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Sampling the best of Seoul's booming cafe culture
Located in Seoul's Mangwon-dong neighborhood, HHSS is a quiet, minimalist cafe with a homey vibe, enhanced by the languid presence of the resident cat. (All photos by David D. Lee)
DAVID D. LEE
SEOUL -- In South Korea, where homes are rarely used for social gatherings, cafes offer more than just caffeine -- they serve as go-to spots for meeting friends, blind dates, group studies and other social activities.
When the first Starbucks branch opened near Seoul's Ewha Womans University in 1999, it marked the beginning of a local revolution in cafe culture. The American franchise now runs 1,900 of the country's 100,000 cafes -- which is roughly double the number of convenience stores.
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Yomiuri Shimbun
19 minutes ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Deal with Beijing Will Speed China's Export of Minerals to the US, Treasury Secretary Says
BANGKOK (AP) — Washington and Beijing have signed a trade agreement that will make it easier for American firms to obtain magnets and rare earth minerals from China that are critical to manufacturing and microchip production, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Friday. The agreement comes after China retaliated against steep import tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on Chinese goods and moved to slow export of rare earth minerals and magnets much-needed by U.S. industrial interests. Bessent said on Fox Business Network's 'Mornings with Maria' that Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping 'had a phone call' previously 'and then our teams met in London, ironed this out, and I am confident now that we, as agreed, the magnets will flow.' 'Part of the agreement was tariffs coming down and rare earth magnets starting to flow back to the U.S.,' Bessent said. 'They formed the core of a lot of our industrial base. They were not flowing as fast as previously agreed.' His comments follow President Donald Trump announcing two weeks earlier an agreement with China that he said would ease exportation of magnets and rare earth minerals That pact cleared the way for the trade talks to continue. The U.S. has previously suspended some sales to China of critical U.S. technologies like components used for jet engines and semiconductors. It has also agreed to stop trying to revoke visas of Chinese nationals on U.S. college campuses. Bessent added of critical mineral exports: 'What we're seeing here is a de-escalation.' Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told Bloomberg TV that the deal was signed earlier this week. China's Commerce Ministry said Friday that the two sides had 'further confirmed the details of the framework,' when responding to a question about if China was to speed up exports of rare earths to the U.S. and if the U.S. was to remove some restrictions on China. 'China will, in accordance with the law, review and approve eligible export applications for controlled items. In turn, the United States will lift a series of restrictive measures it had imposed on China,' the ministry said. Initial talks in Geneva in early May led both sides to postpone massive tariff hikes that were threatening to freeze much trade between the two countries. Later talks in London set a framework for negotiations and the deal mentioned by Trump appeared to formalize that agreement — setting the stage for Bessent's comments on Friday. In London, export controls of the minerals eclipsed tariffs in the trade negotiations after China in April imposed permitting requirements on seven rare earth elements, per a Chinese law that applies to all exports, not just those bound for the U.S. market. With the permitting process taking 45 days, the new requirement has caused a pause in shipments, threatening to disrupt production of cars, robots, wind turbines and other high-tech products in the U.S. and around the world. The U.S., meanwhile, took restrictive measures on exports of high tech to China. By the latest agreement, China does not remove the permitting requirement on rare earths but retains the flexibility to dial up or down the approval process as needed. Sun Yun, director of the China program at the Washington-based think tank Stimson Center, said Beijing has only tightened its overall policy on rare earths but has the discretion on how to implement it. 'That's the Chinese style,' she said. 'If all goes well, permit happens. If things go in a wrong direction, like U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, permits gone with wind.' China also has taken steps recently on the fentanyl issue, announcing last week that it would designate two more substances as precursor chemicals for fentanyl, making them subject to production, transport and export regulations. Trump has demanded that Beijing do more to stop the flow of such precursor ingredients to Mexican drug cartels, which use them to make fentanyl for sale in the U.S. He imposed 20% tariffs on Chinese imports over the fentanyl issue, the biggest part of current 30% across-the-board taxes on Chinese goods. The agreement struck in May in Geneva called for both sides to scale back punitive tariff hikes imposed as Trump escalated his trade war and sharply raised import duties. Some higher tariffs, such as those imposed by Washington related to the trade in fentanyl and duties on aluminum and steel, remain in place. The rapidly shifting policies are taking a toll on both of the world's two largest economies. The U.S. economy contracted at a 0.5% annual pace from January through March, partly because imports surged as companies and households rushed to buy foreign goods before Trump could impose tariffs on them. In China, factory profits sank more than 9% from a year earlier in May, with automakers suffering a large share of that drop. They fell more than 1% year-on-year in January-May. Trump and other U.S. officials have indicated they expect to reach trade deals with many other countries, including India. 'We're going to have deal after deal after deal,' Lutnick said.
Kyodo News
34 minutes ago
- Kyodo News
EU proposes global eel trade curbs despite Japan's opposition
KYODO NEWS - 11 hours ago - 22:37 | All, World The European Union on Friday submitted a proposal to impose export restrictions on all eel species under an international treaty regulating endangered species trade, despite strong opposition from Japan. If adopted at the conference of the parties to the Washington Convention in Uzbekistan later this year, the proposal, set to take effect in June 2027, would require proof of legal capture and an export permit issued by the exporting country for Japanese eel and other species. "We have sufficient numbers of Japanese eels, and there is no risk of extinction," Japan's farm minister Shinjiro Koizumi said at a press conference earlier Friday in Tokyo, adding that the move by the EU was "extremely regrettable." To be approved, the proposal must be accepted by at least two-thirds of the voting parties at the conference, which will be held from late November to early December. While proposals typically take effect about three months after approval, the EU is seeking to delay implementation by 18 months. Japan plans to work with China, on which it relies heavily for eel imports, and South Korea to oppose the proposal, sources close to the matter said Thursday. The three countries and Taiwan held informal talks in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, on June 19-20 to coordinate their response. While the EU argues that Japanese eel populations have declined sharply, Japan contends that numbers have been recovering since the 1990s and that advances in aquaculture have reduced the need for glass eels -- juvenile eels used to stock farms. It is also warning that regulation could drive up prices for glass eels, increasing the risk of poaching and smuggling. Under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, species listed in Appendix I are prohibited from international trade for commercial purposes in principle, while those in Appendix II are deemed as species that could become endangered if trade is not strictly regulated. The EU is seeking to list all 19 eel species and subspecies in Appendix II, including the Japanese eel, American eel and Southeast Asia's Anguilla bicolor. The regulations would apply not only to live glass eels but also to processed products, such as "kabayaki," a type of grilled eel. The European eel has already been subject to such restrictions following an EU proposal to list the endangered species under Appendix II of the convention approved in 2007.
Nikkei Asia
4 hours ago
- Nikkei Asia
Trump envisions China trip with dozens of CEOs
U.S. President Donald Trump poses with business leaders from American companies in Riyadh during a trip to Saudi Arabia on May 13. © Reuters KEN MORIYASU WASHINGTON -- U.S. officials are drawing up plans for President Donald Trump to visit China later this year with a delegation of dozens of CEOs, Nikkei Asia has learned. Such a visit is expected to resemble the president's trip to the Middle East in May. More than 30 business leaders accompanied him to Saudi Arabia, producing over $2 trillion in deals.
