Latest news with #TheEconomist
Straits Times
7 hours ago
- Business
- Straits Times
No clarity yet on baseline or pharmaceutical tariffs with US: DPM Gan
Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong said he has told US officials that Singapore would be keen to negotiate its baseline tariff rate if the opportunity arises. SINGAPORE – The US government did not negotiate its tariffs on Singapore and did not want to commit on whether the 10 per cent baseline tax could rise or fall in the future, said Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong. DPM Gan, who visited the US from July 20 to 26 , added that he did not get to further discussions on pharmaceutical tariffs being contemplated by the Trump administration. He told the SG60 IPS-SBF Conference on July 29 that these talks did not take place as he did not get the chance to meet Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. He did, however, meet other officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. They discussed ways to keep up the long and mutually beneficial bilateral economic relationship, as well as potential collaboration in areas like the digital economy. DPM Gan also met business leaders in New York, and congressional leaders handling trade issues in Washington. He also visited an ST Engineering aerostructures factory in Maryland. The US administration was 'not in the mood to discuss any discount to the baseline tariff', DPM Gan said at a dialogue moderated by Mr David Rennie, The Economist's geopolitics editor. 'We also wanted to know whether the baseline tariff will stay at 10 per cent or will it be higher or lower? The answer was non-committal. They are still reviewing the tariff and, in time to come, they will make the appropriate announcement. So we just have to wait and see.' Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore Grace Fu apologises for Tanjong Katong sinkhole, says road may stay closed for a few more days Singapore Terrorism threat in Singapore remains high, driven by events like Israeli-Palestinian conflict: ISD Singapore Liquidators score victory to recoup over $900 million from alleged scammer Ng Yu Zhi's associates Singapore Man on trial for raping woman who hired him to repair lights in her flat Sport IOC president Kirsty Coventry a 'huge supporter' of Singapore Singapore 7, including child and firefighter, taken to hospital after fire breaks out in Toa Payoh flat Singapore S'pore can and must meaningfully apply tech like AI in a way that creates jobs for locals: PM Wong Singapore Doctor who forged certificates for aesthetic procedures gets 4 months' jail DPM Gan, who is also Minister for Trade and Industry, said he has told US officials that Singapore would be keen to negotiate its baseline tariff rate if the opportunity arises. Pharmaceuticals and semiconductors, which are key exports from Singapore to the US, are currently exempt from baseline tariffs. But US President Donald Trump had earlier in 2025 threatened to end an exemption for pharmaceutical imports, saying tariffs would be imposed 'at a level that you haven't really seen before'. The US is a major market for Singapore-based drugmakers including American multinationals like Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson. DPM Gan said official-level discussions between Singapore and the US Department of Commerce, which commenced before his trip, are still ongoing. 'I can't go into detail because negotiation is ongoing and there's a bit of a confidentiality we need to maintain on both sides,' he said when asked what the US was looking to secure through these talks. He added that the US generally had concerns about what the country experienced during the Covid-19 pandemic, when supplies of critical pharmaceuticals were disrupted. 'They want to make sure that they have a secure supply line of pharmaceuticals. They do want to see whether they can onshore this production, so that they can produce (it) themselves. But they also know that it's not possible to onshore everything, because some of the raw materials are actually (from) outside of America,' he said. 'They do need to think about how they can work with partners, trusted partners, to make sure that their supply chain is secure and reliable. So that is what they are looking for in their partners, including Singapore,' he added. 'I think the administration's focus now is to finish the negotiation of reciprocal tariffs. Then it will start to engage countries on specific sectoral tariffs in pharmaceuticals and semiconductors.' DPM Gan said Singapore has yet to engage the US on the prospect of semiconductor tariffs . However, he added that discussions to preserve the country's access to artificial intelligence equipment and semiconductors are under way. Speaking at the same conference earlier in the day, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said Singapore's trade and investment relationship with America, even with the tariffs, remains important. 'We would prefer to have zero tariffs of course, but if it is the baseline rate, then we are at the lowest category. We can live with it, and we can still do business and there will still be many opportunities for trade with the US, because whatever is happening in America now, the economy is still resilient, and there is still tremendous innovation happening in American companies, and so there will still be opportunities there,' he said. DPM Gan in his dialogue said the US economy continues to be relatively resilient. He said that based on the feedback from US businessmen he met on his trip, the outlook for the US economy seems cautiously optimistic, adding that Mr Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill , which includes tax cuts and business support measures, may have contributed to this. He said Singapore continues to have a good working relationship with the US. The US was Singapore's second-largest trading partner in 2024, while Singapore was its 16th-largest trading partner. Singapore was also the third-largest Asian investor in the US. More than 250 Singapore companies operate across 45 states, supporting around 350,000 jobs in the US, according to the Republic's Ministry of Trade and Industry. The US also has a longstanding trade surplus and free trade agreement with Singapore. The recent deals between the US and several countries, as well as the European Union economic bloc, are good news, DPM Gan said. 'This gives us a sense that there's good progress in the tariff negotiation. But I also come back with the sense that there remains significant uncertainty. I'm not sure whether the uncertainty has really been eliminated or even reduced,' he added. He cited the lack of clarity on the rules of origin that will be used to determine where products originate from. He also said it is unclear how reciprocal tariffs will be implemented, and how components from different countries and transshipped goods will be assessed. This comes on top of the uncertainty around sectoral tariffs, which are yet to be determined. There is also uncertainty about whether the investments that countries have pledged to the US under tariff deals are new contributions, or money that is currently invested in another country, DPM Gan said. 'For example, the EU has committed to make an investment... over a period of time. Japan has also committed investments into the US. Japan has been a major investor in Singapore. Whether the Japanese investment in Singapore will be diverted to the US is a question that is yet to be seen,' he said. 'There are (also) uncertainties as to how countries will respond to the outcome of the tariff negotiation. Some countries have also committed to purchase more from the US, and they would have been purchasing these products from other countries. Whether now, instead of purchasing from country A, country B, they will now purchase from the US, and therefore exports from these countries to affected countries will be changed,' he added. 'I think these uncertainties (are) second derivative uncertainties. No one is paying much attention yet, because we need to have a tariff settled, then we work out how the secondary impact would be.' Global supply chains will also be restructured if countries move their investments from destinations facing higher US tariffs to those facing lower tariffs, he added. 'The overall global trading system, what we call the rules-based multilateral trading system, that we depend on rules, respecting trade agreements with one another, and not change at will, is something that has been challenged,' DPM Gan said. 'Today, we can agree with one another on a certain tariff, but tomorrow, something happens. We start to change our tariff rate, and that is something that is very uncertain, and that has been seen over the last few months.'
Tom's Guide
17 hours ago
- Business
- Tom's Guide
Forget ChatGPT — here's why NotebookLM is better for team projects
If you're using ChatGPT to handle your next big group project, it might be time to rethink your workflow. Google's NotebookLM just got a major overhaul last month, which means it now offers some useful advantages when it comes to collaboration, content grounding and research comprehension. Originally launched as a personal research assistant, NotebookLM is quickly evolving into one of the most powerful AI tools for teams. With new features like public notebook sharing, expert-curated collections, audio summaries in 50+ languages and visual mind maps, it may be the best-kept secret in AI productivity. Here's why NotebookLM is quickly becoming the better choice for group work, and why I think it outshines ChatGPT in key areas. While ChatGPT often pulls from general training data (and may hallucinate facts), NotebookLM limits its responses to documents you upload, PDFs, Google Docs, transcripts, articles and images. That means every summary, answer and mind map is directly sourced from your own content, making it far more trustworthy for team research. NotebookLM now supports public notebook sharing. That means you can create a collaborative research space, generate summaries, and share it with your team via a simple link, minus a required login. Team members can ask follow-up questions, read AI-generated FAQs, or listen to podcast-style overviews without touching the original files. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. The site shows hundreds of thousands of public notebooks have already been created and available for users; an indication of just how quickly teams are adopting this. Auto-generated mind maps based on your uploaded material is a visual, AI-generated summary of your documents that helps you (and your team) understand complex topics at a glance. It turns a long report, article or collection of documents into an interactive web of connected ideas. The AI breaks down your source into interconnected themes and concepts, displayed in a visual, color-coded map you can explore, zoom in on, or export as a PNG for presentations. For visual learners or remote teams trying to stay aligned, it's a game changer, something ChatGPT currently can't do natively. NotebookLM now creates audio overviews of your content; short (5-minute) or extended (10-minute) formats with support for over 50 languages. It's useful for global teams. You can download them for offline listening, too, which can be helpful for commuting or low-connectivity environments. One thing I appreciate about the latest update from NotebookLM, is that I don't have to start from scratch. Google now offers featured notebooks created by subject-matter experts and major publications like The Atlantic and The Economist. These include curated source material, AI-generated FAQs, and mind maps on topics like mental health, parenting and Shakespeare. If you're like me and don't like to start a research project cold, these featured notebooks are like a head start, with just a prompt. NotebookLM now has dedicated mobile apps for iOS and Android, complete with offline support. Testing Catalog reported that Google is testing video overviews and a more intuitive Studio Panel interface that could allow you to share just one element, say, a mind map or an audio clip, without sharing the whole notebook. Perhaps most surprisingly, NotebookLM is completely free (for now). Unlike ChatGPT's best features, which are locked behind a $20/month paywall, NotebookLM is accessible to anyone with a Google account, making it a no-brainer for teams on a budget. If you're collaborating with a group, NotebookLM is now arguably better equipped to handle your team's needs. From shared access and curated insights to audio overviews and mind maps, Google's upgraded AI tool is quietly becoming the best platform for collaborative thinking.
Economist
a day ago
- Business
- Economist
Look inside The Economist's summer issue for 2025
International | Long reads W e have published our fourth summer issue. As well as the usual news and analysis, you'll find a special 48-page supplement from 1843, The Economist's home for narrative journalism. We won't produce a print edition of the newspaper on August 2nd but a digital version will be available as usual on The Economist's app and website. Its ruling that burning fossil fuels can be 'internationally wrongful' risks provoking a backlash American funding cuts are a catalyst for fresh thinking America is sick of policing the world. More nuclear-armed states will not help Shashank Joshi, our defence editor, examines the blind spots of the intelligence services Why female athletes need to leave the men behind India has done brilliantly by balancing America, China and Russia. Can that last?
Economic Times
2 days ago
- Business
- Economic Times
India-UK trade deal not historic but should help Indian workers in UK: Swaminathan Aiyar
Live Events (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our ETMarkets WhatsApp channel Consulting Editor,suggests that while the UK trade agreement may not drastically alter the overall scenario due to existing low trade levels, any increase is beneficial. A significant achievement is the improved conditions for Indian workers in the UK, including exemptions from social security contributions and the ability to work remotely in 35 sectors, enhancing their to say it is historic is a clear exaggeration. It is a useful thing. We live in a world right now where trade barriers are going up and it is happening all over the place, not just in the USA. Others in retaliation are putting theirs up. We ourselves have retaliated. On some occasions we have put ours up. So, when you get any agreement where there is a significant amount of liberalisation of trade, I would say it is you go back to the 1950s, Britain was our largest trading partner; today it is not even in the top 10. So, it has fallen away in importance. The old colonial connection is completely severed and Britain itself has suffered a substantial amount of deindustrialisation. And if you ask what are the main exports of England's, somebody will say Premier League football or The Economist. It does export scotch whiskey of course and that is where the duty is going to come down from 150% to 75%, subsequently maybe to 40%. That still gives plenty of protection for Indian anybody who is worried, I need to emphasise that we now have two or three artisanal whiskey companies in India which in blind tasting have beaten everybody else. Now, of course, we are not mass-producing these things. Indri will have a small batch run. It is not like the continuous mass production of some famous scotch names, but we are competent and we are high class even in something like whiskey. So, I welcome the increased competition out there too. India itself will benefit significantly in various the end of it all, this freeing of trade will change things. But if already the UK is not among your top 10 trading partners, you cannot expect this to really change the whole scenario. If already the trade is low, it means the complimentarity between the two countries is not that high. It is much higher with China and the USA and much less with the UK. So, the overall scope for trade is limited, but we are increasing it and every increase is a good have often talked about improving the conditions for Indians to move to the UK for work. This used to be one of the things that was holding up an agreement. There, we have a good deal. Indians can work in 35 sectors for two years without any office and that means you can land up there and just work from your residence with zoom and you can be functioning without going through all the difficulties of setting up a formal sector and there is an exemption for social security. This is important. A significant part of your salary, anything you earn when your people go to the UK, is cut and goes towards your long-term fellows are going there to do IT or other work for one year, for two years, for three years, so there is no point in them paying into social security when they will get nothing out of it once they retire. You have to work a very large number of years before you can get those benefits. Earlier they resisted it and said they were not going to do it. The United States still has not allowed this, but Britain has given what the United States has not given and this is very useful.I do not know the exact rates of the deduction for different categories, but 10-15% or sometimes 20% of your salaries went in these various deductions. If that gets reduced, there is that much more these Indian professionals will be able to send home. So that is a positive thing.
See - Sada Elbalad
3 days ago
- Business
- See - Sada Elbalad
Trump: "I Don't Like a Weak Dollar, But It Makes a Lot of Money"
Taarek Refaat U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday delivered conflicting remarks about the strength of the U.S. dollar, saying he prefers a strong currency but also praised the economic upside of a weaker one, particularly for American manufacturing. 'I'd never say I love a weak currency,' Trump told reporters as he departed for Scotland. 'I'm someone who prefers a strong dollar, but weakness makes you a lot of money.' His comments come amid growing speculation in global markets that the Trump administration may be implicitly favoring a weaker dollar as part of its strategy to boost exports and domestic industry. This isn't the first time Trump has sent mixed signals on currency policy. In earlier statements, he warned: 'I won't allow the dollar to fall. Losing the dollar as a reserve currency would be like losing a war.' Yet recent moves by his administration, including aggressive tariff hikes and nationalistic trade policies—have contributed to mounting pressure on the dollar. Currency traders are closely watching for signs that the White House might be steering away from the strong-dollar policy long upheld by previous administrations. According to The Economist, the dollar is undergoing its most significant weakness in years, driven in part by policy unpredictability under Trump's leadership. Recent tariffs, including a 50% duty on copper and a 30% levy on EU imports, have only added to market unease. While U.S. financial markets remain broadly stable, some analysts warn that the dollar's position as the world's premier safe-haven asset may no longer be assured. Investors appear increasingly desensitized to policy shocks, with major announcements drawing more muted reactions than in previous years. At the same time, emerging market economies have shown a growing appetite for euro-denominated bonds, reflecting a broader shift away from dollar reliance. Trump's remarks underscore a complex challenge: balancing domestic economic gains from a weaker dollar with the long-term risks of diminished global trust in the currency. While a weaker dollar can supercharge exports and benefit manufacturers, sustained depreciation could undermine the currency's central role in global finance. As Trump walks a fine line between nationalist economic goals and global financial stability, markets continue to brace for further volatility. read more CBE: Deposits in Local Currency Hit EGP 5.25 Trillion Morocco Plans to Spend $1 Billion to Mitigate Drought Effect Gov't Approves Final Version of State Ownership Policy Document Egypt's Economy Expected to Grow 5% by the end of 2022/23- Minister Qatar Agrees to Supply Germany with LNG for 15 Years Business Oil Prices Descend amid Anticipation of Additional US Strategic Petroleum Reserves Business Suez Canal Records $704 Million, Historically Highest Monthly Revenue Business Egypt's Stock Exchange Earns EGP 4.9 Billion on Tuesday Business Wheat delivery season commences on April 15 News Israeli-Linked Hadassah Clinic in Moscow Treats Wounded Iranian IRGC Fighters Arts & Culture "Jurassic World Rebirth" Gets Streaming Date News China Launches Largest Ever Aircraft Carrier Videos & Features Tragedy Overshadows MC Alger Championship Celebration: One Fan Dead, 11 Injured After Stadium Fall Lifestyle Get to Know 2025 Eid Al Adha Prayer Times in Egypt Arts & Culture South Korean Actress Kang Seo-ha Dies at 31 after Cancer Battle Business Egyptian Pound Undervalued by 30%, Says Goldman Sachs Sports Get to Know 2025 WWE Evolution Results News "Tensions Escalate: Iran Probes Allegations of Indian Tech Collaboration with Israeli Intelligence" Arts & Culture Hawass Foundation Launches 1st Course to Teach Ancient Egyptian Language
