BEIJING — China approved a value-added tax (VAT) law on Wednesday to take effect on Jan. 1, 2026, the official Xinhua said, bringing into one document previous regulations that have included exempting items from the tax.

VAT, the largest tax category in China, accounted for around 38% of national tax revenue in 2023, official data show.

The report did not detail provisions of the law. The latest draft included exemptions for some agricultural products, imported instruments and equipment for scientific research and teaching, some imported goods for the disabled and services provided by welfare institutions such as nursery, kindergarten and nursing institution for the elderly.

To aid specific sectors or businesses, the government could include new items into the scope of tax deductibles.

“With the introduction of the VAT Law, 14 tax categories out of 18 in China have their own laws, covering the majority of tax revenue and marking significant progress of implementing the principle of statutory taxation,” Xinhua said.

The law was passed at the end of a session of China’s top legislature, the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, which began on Saturday.

Last month, China unveiled tax incentives on home and land transactions to support the crisis-hit property market. Residents are exempt from VAT when they sell their homes at least two years after purchase.

In September 2023, the finance ministry said it would extend a VAT refund policy aimed at encouraging domestic and foreign research institutions to purchase Chinese-made equipment until the end of 2027.

China in 2019 cut the VAT rate for manufacturers to 13% from 16%, and to 9% from 10% for the transportation and construction sectors.

With the slowing world’s second-largest economy, VAT revenue in the first 11 months this year dropped 4.7% from the same period last year to 6.1 trillion yuan ($840 billion), as businesses suffered weak domestic demand. For November, VAT revenue rose 1.36%.

“The rebound in VAT reflects improving economic vitality, as sales and business activity recover. It may also indicate a recovery in industrial profits, further supporting economic momentum,” Tommy Xie, head of Asia macro research at OCBC, said in a note on Monday. — Reuters

LONDON — Britain began a consultation on Tuesday to review rules that force automakers to produce more electric vehicles (EV), following industry warnings that the current plan could lead to factory closures and job losses.

The consultation will take views from the industry on changing the so-called Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate, which requires automakers to sell a higher proportion of EVs each year, or pay fines.

Carmakers say lower-than-expected EV demand has forced them to spend billions of pounds on discounts to entice customers and meet sales targets, which have hurt Britain’s appeal as a manufacturing hub.

Last month Vauxhall owner Stellantis said it would shut a van factory in southern England, risking more than 1,000 jobs, partly reflecting the impact of the ZEV mandates.

Britain’s Labour government said it would consult to update the targets without compromising the overall direction of the regulations, which form part of Britain’s wider climate goals.

The consultation will seek views on the restoration of a 2030 deadline to phase out new petrol and diesel car sales and whether vehicles such as hybrid cars can be sold alongside ZEVs.

It will also consider measures to boost consumer demand for electric vehicles.

“We are steadfast in our mission to help our world-leading automotive industry thrive, and this consultation will look at how we can support manufacturers, investors, and the wider industry to reach their targets,” Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said.

The auto industry welcomed the consultation, which runs until Feb. 18.

“With the 2025 market looking under even greater pressure, it is imperative we get an urgent resolution, with a clear intent to adapt the regulation to support delivery, backed by bold incentives to stimulate demand,” Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders Chief Executive Mike Hawes said. — Reuters

IT’S A SIMPLE but brutal equation: The number of people going hungry or otherwise struggling around the world is rising, while the amount of money the world’s wealthiest nations are contributing toward helping them is dropping.

The result: The United Nations (UN) says that, at best, it will be able to raise enough money to help about 60% of the 307 million people it predicts will need humanitarian aid next year. That means at least 117 million people won’t get food or other assistance in 2025.

The UN also will end 2024 having raised about 46% of the $49.6 billion it sought for humanitarian aid across the globe, its own data show. It’s the second year in a row the world body has raised less than half of what it sought. The shortfall has forced humanitarian agencies to make agonizing decisions, such as slashing rations for the hungry and cutting the number of people eligible for aid.

The consequences are being felt in places like Syria, where the World Food Program (WFP), the UN’s main food distributor, used to feed 6 million people. Eyeing its projections for aid donations earlier this year, the WFP cut the number it hoped to help there to about 1 million people, said Rania Dagash-Kamara, the organization’s assistant executive director for partnerships and resource mobilization.

Ms. Dagash-Kamara visited the WFP’s Syria staff in March. “Their line was, ‘We are at this point taking from the hungry to feed the starving,’” she said in an interview.

UN officials see few reasons for optimism at a time of widespread conflict, political unrest and extreme weather, all factors that stoke famine. “We have been forced to scale back appeals to those in most dire need,” Tom Fletcher, UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, told Reuters.

Financial pressures and shifting domestic politics are reshaping some wealthy nations’ decisions about where and how much to give. One of the UN’s largest donors — Germany — already shaved $500 million in funding from 2023 to 2024 as part of general belt-tightening. The country’s cabinet has recommended another $1-billion reduction in humanitarian aid for 2025. A new parliament will decide next year’s spending plan after the federal election in February.

Humanitarian organizations also are watching to see what US President-elect Donald J. Trump proposes after he begins his second term in January.

Trump advisers have not said how he will approach humanitarian aid, but he sought to slash US funding in his first term. And he has hired advisers who say there is room for cuts in foreign aid.

The US plays the leading role in preventing and combating starvation across the world. It provided $64.5 billion in humanitarian aid over the last five years. That was at least 38% of the total such contributions recorded by the UN.

SHARING THE WEALTH
The majority of humanitarian funding comes from just three wealthy donors: the United States, Germany and the European Commission. They provided 58% of the $170 billion recorded by the UN in response to crises from 2020 to 2024.

Three other powers — China, Russia and India — collectively contributed less than 1% of UN-tracked humanitarian funding over the same period, according to a Reuters review of UN contributions data.

The inability to close the funding gap is one of the major reasons the global system for tackling hunger and preventing famine is under enormous strain. The lack of adequate funding — coupled with the logistical hurdles of assessing need and delivering food aid in conflict zones, where many of the worst hunger crises exist — is taxing efforts to get enough aid to the starving. Almost 282 million people in 59 countries and territories were facing high levels of acute food insecurity in 2023. Reuters is documenting the global hunger-relief crisis in a series of reports, including from hard-hit Sudan, Myanmar and Afghanistan.

The failure of major nations to pull their weight in funding for global initiatives has been a persistent Trump complaint. Project 2025, a set of policy proposals drawn up by Trump backers for his second term, calls on humanitarian agencies to work harder to collect more funding from other donors and says this should be a condition for additional US aid.

On the campaign trail, Mr. Trump tried to distance himself from the controversial Project 2025 blueprint. But after winning the election, he chose one of its key architects, Russell Vought, to run the US Office of Management and Budget, a powerful body that helps decide presidential priorities and how to pay for them. For secretary of state, the top US diplomat, he tapped Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who has a record of supporting foreign aid.

Project 2025 makes particular note of conflict — the very factor driving most of today’s worst hunger crises.

“Humanitarian aid is sustaining war economies, creating financial incentives for warring parties to continue fighting, discouraging governments from reforming, and propping up malign regimes,” the blueprint says. It calls for deep cuts in international disaster aid by ending programs in places controlled by “malign actors.”

Billionaire Elon Musk has been tapped by Mr. Trump to co-lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DoGE), a new body that will examine waste in government spending. Mr. Musk said this month on his social media platform, X, that DoGE would look at foreign aid.

The aid cuts Mr. Trump sought in his first term didn’t pass Congress, which controls such spending. Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican and close Trump ally on many issues, will chair the Senate committee that oversees the budget. In 2019, he called “insane” and “short-sighted” a Trump proposal to cut the budget for foreign aid and diplomacy by 23%.

Messrs. Graham, Vought, Rubio and Musk did not respond to questions for this report.

OLYMPICS AND SPACESHIPS
So many people have been hungry in so many places for so long that humanitarian agencies say fatigue has set in among donors. Donors receive appeal after appeal for help, yet have limits on what they can give. This has led to growing frustration with major countries they view as not doing their share to help.

Jan Egeland was UN humanitarian chief from 2003 to 2006 and now heads the Norwegian Refugee Council, a nongovernmental relief group. Mr. Egeland said it is “crazy” that a tiny country like Norway is among the top funders of humanitarian aid. With a 2023 gross national income (GNI) less than 2% the size of America’s, Norway ranked seventh among governments who gave to the UN that year, according to a Reuters review of UN aid data. It provided more than $1 billion.

Two of the five biggest economies — China and India — gave a tiny fraction as much.

China ranked 32^nd among governments in 2023, contributing $11.5 million in humanitarian aid. It has the world’s second-largest GNI.

India ranked 35^th that year, with $6.4 million in humanitarian aid. It has the fifth-largest GNI.

Mr. Egeland noted that China and India each invested far more in the type of initiatives that draw world attention. Beijing spent billions hosting the 2022 Winter Olympics, and India spent $75 million in 2023 to land a spaceship on the moon.

“How come there is not more interest in helping starving children in the rest of the world?” Mr. Egeland said. “These are not developing countries anymore. They are having Olympics… They are having spaceships that many of the other donors never could dream of.” 

Liu Pengyu, spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington, said China has always supported the WFP. He noted that it feeds 1.4 billion people within its own borders. “This in itself is a major contribution to world food security,” he said.

India’s ambassador to the UN and its Ministry of External Affairs did not respond to questions for this report.

To analyze giving patterns, Reuters used data from the UN’s Financial Tracking Service, which records humanitarian aid. The service primarily catalogs money for UN initiatives and relies on voluntary reporting. It doesn’t list aid funneled elsewhere, including an additional $255 million that Saudi Arabia reported giving this year through its own aid organization, the King Salman Humanitarian Aid & Relief Centre.

RESTRICTIONS AND DELAYS
When aid does come, it is sometimes late, and with strings attached, making it hard for humanitarian organizations to respond flexibly to crises.

Aid tends to arrive “when the animals are dead, people are on the move, and children are malnourished,” said Julia Steets, director of the Global Public Policy Institute, a think tank based in Berlin.

Ms. Steets has helped conduct several UN-sponsored evaluations of humanitarian responses. She led one after a drought-driven hunger crisis gripped Ethiopia from 2015 to 2018. The report concluded that while famine was avoided, funding came too late to prevent a huge spike in severe acute malnutrition in children. Research shows that malnutrition can have long-term effects on children, including stunted growth and reduced cognitive abilities.

Further frustrating relief efforts are conditions that powerful donors place on aid. Donors dictate details to humanitarian agencies, down to where food will go. They sometimes limit funding to specific UN entities or nongovernmental organizations. They often require that some money be spent on branding, such as displaying donors’ logos on tents, toilets and backpacks.

Aid workers say such earmarking has forced them to cut rations or aid altogether.

The US has a long-standing practice of placing restrictions on nearly all of its contributions to the World Food Program, one of the largest providers of humanitarian food assistance. More than 99% of US donations to the WFP carried restrictions in each of the last 10 years, according to WFP data reviewed by Reuters.

Asked about the aid conditions, a spokesperson for the US Agency for International Development, which oversees American humanitarian spending, said the agency acts “in accordance with the obligations and standards required by Congress.”

Those standards aim to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of humanitarian aid, the spokesperson said, and aid conditions are meant to maintain “an appropriate measure of oversight to ensure the responsible use of US taxpayer funds.”

Some current and former officials with donor organizations defend their restrictions. They point to theft and corruption that have plagued the global food aid system.

In Ethiopia, as Reuters has detailed, massive amounts of aid from the UN World Food Program were diverted, in part because of the organization’s lax administrative controls. An internal WFP report on Sudan identified a range of problems in the organization’s response to an extreme hunger crisis there, Reuters reported earlier this month, including an inability to react adequately and what the report described as “anti-fraud challenges.”

The UN has a “zero tolerance policy” toward “interferences” that disrupt aid and is working with donors to manage risks, said Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Solving the UN’s broader fundraising challenges will require a change in its business model, said Martin Griffiths, who stepped down as UN humanitarian relief chief in June. “Obviously, what we need to do is to have a different source of funding.”

In 2014, Antonio Guterres, now the UN’s secretary-general and then head of its refugee agency, suggested a major change that would charge UN member states fees to fund humanitarian initiatives. The UN’s budget and peacekeeping missions already are funded by a fee system. Such funding would offer humanitarian agencies more flexibility in responding to need.

The UN explored Mr. Guterres’ idea in 2015. But donor countries preferred the current system, which lets them decide case by case where to send contributions, according to a UN report on the proposal.

Mr. Laerke said the UN is working to diversify its donor base.

“We can’t just rely on the same club of donors, generous as they are and appreciative as we are of them,” Mr. Laerke said. — Reuters