealistic emission policies would lead to unprecedented levels of inflation.

The prince said Saudi Arabia had announced raising its production capacity to 13 million barrels per day by 2027 from a nameplate capacity of 12 million now and “after that the Kingdom will not have any more capability to increase production”.

He was addressing a U.S.-Arab summit in Jeddah attended by President Joe Biden, who is eager to see Saudi Arabia and its OPEC partners pump more oil to help bring down the high cost of gasoline and ease the highest U.S. inflation in four decades.

“Adopting unrealistic policies to reduce emissions by excluding main sources of energy will lead in coming years to unprecedented inflation and an increase in energy prices, and rising unemployment and a worsening of serious social and security problems,” Prince Mohammed said.

The de facto ruler of the world’s top oil exporter said COVID-19 and the “geopolitical situation” necessitated more joint efforts to support the global economy and that the transition to sustainable energy sources required a “realistic and responsible” approach.

The summit gathered Biden with leaders from six Gulf Arab states and Egypt, Jordan and Iraq. Biden held bilateral talks with Saudi leaders on Friday in Jeddah.

U.S. officials have said Biden would discuss energy security with leaders of Gulf oil producers and hopes to see more action by OPEC+ to boost output, but there was unlikely to be any bilateral announcements from the talks.

(Reporting by Ghaida Ghantous and Maha El Dahan; Editing by Mark Potter and Clelia Oziel)

(This July 15 story corrects headline and first paragraph to “in the coming weeks” from “next week”)

(Reuters) – Abbott Laboratories said on Friday it expects to begin releasing EleCare formula in the coming weeks from its recently reopened Sturgis plant, which has been at the center of a baby formula shortage in the United States.

The company had shut down the plant in February and recalled its infant formula, including Similac and EleCare, after reports of bacterial infections in babies who had consumed products made at the facility.

Abbott briefly reopened this plant early last month, but had to shut it down after about two weeks due to thunderstorms and heavy rains.

The company is initially manufacturing EleCare and is working to restart the production of Similac.

EleCare formula is meant for children and babies who cannot tolerate intact protein or may have protein allergies.

Abbott said it is also extending the rebates offered on its products until Sept. 30, in states where the company holds the contract when Similac is unavailable.

(Reporting by Mrinalika Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber and Mark Potter)