Thailand moves to recriminalise cannabis, shaking US$1 billion industry
A coffee and a cannabis signs are seen outside a shop at Khaosan Road, one of the favourite tourist spots in Bangkok, Thailand, May 18, 2025. REUTERS

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South China Morning Post
an hour ago
- South China Morning Post
China's firms must integrate to succeed abroad, executives say at ‘Summer Davos'
Chinese companies should relocate their entire manufacturing ecosystems – rather than just completing the assembly of goods in another country – to solidify their overseas expansions, industry insiders said during the Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Tianjin. With uncertainty over global trade on the rise in the second term of US President Donald Trump, Chinese companies will look to strengthen the resilience of their supply chain by building factories in new markets, either for export or local sale, said Ben Simpfendorfer, partner and chief Asia-Pacific macro strategist at consulting firm Oliver Wyman. 'We're moving to a world where tariffs are generally higher. Trade tensions will worsen – not just between China and the US, but potentially between other countries as well,' said Simpfendorfer on Tuesday during the World Economic Forum event, also known as 'Summer Davos'. 'In order to avoid tariffs entirely … we actually might see a larger part of the Chinese ecosystem move abroad.' China's manufacturers began relocating their supply chains overseas during Trump's first term. To mitigate the fallout from his tariff increases, they started building plants in Southeast Asia and gradually expanded their footprints to countries like Mexico and Morocco. But Washington does not want these countries to become reliable bypass routes for Chinese products. Under Trump's initial 'Liberation Day' tariff package , unveiled on April 2, some countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) would have been subject to higher duties than China. They avoided this fate after the US paused those higher rates for 90 days to placate global markets, instead applying a 'baseline' 10 per cent increase to nearly all its trading partners.

The Standard
9 hours ago
- The Standard
US exchanges, SEC in talks to ease public company regulations
The Nasdaq logo is displayed at the Nasdaq Market, in New York City, New York, U.S., February 13, 2025. REUTERS


RTHK
9 hours ago
- RTHK
Nato agrees 'historic' spending hike
Nato agrees 'historic' spending hike Nato heads of state pose for a picture. Photo: Reuters US President Donald Trump took a victory lap at Nato's Hague summit on Wednesday, joining leaders in reaffirming the "ironclad" commitment to protect each other after allies agreed to his demand to ramp up defence spending. The US leader appeared keen to take the plaudits as he secured a key foreign policy win by getting Nato's 32 countries to agree to meet his headline target of five percent of GDP on defence spending. In a move that will provide reassurance to allies in Europe worried over the threat from Russia, Trump signed off on a final leaders' declaration confirming "our ironclad commitment" to Nato's collective defence pledge that an attack on one is an attack on all. "It's a great victory for everybody, I think, and we will be equalised," Trump said of the new spending commitment, ahead of the summit's main session. Diplomats said that behind closed doors Trump insisted there was no greater ally than Washington and urged others to spend some of the new money on US weaponry. The deal hatched by Nato is a compromise that allows Trump to claim triumph, while in reality providing wiggle room for cash-strapped governments in Europe. It sees countries promise to dedicate 3.5 percent of GDP to core military spending by 2035, and a further 1.5 to broader security-related areas such as infrastructure. Entering the meeting, leaders lined up to declare the summit's spending hike as "historic". Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte, who hosted the summit in his home city of The Hague, said Nato would emerge as a 'stronger, fairer and more lethal' alliance. He had earlier acknowledged that it was not easy for European countries and Canada to find the extra money, but said it was vital to do so. "There is absolute conviction with my colleagues at the table that, given this threat from the Russians, given the international security situation, there is no alternative," the former Dutch prime minister told reporters. The Kremlin on Tuesday accused Nato of being on a path of rampant militarisation. (AFP/Reuters)