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Yahoo
10 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Both sides can claim victory in US-EU tariff deal, but devil may be in detail
After weeks of tense negotiations between their top trade officials, the EU and US have finally struck a deal - and it comes on the eve of America's latest round of tariff talks with China. Ultimately it took leaders from Washington and Brussels to sit down face to face to reach Sunday's agreement. That's something we've also seen with the other deals that President Donald Trump has struck - his personal involvement is what has pushed them over the line – even when the prospects of a breakthrough did not seem bright. This matters to both sides because so many businesses and jobs depend on what the EU calls "the world's largest bilateral trade and investment relationship". Both President Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen can paint this as something of a victory. For the EU, the tariffs could have been worse at 15%, rather than the 30% that had been threatened – although it's not as good as the UK's 10% rate. For the US that equates to the expectation of roughly $90bn (£67bn) of tariff revenue for government coffers – based on last year's trade figures - plus there's $600bn of investment now due to come into the country. A lot of other big numbers have been thrown around in terms of how much the EU will invest in the US, but the devil will be in the detail. Questions like exactly when those investments will be made, and in what areas, are for now, unanswered. This deal is being sold as a landmark moment in relations between the US and the EU. It has not been easy getting to this point. Washington and the 27-nation bloc have both played hardball and neither was ready to give in easily, which is why these talks went down to the wire. But neither side wanted these negotiations to drag on beyond the 1 August deadline. For years, the US president has railed against what he regards as Europe's unfair trade practices. The first part of that is the deficit. Last year that meant the US bought $236bn of goods more from the EU than it sold to the bloc. Trump takes the somewhat simplified view that this is American wealth needlessly leaving the country. The reality is that international trade is a more complex affair. The other complaint has been that the EU's strict regulations on everything from cars to chickens make it harder for American companies to sell their products in the EU than the other way round. When we get more details of this deal, we may know how much has been done to address that. But European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen seemed to acknowledge the need to tackle the deficit. In announcing the agreement, she said: "We have to rebalance it. We have an excellent trade relation. "It's a huge volume of trade that we have together. So we will make it more sustainable." This deal shows how serious President Trump is about renegotiating how the US, the world's biggest economy, does business with everyone else. Given the EU consists of 27 very different countries, it has seemed one of the trickier trade agreements to pull off. It comes days after the US struck another major agreement with Japan - there have also been deals with the UK, Vietnam and Indonesia. The other big ones still on the table are with the three biggest US trade partners - Mexico, Canada and China. And with the US president in a deal-making mood, there could be more positive news for the global economy over the next 48 hours. For the third time in as many months, the US and China are holding their next trade talks in Stockholm, Sweden, on Monday and Tuesday There is some expectation that higher tariffs could be suspended for another 90 days. A few days ago Trump said the US was "getting along with China very well" and implied that the major sticking point of rare earth metals exports had been overcome. With the broad outlines of an EU agreement in the hold, Washington's trade negotiators have the wind in their sails going into talks with Beijing. But China has so far taken a more uncompromising approach than other US trade partners. And if talks between the world's two biggest economies falter, global trade could still be heading for choppy waters in the months ahead. EU and US agree trade deal, with 15% tariffs for European exports to America Trump says US may not reach trade deal with Canada Philippines goods to face 19% tariff, Trump says
Yahoo
10 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Boeing's fighter jet workers in the St. Louis area reject a contract offer
Boeing Co. expects more than 3,200 union workers at three St. Louis-area plants that produce U.S. fighter jets to strike after they rejected a proposed contract Sunday that included a 20% wage increase over four years. The International Machinists and Aerospace Workers union said the vote by District 837 members was overwhelmingly against the proposed contract. The existing contract was to expire at 11:59 p.m. Central time Sunday, but the union said a 'cooling off' period would keep a strike from beginning for another week, until Aug. 4. Union leaders had recommended approving the offer, calling it a 'landmark' agreement when it was announced last week. Organizers said then that the offer would improve medical, pension and overtime benefits in addition to pay. The vote came two days before Boeing planned to announce its second quarter earnings, after saying earlier this month that it had delivered 150 commercial airliners and 36 military aircraft and helicopters during the quarter, up from 130 and 26 during the first quarter. Its stock closed Friday at $233.06 a share, up $1.79. The union did not say specifically why members rejected the contract, only that it 'fell short of addressing the priorities and sacrifices' of the union's workers. Last fall, Boeing offered a general wage increase of 38% over four years to end a 53-day strike by 33,000 aircraft workers producing passenger aircraft. 'Our members are standing together to demand a contract that respects their work and ensures a secure future,' the union said in a statement. Dan Gillan, general manager and senior Boeing executive in St. Louis, said in a statement that the company is 'focused on preparing for a strike.' He described the proposal as 'the richest contract offer' ever presented to the St. Louis union. 'No talks are scheduled with the union,' said Gillan, who is also vice president for Boeing Air Dominance, the division for the production of several military jets, including the U.S. Navy's Super Hornet, as well as the Air Force's Red Hawk training aircraft. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Boston Globe
11 minutes ago
- Boston Globe
Faith leaders hope bill will stop the loss of thousands of clergy from abroad serving US communities
Faith leaders say even a narrow fix will be enough to prevent damaging losses to congregations and to start planning for the future again. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'Unless there is a change to current practice, our community is slowly being strangled,' said the Rev. Aaron Wessman, vicar general and director of formation for the Glenmary Home Missioners, a small Catholic order ministering in rural America. Advertisement 'I will weep with joy if this legislation passes,' he said. 'It means the world for our members who are living in the middle of uncertainty and for the people they'll be able to help.' Two thirds of Glenmary's priests and brothers under 50 years old are foreign-born — mostly from Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, and Uganda — and they are affected by the current immigration snag, Wessman added. So are thousands of others who serve the variety of faiths present in the United States, from Islam to Hinduism to evangelical Christianity, providing both pastoral care and social services. Advertisement No exact numbers exist, but it is estimated that there are thousands of religious workers who are now backlogged in the green card system and/or haven't been able to apply yet. Congregations bring to the United States religious workers under temporary visas called R-1, which allow them to work for up to five years. That used to be enough time for the congregations to petition for green cards under a special category called EB-4, which would allow the clergy to become permanent residents. Congress sets a quota of green cards available per year divided in categories, almost all based on types of employment or family relationships to US citizens. In most categories, the demand exceeds the annual quota. Citizens of countries with especially high demand get put in separate, often longer 'lines' — for several years, the most backlogged category has been that of married Mexican children of US citizens, where only applications filed more than 24 years ago are being processed. Also in a separate line were migrant children with 'Special Immigrant Juvenile Status' — neglected or abused minors — In March 2023, the State Department suddenly started adding the minors to the general green card queue with the clergy. That has created such a bottleneck that in April, only halfway through the current fiscal year, those green cards became unavailable. Advertisement And when they will become available in the new fiscal year starting in October, they are likely to be stuck in the six-year backlog they faced earlier this year — meaning religious workers with a pending application won't get their green cards before their five-year visas expire and they must leave the country. In a report released Thursday, US Citizenship and Immigration Services blamed the EB-4 backlogs on the surge in applications by minors from Central America, and said the agency found widespread fraud in that program. The Senate and House bills would allow the Department of Homeland Security to extend religious workers' visas as long as their green card application is pending. They would also prevent small job changes — such as moving up from associate to senior pastor, or being assigned to another parish in the same diocese — from invalidating the pending application. 'Even as immigration issues are controversial and sometimes they run afoul of partisan politics, we think this fix is narrow enough, and the stakeholder group we have is significant enough, that we're hoping we can get this done,' said Democratic Two of the last three priests there were foreign-born, he said, and earlier this month he was approached by a sister with the Comboni missionaries worried about her expiring visa. Kaine's two Republican cosponsors, Senators 'It adds to their quality of life. And there's no reason they shouldn't have the ability to have this,' Risch said. 'Religious beliefs spread way beyond borders, and it is helpful to have these people who … want to come here and want to associate with Americans of the same faith. And so anything we can do to make that easier, is what we want to do.' Advertisement Republican Representative Mike Carey of Ohio, with Republican and Democratic colleagues, introduced an identical bill in the House. Both bills are still in the respective judiciary committees. 'To be frank, I don't know what objections people could have,' said Lance Conklin, adding that the bill doesn't require more green cards, just a time extension on existing visas. Conklin cochairs the religious workers group of the American Immigration Lawyers Association and often represents evangelical pastors. Faith denominations from Buddhism to Judaism recruit foreign-born clergy who can minister to growing non-English-speaking congregations and often were educated at foreign institutions steeped in a religion's history. For many, it is also a necessity because of clergy shortages. The number of Catholic priests in the United States has declined by more than 40 percent since 1970, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, a research center affiliated with Georgetown University. Some dioceses, however, are experiencing Last summer, the Diocese of Paterson — serving 400,000 Catholics and 107 parishes in three New Jersey counties — and five of its affected priests sued the Department of State, Department of Homeland Security and the US Citizenship and Immigration Services. Advertisement Expecting some action on the legislative front, the parties agreed to stay the lawsuit, said Raymond Lahoud, the diocese's attorney. But because the bills weren't included in the nearly-900-page 'We just can't wait anymore,' he said.
