EU Targeted by China for Retaliation Over Bank Sanctions
China issued the warning ahead of a summit scheduled with EU leaders later this week in Beijing. The two trading giants had sought to improve commercial ties as a buffer against US President Donald Trumps import duties. But that initial calculus seems to have changed as the EU also seeks to ramp up pressure against entities violating sanctions against Russia.
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Tokyo's Nikkei leads Asian rally after Japan-US trade deal
Tokyo stocks rallied with the yen Wednesday after Japan and the United States finally hammered out a trade deal to slash Donald Trump's tariffs, including those on the crucial car sector. Investors were also cheered by news that Washington had reached agreements with Indonesia and the Philippines, stoking optimism that other countries will achieve deals to avoid the worst of the US president's levies. Despite a lack of deals being made leading up to Trump's self-imposed August 1 cut-off date, equity markets have been on the march in recent weeks on optimism that governments will eventually get over the line. Japan had been one of those yet to sign, despite a string of trips to Washington by trade envoy Ryosei Akazawa, dampening investor sentiment in Tokyo. But Trump said Tuesday that officials had agreed to a "massive" deal that would include a 15 percent tariff on imports from Japan, down from the previously threatened 25 percent. The pact also saw the 25 percent levy on autos -- a major export to the United States -- slashed to 15 percent. "We just completed a massive Deal with Japan, perhaps the largest Deal ever made," Trump announced on his Truth Social platform. "Japan will invest, at my direction, $550 Billion Dollars into the United States, which will receive 90% of the Profits." He did not provide further details on the investment plan, but claimed the deal "will create Hundreds of Thousands of Jobs." Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said that he needed to examine the deal before commenting. Akazawa wrote on X: "Mission accomplished." Traders poured back into the market, pushing the Nikkei up more than two percent thanks to soaring automakers. Tokyo and Mitsubishi rocketed around 12 percent and Nissan jumped more than nine percent. The yen strengthened to 146.20 per dollar -- compared with close to 148 Tuesday. The unit had already enjoyed a recent tick-up after Ishiba vowed to remain in office despite a devastating weekend election loss. Trump also hailed an agreement with Manila that will see the toll on Philippine goods lowered by one percentage point to 19 percent, while tariffs on Indonesia were slashed from 32 percent to 19 percent. Shares in Manila and Jakarta rose. The announcements boosted hopes that other deals could be in the pipeline before next Friday's deadline, though talks with the European Union and South Korea remain elusive for now. Still, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he would meet his Chinese counterparts in Stockholm next week for talks, as a separate mid-August deadline approaches for US levies on Beijing to snap back to steeper levels. Elsewhere in Asia, Hong Kong built on its 2025 surge to hit its highest level since late 2021, while Shanghai, Sydney, Singapore and Taipei were also well up. Seoul was flat and Wellington dipped. The advances came after a broadly positive day on Wall Street where the S&P 500 hit another peak but the Nasdaq snapped a six-day streak of records. Eyes are also on the release of earnings from Google parent Alphabet and other tech giants including Tesla and Intel. - Key figures at around 0200 GMT - Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 2.7 percent at 40,868.01 Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: UP 0.6 percent at 25,287.68 Shanghai - Composite: UP 0.5 percent at 3,599.20 Dollar/yen: DOWN at 146.50 yen from 146.66 yen Tuesday Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1740 from $1.1755 Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3525 from $1.3532 Euro/pound: DOWN at 86.80 pence from 86.84 pence West Texas Intermediate: UP 0.3 percent at $65.52 per barrel Brent North Sea Crude: UP 0.3 percent at $68.79 per barrel New York - Dow: UP 0.4 percent at 44,502.44 (close) London - FTSE 100: UP 0.1 percent at 9,023.81 (close) dan/mtp
Yahoo
9 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump announces 'massive' Japan trade deal including 15% tariff
US President Donald Trump announced Tuesday a "massive" trade deal with Japan, cutting a threatened 25-percent tariff to 15 percent ahead of an August 1 deadline. Trump has vowed to hit dozens of countries with punitive tariffs if they don't strike a deal with the United States by next month. So far, Trump has only announced pacts with Japan, Britain, Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia, while talks continue with other trade partners. "We just completed a massive Deal with Japan, perhaps the largest Deal ever made," Trump said on his Truth Social platform. Trump said that under the deal, "Japan will invest, at my direction, $550 Billion Dollars into the United States, which will receive 90% of the Profits." He did not provide further details on the unusual investment plan, but said the deal "will create Hundreds of Thousands of Jobs." Japanese imports into the United States were already subject to a 10-percent tariff, which would have risen to 25 percent on August 1 without a deal. Duties of 25 percent on Japanese autos -- an industry accounting for eight percent of Japanese jobs -- were also already in place, as well as 50 percent on steel and aluminum. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said on Wednesday in Tokyo that the autos levy was cut to 15 percent. "We are the first (country) in the world to reduce tariffs on automobiles and auto parts, with no limits on volume," he told reporters. "We think it is a great achievement that we were able to get the largest cut (in tariffs) among countries which have trade surpluses with the US," he said. This sent Japanese auto stocks soaring on Wednesday, including Toyota which rocketed more than 12 percent. US-bound shipments of Japanese cars tumbled 26.7 percent in June, stoking fears that Japan could fall into a technical recession. Last year vehicles accounted for around 28 percent of Japan's 21.3 trillion yen ($142 billion) of exports to the world's biggest economy. To Trump's annoyance, US-made cars sell poorly in Japan, with only hundreds sold annually for the likes of General Motors, compared to millions of Toyotas bought by US motorists. The US president also wanted Japan to increase imports of rice, the price of which has soared in recent months in the Asian giant, and of US oil and gas. - Rice imports? - But Trump said Tuesday that Japan has agreed to "open their Country to Trade including Cars and Trucks, Rice and certain other Agricultural Products, and other things." Rice imports are a sensitive issue in Japan, and Ishiba's government -- which lost its upper house majority in elections on Sunday -- had previously ruled out any concessions. Ishiba, whose future is uncertain following the election, said on Wednesday that the deal does not sacrifice Japan's agricultural sector. Trump has been under pressure to wrap up trade pacts after promising a flurry of deals ahead of his August 1 tariff deadline. Earlier on Tuesday, he announced a deal had been reached with the Philippines which would see the country face 19 percent tariffs on its exports. The White House also laid out details of a deal with Indonesia, which would see it ease critical mineral export restrictions and also face a 19 percent tariff, down from a threatened 32 percent. Indonesian goods deemed to have been transshipped to avoid higher duties elsewhere, however, will be tariffed at 40 percent, a US official told reporters Tuesday. After an escalatory tit-for-tat with China, the two major economies agreed to a temporary lowering of tariffs, with another round of negotiations expected next week in Stockholm. Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has imposed a sweeping 10 percent tariff on allies and competitors alike, alongside steeper levels on steel, aluminum and autos. Legal challenges to Trump's non-sectoral tariffs are ongoing. bur-stu/amj
Yahoo
9 minutes ago
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Copper-Laden Ships Race to Reach US Ahead of Trump's 50% Tariffs
(Bloomberg) -- At least four ships carrying copper are trying to reach US ports before August to get ahead of planned import tariffs on the metal. Trump Awards $1.26 Billion Contract to Build Biggest Immigrant Detention Center in US Why the Federal Reserve's Building Renovation Costs $2.5 Billion Salt Lake City Turns Winter Olympic Bid Into Statewide Bond Boom Milan Corruption Probe Casts Shadow Over Property Boom How San Jose's Mayor Is Working to Build an AI Capital The shipments represent the final scramble by merchants to cash in on a lucrative arbitrage trade that has upended the global copper market since US President Donald Trump first floated the idea of copper tariffs. The urgency to secure imports increased in the past two weeks after Trump announced the levy would be 50% starting Aug. 1. Bulk carrier Kiating left Australia's Townsville port last Wednesday carrying 8,000 metric tons of refined cargo and is destined to reach Hawaii by July 30, according to shipping data provider Kpler. The firm can't identify who owns the cargo, but it said two other recent US-bound shipments from the port contained copper from Glencore Plc's Mount Isa Mines. Port data show that the Kiating was originally scheduled to land in New Orleans, but changed its destination to Hawaii after Trump's announcement — cutting its likely voyage time by almost 20 days. Even so, the cargo owner will be in a race against time to register the metal with the local customs office once the vessel arrives. 'It's hard to say how efficient clearance will be in Hawaii, given that it's such an atypical destination for this cargo,' said Ben Ayre, lead dry-bulk shipping analyst at Kpler. In Latin America, three vessels brimming with Chilean copper are also rushing to get to US ports. Cargo ship Louise Auerbach is near Colombia's Buenaventura port and en route for a July 28 arrival at Tampa, Florida, according to data compiled by Bloomberg and people with knowledge of the voyage. The BBC Norway is in Panama and the BBC Campana is anchored off northern Chile's coast, according to the latest shipping data. The vessels are among the last batch of copper cargoes whose owners are betting they can clear US customs just before the tariff bites. For reference, the difference between arriving ahead of the levy and having to pay it would be more than $70 million on a typical bulk carrier cargo of 15,000 tons. The voyage from northern Chile to southern US takes 10 to 15 days. To boost the chances of landing before the tariffs, shippers can attempt to clear customs for the entire cargo at their first US port of call. They can also pay for preferential spots in the lineups, turning what can be days of waiting into just hours. With copper prices surging in the US, traders including Glencore, Mercuria Energy Group, Trafigura Group, Hartree Partners LP and IXM SA have shipped huge volumes to US ports since Trump ordered the Commerce Secretary in February to consider tariffs as part of an probe into the impact of foreign copper on the US. The tariff trade allowed those firms to capture profits that industry veterans say are the biggest they've ever seen. A 50% copper tariff is double what many analysts and traders expected, and prices in New York surged even more after Trump's July 8 tariff announcement, creating even bigger potential profits for traders who can get vessels to America in time. With copper trading at close to $9,900 a ton on the London Metal Exchange, a 50% levy would mean US buyers need to pay a further $4,950 to customs authorities to import copper into the country. Nominally, traders stand to make nearly as much in profit if they can import the metal before the tariffs land in less than two weeks. Traders are still awaiting key details about the tariffs, particularly whether there will be a grace period for cargoes that are already on the water — as there have been when similar levies were imposed on aluminum and steel. US front-month copper futures are now trading at a record premium over LME prices, with gap reaching about $2,750 a ton on Wednesday. That's about 28% above the price in London. The metal fell 0.4% on the LME to $9,853 a ton as of 10:15 a.m. in Shanghai. --With assistance from Thomas Biesheuvel, Alaric Nightingale, Alex Newman and Martin Ritchie. Elon Musk's Empire Is Creaking Under the Strain of Elon Musk Burning Man Is Burning Through Cash A Rebel Army Is Building a Rare-Earth Empire on China's Border Thailand's Changing Cannabis Rules Leave Farmers in a Tough Spot How Starbucks' CEO Plans to Tame the Rush-Hour Free-for-All ©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
