U.S. Secretary of State Rubio meets Chinese Foreign Minister Wang at ASEAN
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Friday that he had 'positive and constructive' talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, amid tensions over tariffs and trade.
Rubio was in Malaysia on his first Asia trip since taking office, looking to stress U.S. commitment to the region at the East Asia Summit and ASEAN Regional Forum, as countries received notices of U.S. tariffs announced by U.S. President Donald Trump this week.
At a Thursday photo-op before the start of the U.S, Japan, Philippines trilateral meeting, Rubio learned the summit's signature 'ASEAN-way' handshake.
'How do we do that?' Rubio asked.
'The ASEAN-way' replied Philippines' Foreign Secretary Theresa Lazaro.
Japan's Prime Minister Takeshi Iwaya then grabbed Rubio's hands and crossed them, with the three standing and smiling with the traditional cross-armed handshake for cameras.
Rubio also met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov where they discussed the Russia-Ukraine war.
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The Hill
23 minutes ago
- The Hill
US-EU trade deal wards off further escalation but will raise costs for companies, consumers
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen have announced a sweeping trade deal that imposes 15% tariffs on most European goods, warding off Trump's threat of a 30% rate if no deal had been reached by Aug. 1. The tariffs, or import taxes, paid when Americans buy European products could raise prices for U.S. consumers and dent profits for European companies and their partners who bring goods into the country. Here are some things to know about the trade deal between the United States and the European Union: What's in the agreement? Trump and von der Leyen's announcement, made during Trump's visit to one of his golf courses in Scotland, leaves many details to be filled in. The headline figure is a 15% tariff rate on 'the vast majority' of European goods brought into the U.S., including cars, computer chips and pharmaceuticals. It's lower than the 20% Trump initially proposed, and lower than his threats of 50% and then 30%. Von der Leyen said the two sides agreed on zero tariffs on both sides for a range of 'strategic' goods: Aircraft and aircraft parts, certain chemicals, semiconductor equipment, certain agricultural products, and some natural resources and critical raw materials. Specifics were lacking. She said the two sides 'would keep working' to add more products to the list. Additionally, the EU side would purchase what Trump said was $750 billion (638 billion euros) worth of natural gas, oil and nuclear fuel to replace Russian energy supplies, and Europeans would invest an additional $600 billion (511 billion euros) in the U.S. What's not in the deal? Trump said the 50% U.S. tariff on imported steel would remain; von der Leyen said the two sides agreed to further negotiations to fight a global steel glut, reduce tariffs and establish import quotas — that is, set amounts that can be imported, often at a lower rate. Trump said pharmaceuticals were not included in the deal. Von der Leyen said the pharmaceuticals issue was 'on a separate sheet of paper' from Sunday's deal. Where the $600 billion for additional investment would come from was not specified. And von der Leyen said that when it came to farm products, the EU side made clear that 'there were tariffs that could not be lowered,' without specifying which products. What's the impact? The 15% rate removes Trump's threat of a 30% tariff. It's still much higher than the average tariff before Trump came into office of around 1%, and higher than Trump's minimum 10% baseline tariff. Higher tariffs, or import taxes, on European goods mean sellers in the U.S. would have to either increase prices for consumers — risking loss of market share — or swallow the added cost in terms of lower profits. The higher tariffs are expected to hurt export earnings for European firms and slow the economy. The 10% baseline applied while the deal was negotiated was already sufficiently high to make the European Union's executive commission cut its growth forecast for this year from 1.3% to 0.9%. Von der Leyen said the 15% rate was 'the best we could do' and credited the deal with maintaining access to the U.S. market and providing 'stability and predictability for companies on both sides.' What is some of the reaction to the deal? German Chancellor Friedrich Merz welcomed the deal which avoided 'an unnecessary escalation in transatlantic trade relations' and said that 'we were able to preserve our core interests,' while adding that 'I would have very much wished for further relief in transatlantic trade.' The Federation of German Industries was blunter. 'Even a 15% tariff rate will have immense negative effects on export-oriented German industry,' said Wolfgang Niedermark, a member of the federation's leadership. While the rate is lower than threatened, 'the big caveat to today's deal is that there is nothing on paper, yet,' said Carsten Brzeski, global chief of macro at ING bank. 'With this disclaimer in mind and at face value, today's agreement would clearly bring an end to the uncertainty of recent months. An escalation of the US-EU trade tensions would have been a severe risk for the global economy,' Brzeski said. 'This risk seems to have been avoided.' What about car companies? Asked if European carmakers could still sell cars at 15%, von der Leyen said the rate was much lower than the current 27.5%. That has been the rate under Trump's 25% tariff on cars from all countries, plus the preexisting U.S. car tariff of 2.5%. The impact is likely to be substantial on some companies, given that automaker Volkswagen said it suffered a 1.3 billion euro ($1.5 billion) hit to profit in the first half of the year from the higher tariffs. Mercedes-Benz dealers in the U.S. have said they are holding the line on 2025 model year prices 'until further notice.' The German automaker has a partial tariff shield because it makes 35% of the Mercedes-Benz vehicles sold in the U.S. in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, but the company said it expects prices to undergo 'significant increases' in coming years. What were the issues dividing the two sides? Before Trump returned to office, the U.S. and the EU maintained generally low tariff levels in what is the largest bilateral trading relationship in the world, with some 1.7 trillion euros ($2 trillion) in annual trade. Together the U.S. and the EU have 44% of the global economy. The U.S. rate averaged 1.47% for European goods, while the EU's averaged 1.35% for American products, according to the Bruegel think tank in Brussels. Trump has complained about the EU's 198 billion-euro trade surplus in goods, which shows Americans buy more from European businesses than the other way around, and has said the European market is not open enough for U.S.-made cars. However, American companies fill some of the trade gap by outselling the EU when it comes to services such as cloud computing, travel bookings, and legal and financial services. And some 30% of European imports are from American-owned companies, according to the European Central Bank.
Axios
an hour ago
- Axios
EU trade deal with Trump helps Europe ditch Russian fuels
The new trade deal that President Trump unveiled with the European Union includes a European pledge to buy $750 billion worth of U.S. energy. Why it matters: European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said it will help the bloc further wean itself off Russian gas. The $750 billion is spread across three years, she told reporters in Scotland on Sunday. The big picture:"We still have too much Russian LNG that is coming through the back door ... to our European Union," von der Leyen said, and also cited some continued oil shipments. "We want to absolutely get rid of Russian fossil fuels, and therefore it is much welcome to purchase the more affordable and better LNG from the United States," she said. EU pipeline imports of gas from Russia, once its dominant supplier, have fallen greatly. But imports of Russian LNG remain substantial. What we're watching: EU members' purchases of U.S. LNG and oil have risen sharply since Russia invaded Ukraine. And European energy companies have already been signing deals for future LNG volumes from U.S. projects that are planned or already under construction. The bottom line: Details are lacking. The big question is how much this increases purchases that would have occurred anyway. ClearView Energy Partners, in a note, said that even if the $250B annually includes existing U.S. energy exports to the EU of roughly $78B per year, it would still be a big jump. The total "would far outstrip" U.S. energy purchases in Trump's "phase one" deal with China, ClearView said.
New York Post
an hour ago
- New York Post
CIA director teases more files on alleged Russiagate links to Hillary: ‘Finally coming to light'
CIA Director John Ratcliffe on Sunday teased plans to publicly disclose additional files that allegedly help tie Hillary Clinton to the false claims of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Ratcliffe specifically hinted at 'underlying intelligence' referenced in the annex of the Durham report, which scrutinized probes into the Clinton vs. President Trump match-up and is currently undergoing a declassification process. 'What hasn't come out yet and what's going to come out is the underlying intelligence,' Ratcliffe told Fox News' Maria Bartiromo on 'Sunday Morning Futures,' referring to Russiagate. 4 CIA Director John Ratcliffe claims that the 'good guys' are in charge now. AP 'And what that intelligence shows, Maria, is that part of this was a Hillary Clinton plan, but part of it was an FBI plan to be an accelerant to that fake Steele dossier, to those fake Russia collusion claims by pouring oil on the fire, by amplifying the lie and bearing the truth of what Hillary Clinton was up to.' During the 2016 election cycle, an opposition-research file against then-candidate Trump and compiled by ex-MI6 spy Christopher Steele was circulated within the intelligence community. 4 Hillary Clinton's campaign helped pay for the development of the Steele dossier. The Washington Free Beacon, Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee ultimately ended up paying for the research Steele conducted into Trump during the 2016 cycle. The largely debunked Steele dossier was reviewed by investigators in the FBI's Crossfire Hurricane probe into Russia's meddling in the 2016 election. Former Special Counsel John Durham, who was appointed by the first Trump administration, investigated the FBI probe and criticized the bureau's handling of the inquiry in a report released in 2023. The unclassified portion of his report is public. 'In the summer of 2016, U.S. intelligence intercepted Russian intelligence talking about a Hillary Clinton plan, a Hillary Clinton plan to falsely accuse Donald Trump of Russia collusion, to vilify him and smear him with what would become known infamously as the — as the Steele dossier,' Ratcliffe recapped. The CIA boss said he combed through predecessor John Brennan's handwritten notes on the matter to discover the 'underlying intelligence behind it that revealed exactly what happened. 'All of this evidence that's been hidden and buried from the American people is finally coming to light,' Ratcliffe said. Some key figures from the Obama administration, which was in power at the time, have denied that the Steele dossier was the impetus for the FBI's Russia investigation into whether the Kremlin was communicating with Trump's 2016 campaign. 'There is no doubt in my mind that the people that we just talked about conspired. They conspired against President Trump. They conspired against the American people,' Ratcliffe said. 4 Former CIA Director John Brennan was a key figure in promulgating the Russiagate narrative. AP He noted that both he and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard have made referrals to the Justice Department pertaining to their findings. 'I don't think statute of limitations are going to impact [it] because, on the conspiracy, the statute of limitation doesn't start to run until the last act in furtherance of that conspiracy,' he said. 'The people behind this are still furthering the conspiracy. 'They're refusing to admit or acknowledge what they did … was wrong.' Gabbard revisited Russiagate earlier this month with a series of public disclosures on previously classified information, such as a 2020 House Intelligence Committee report which determined there wasn't enough evidence to conclude Russia favored Trump in 2016. 4 Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has been revisiting the Russiagate controversy and declassifying key intelligence documents. Anna Wilding/ She also released material indicating that top intelligence bosses had evidence that Russia did not hack 2016 voting systems in a way that allowed them to change the election outcome. US Attorney General Pam Bondi announced a 'strike force' last week at the Justice Department to parse through the referrals made from Gabbard and Ratcliffe on Russiagate.
