Category Archives: Global economy

Is Trump tariff deal really a win for Vietnam – or a way of punishing China?

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US exports account for third of Vietnam’s GDP and 40% tariff on so-called transshipments – products with Chinese input – means uncertainty for manufacturers

As news spread that Vietnam would become just the second nation to reach an initial tariff agreement with Washington, shares in the clothing companies and manufacturers that have a large footprint in the country rose with optimism.

Just hours later though, they declined sharply, as it became clear that the devil would be in the detail, and the most striking part of the deal might in fact be aimed at Vietnam’s powerful neighbour China.

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Trump says US to start sending tariff rates letters to trading partners

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Letters to be sent to countries without a deal in place before end of 90-day pause on 9 July

Donald Trump has said the US will start sending letters to trading partners setting out tariff rates that countries will have to pay from the beginning of next month.

The US president told the media that about “10 or 12” letters would be sent out on Friday, with further letters sent out over the “next few days”.

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EU may as well be ‘province of China’ due to reliance on imports, says industrialist

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Stefan Scherer, boss of AMG Lithium, says Europe must become more self-sufficient in critical raw materials and new technologies

The EU may as well “apply to be a province of China” such is its inability to wean itself off that country’s supply of critical raw materials used in everything from electric vehicles to smartphones and wind turbines, a leading German industrialist has said.

As chief executive of AMG Lithium, the EU’s first factory to make the lithium hydroxide used in many car batteries, Stefan Scherer sits at the centre of what has been dubbed a new gold rush.

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White House says Canadian PM ‘caved’ to Trump demand to scrap tech tax

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Trump officials hail U-turn as Mark Carney says decision to rescind digital services tax means revival of trade talks

The United States has said that Canada’s prime minister Mark Carney “caved” to demands from the White House after his government abruptly scrapped their digital services tax on US technology companies, which was set to go into effect on Monday.

“It’s very simple. Prime minister Carney and Canada caved to president [Donald] Trump and the United States of America,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a daily briefing.

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Rising poverty in conflict zones ‘causes a billion people to go hungry’

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In first assessment since pandemic in 2020, World Bank urges other countries to step up support

Extreme poverty is accelerating in 39 countries affected by war and conflict, leaving more than a billion people to go hungry, according to the World Bank.

Civil wars and confrontations between nations, mostly in Africa, have set back economic growth and reduced the incomes of more than a billion people, “driving up extreme poverty faster than anywhere else”, the Washington-based body said.

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EU retaliation against Trump drug tariffs would be bad idea, says industry

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European pharmaceutical body says it would be ‘negative for both sides’ if Brussels hits back on threatened US levies

The European pharmaceutical industry has urged Brussels not to retaliate if Donald Trump brings in threatened tariffs on imported drugs, amid fears he could impose the levies as early as next week.

The US president said last week that the sector-specific tariffs were coming “very soon”. There is concern in Brussels that he could impose them imminently to give himself further leverage ahead of his self-imposed 9 July deadline for trade deals with the EU and about 60 countries.

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High-rise, high expectations: is Casablanca’s finance hub a model for African development?

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Morocco’s commercial centre has brought investment to the continent – but critics say it masks domestic inequality

For centuries, Casablanca was a significant trading hub for merchants from across the breadth of the Atlantic coast, given its geographical position between Africa, the Middle East and Europe.

These days, Morocco’s economic capital is merging those historical roots with a strong modern commercial identity. One such manifestation is the Casablanca Finance City (CFC) district, whose high-rise buildings stand as a symbol of the city’s dream of being a main gateway for international investment into Africa.

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Trump indicates ‘positive’ progress in US-EU trade talks

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Wall Street up in early trading after US president commends bloc for calling to ‘quickly establish meeting dates’

Donald Trump has indicated there has been progress in US trade talks with the EU, helping send share prices rising on Wall Street, after he commended the bloc for calling to “quickly establish meeting dates”.

“I have just been informed that the EU has called to quickly establish meeting dates. This is a positive event, and I hope that they will,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Tuesday, saying the EU would be “very happy and successful” if it agreed a deal.

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Poorest 750 nations face ‘tidal wave’ of debt repayments to China in 2025, study warns

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Vulnerable countries to pay record $22bn this year, mostly relating to loans issued under Xi Jinping’s belt and road initiative

The most vulnerable nations on Earth are facing a “tidal wave” of debt repayments as a Chinese lending boom starts to be called in, a new report has warned.

The analysis, published on Tuesday by Australian foreign policy thinktank the Lowy Institute, said that in 2025 the poorest 75 countries were on the hook for record high debt repayments US$22bn to China. The 75 nations’ debt formed the bulk of the total $35bn calculated by Lowy for 2025.

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EU hopes for quick deal to resolve US trade war after Trump delays 50% tariffs

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European leaders call for ‘lowest possible’ border taxes after levies postponed from 1 June to 9 July

EU leaders have expressed hopes for a quick deal to resolve the trade war with the US after Donald Trump announced he was delaying his threatened 50% tariffs for the bloc until 9 July.

The US president said on Sunday he would pause the border tax due to be imposed on 1 June, which he had announced two days earlier, after what he called a “very nice call” with Ursula von der Leyen.

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EU president secures tariffs delay after talk with Trump

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Enactment of 50% tariffs postponed until July so both sides can ‘reach a good deal’ after pressure from European leaders

Donald Trump has announced that he will pause his threatened 50% tariffs on the European Union until 9 July, after a “very nice call” with EU chief Ursula von der Leyen.

The European Commission president announced in a social media post that she had spoken with Trump and secured the delay to give the two sides more time to negotiate.

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Any trade deal with US must be based on ‘respect not threats’, says EU commissioner

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Maroš Šefčovič’s remarks come after pace of talks prompted Trump to propose 50% tariff on goods from bloc

The European Union’s trade chief has struck a defiant tone after Donald Trump threatened to place a 50% tariff on all goods from the bloc, saying any potential trade deal between Brussels and Washington must be based on “respect not threats”.

The US president made his announcement after voicing frustration with the pace of progress on a trade agreement with the EU. The new rates would come into effect from 1 June.

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World’s seven wealthiest countries agree to counter China’s trade practices

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G7 finance ministers and central bank governors pledge to address ‘economic imbalances’, without naming China

Top finance officials from the world’s seven wealthiest democracies have set aside stark differences on US tariffs and agreed to counter global “economic imbalances”, a swipe at China’s trade practices.

Ahead of the meeting of G7 finance ministers and central bank governors there had been doubt about whether there would be a final communique, given divisions over US tariffs and Washington’s reluctance to refer to Russia’s war on Ukraine as illegal.

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South Africa’s Ramaphosa expected to take golf stars to Trump meeting

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Ernie Els and Retief Goosen reportedly part of delegation as president seeks to reset ties after white ‘genocide’ claims

The South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, is expected to take the golfers Ernie Els and Retief Goosen with him to meet Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Wednesday, as the government attempts to reset relations with the US amid Trump’s accusations that it is fomenting a white “genocide”.

Ramaphosa’s appeal to Trump’s love of golf, with the potential inclusion of Els and Goosen reported by South African local media, is part of his efforts to avoid a public dressing down of the kind Trump gave to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in February.

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Reeves hopes hat-trick of deals shows Britain is open for business

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Impact of agreements on food, energy and defence may not be huge but chancellor believes it will draw investors to UK

Rachel Reeves joked to journalists after Monday’s EU-UK reset that trade deals were coming along “like buses”, given the agreements with India and the US that had also been sealed in the past fortnight alone.

The chancellor described the EU deal as the best that had been secured by any non-member country, but she was also keen to talk about the three successful negotiations as a package.

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China issues warning to UK over terms of US trade deal

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UK accused of aligning with US in move that could compel firms to exclude Chinese products from supply chains

China has warned the UK over its new trade deal with the US, accusing Britain of aligning with the US in a move that could compel British companies to exclude Chinese products from their supply chains.

The UK-US trade deal, signed last week, offers Britain limited relief from US tariffs on car and steel exports, but only if it complies with strict American security requirements. These conditions include scrutinising supply chains and ownership structures – a move widely interpreted as targeting Chinese involvement.

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China cautiously welcomes pause in US tariff war

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State media editorial says talks mark ‘step toward resolving differences’ but Xi again criticises US ‘bullying’

A 90-day pause in the US-China tariff war has been cautiously welcomed in China but tensions remain high, with Xi Jinping again accusing the US of “bullying”.

After two days of talks between officials in Geneva over the weekend, China and the US agreed to substantially lower for the next 90 days the high tariffs each had imposed on the other in a tit-for-tat trade war.

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Trump claims ‘total reset’ in US-China trade relations after tariff talks in Geneva

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US president praises ‘very good’ discussions as top US and Chinese officials meet over trade war triggered by Trump’s tariff blitz

Donald Trump has hailed a “total reset” in US-China trade relations after the first day of talks between top American and Chinese officials in Geneva aimed at defusing a trade war sparked by his tariff rollout.

The US president praised the “very good” discussions and deemed them “a total reset negotiated in a friendly, but constructive, manner”.

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Trump floats cutting Chinese tariffs from 145% to 80% before weekend talks

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Meeting aimed at de-escalating trade war after Chinese exports beat expectations despite slump in trade

Donald Trump has floated cutting tariffs on China from 145% to 80% before a weekend meeting as he looks to de-escalate the trade war.

Top US officials are expected to meet a high-level Chinese delegation this weekend in Switzerland in the first significant talks between the two nations since Trump provoked a trade war with stiff tariffs on imports.

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UK interest rates fall to 4.25% as Bank of England announces a quarter-point cut

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Move follows run of downbeat economic data and looks to cushion UK from Trump’s trade war fallout

Bank of England policymakers have cut interest rates by a quarter point to 4.25% to cushion the UK economy against the impact of Donald Trump’s trade war.

The widely expected move from the Bank’s monetary policy committee (MPC), its fourth cut since last August, should lead to cheaper mortgages for homeowners.

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