A map showing countries that recognize a Palestinian state and those that plan to
Nearly 150 of the 193 members of the United Nations have already recognized Palestinian statehood, most of them decades ago. The United States and other Western powers have held off, saying Palestinian statehood should be part of a final agreement resolving the decades-old Middle East conflict.
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Yahoo
14 minutes ago
- Yahoo
China says trade jumped in July, beating forecasts
China's exports beat expectations and rose 7.2 percent year-on-year in July, official data showed Thursday, as overseas shipments buoyed its struggling economy even as it navigated a shaky trade war truce with the United States. The two economic superpowers agreed in Stockholm last month to hold further talks on extending the tariff truce. That deal has temporarily set fresh US duties on Chinese goods at 30 percent, while Beijing's levies on US goods stand at 10 percent. The accord -- initially agreed in Geneva in May -- brought down triple-digit tariffs each side had imposed on the other after Donald Trump launched his "Liberation Day" levies on April 2. The 90-day truce is set to end on August 12, when the original duties could snap back. US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said following the Stockholm talks that Trump would have the "final say" on any extension of a tariffs truce between Washington and Beijing. Higher tariffs on dozens of trading partners -- including a blistering 35 percent on Canada -- came into force Thursday as Trump seeks to reshape global trade to benefit the US economy. He has also threatened to impose 100 percent tariffs on semiconductor imports. Thursday's data showing an increase in China's overseas shipments last month outpaced a Bloomberg forecast of 5.6 percent. But the figures also showed that China's exports to the United States, its largest trading partner, continued to fall, sinking 6.1 percent from the previous month. And imports -- a key gauge of struggling domestic demand -- jumped 4.1 percent year-on-year in July, compared with a Bloomberg forecast of a one-percent fall. Zhiwei Zhang, president and chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management, said the data showed "exports supported the economy strongly so far this year". "Export growth may slow in coming months, as the front loading of exports due to US tariffs fades away," he said. "The big question is how much China's exports will slow and how it would spill over to the rest of the economy," he said. Beijing has said an official goal of around five percent growth this year. But it has struggled to maintain a strong economic recovery from the pandemic, as it fights a debt crisis in its massive property sector, chronically low consumption and elevated youth unemployment. Factory output shrank more than expected in July, data showed last week. pfc-oho/tym 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
Washington Post
an hour ago
- Washington Post
Trump's tariffs take effect, potentially upending global trade and prices
President Donald Trump's long-awaited tariffs took effect shortly after the stroke of midnight Thursday, imposing sweeping new taxes on imports that economists say will likely get passed on to U.S. consumers and businesses. Trump has announced frameworks of trade agreements with roughly a dozen of the United States' closest trading partners, including the United Kingdom, the European Union, Japan and South Korea. But goods from nations with which the U.S. does hundreds of billions of dollars of trade, such as India, Switzerland and South Africa, will see new taxes of up to 39 percent, with India's rate set to jump to 50 percent in three weeks. 'We've really just started,' Trump said Wednesday in the Oval Office. 'This is just in its infancy.' The White House has yet to reach full agreements with the U.S.'s three top trading partners. The Trump administration agreed to hold off charging higher rates on merchandise from China and Mexico while negotiations with both countries continue. Trump is charging some Canadian imports a 35 percent tax that took effect Aug. 1. Trump has long held that imposing taxes on trade will improve the nation's grim finances and rebalance relationships with foreign nations that he says are taking advantage of the U.S. He has also used tariffs in recent weeks to try to accomplish foreign policy objectives, dangling threats of new trade barriers to stop skirmishes between Thailand and Cambodia. But consumers often ultimately pay for tariffs through higher prices, even if some of the costs are spread throughout the supply chain. And there are many nations with which the U.S. must trade to secure goods that can't be made or grown at home. Some economists worry that Trump's new trade policy could cause the economy to shrink and rupture certain alliances that domestic producers have relied upon to manufacture cheap goods. A test case could be Apple's iPhones and other consumer electronics, which are assembled at factories predominantly in China and India. The company announced a $100 billion investment Wednesday to produce components, including glass and semiconductors, for those items in the U.S. — in part to avoid tariff rates. Trump said he planned to impose a 100 percent tariff on chips and semiconductors, but those wouldn't apply to firms that are standing up new domestic production facilities. 'If you're building in the United States of America, there's no charge even though you're building, and you're not producing yet,' Trump said in the Oval Office Wednesday afternoon, flanked by Apple CEO Tim Cook. The policy is designed to give firms 'breathing room' to move manufacturing facilities and supply chains to the U.S., similar to the White House's treatment of tariffs on automakers, a Trump administration official said. Trump in April revised his original tax plans on auto imports to relieve manufacturers from the effects of 'stacked' tariffs, or levies that would apply to vehicles, component parts and source materials. 'We're fully cognizant of the fact that you can't set up a factory overnight on something as complicated as semiconductors,' said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. 'This is designed to reflect that and build in some flexibility.' The tariffs that took effect Thursday were delayed by months of back and forth between the Trump administration and dozens of countries as the White House seeks to overhaul the international trade order. On April 2, Trump unveiled sweeping new duties against merchandise from dozens of countries — from the U.S.'s closest allies to minuscule uninhabited Antarctic islands — in an event he dubbed 'Liberation Day.' The highest rates targeted countries where the United States runs a trade deficit, meaning those countries export more to U.S. businesses than they import. The announcement sent shock waves through global markets and threatened to teeter the U.S. economy. Trump swiftly pulled back, delaying the implementation date to Aug. 1, and ordering senior trade and diplomatic officials to swiftly cut agreements in what the White House came to brag would be '90 deals in 90 days.' Last week, hours before the tariffs were set to kick in, the administration said the deadline would be delayed another week to give U.S. Customs and Border Protection more time to prepare to charge the new levies. After 126 days, the administration came up far short of Trump's goal on deals, though the agreements it did achieve — and its additional extensions with Mexico and China — cover the vast majority of the U.S. international goods trade. Those frameworks are far from formal trade deals, which can take decades of negotiations and emerge in binders the size of phone books. Trump has heralded many of the new arrangements via sparse social media posts. 'For sure, this means higher prices,' said Dean Baker, senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a left-leaning think tank. 'The question we're all asking is how it's going to be divided between the various middlemen, the direct importer, retailers and the consumers. The history has been most of it is paid by the consumers, and my guess is that will end up being the case this time, as well. But that is up for grabs. We just haven't seen tariffs like this.' Trump imposed most of the import taxes by using economic emergency powers that the White House has claimed without precedent. Those levies face legal challenges, and one trade court has already sided with a group of businesses, states and advocacy organizations that say Trump overstepped his authority to regulate the economy. The administration appealed the ruling, but if more judges agree with the original ruling, much of the administration's nascent trade and foreign policy agenda could be undone overnight. The question seems destined for the Supreme Court, analysts say. Administration officials insist that consumers will feel little impact from Trump's tariffs because foreign manufacturers will eat the cost increase to retain their hold on the U.S. market. But a growing number of companies in recent weeks, including Procter & Gamble, Nike and Hasbro, have said they plan to raise retail prices to compensate for their rising tariff bill. On Wednesday, Weyco Group, which sells shoes under the Florsheim and Nunn Bush brands, said it raised retail prices on July 1 to offset the cost of Trump's import taxes. Before trade tensions soared, Weyco made about three-quarters of its shoes in China. The company beefed up its U.S. inventory before the tariffs on Chinese goods spiked in April. It also squeezed cost reductions from its suppliers in China and shifted some production to Cambodia, Vietnam and India. The fast-changing nature of the president's trade offensive has made it hard to keep pace. As CEO Thomas Florsheim explained the strategy to investors on a quarterly earnings call, news arrived that the president had just raised tariffs on Indian products to 50 percent. 'We're going to have to wait and see what happens with India,' Florsheim said. 'If the Indian tariffs get unmanageable, we're going to have to shift more product back to China.'
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Trump says he plans to put a 100% tariff on computer chips
US President Donald Trump has said he will impose a 100% tariff on computer chips, likely raising the cost of electronics, autos and household appliances. The Republican president said that companies who make computer chips in the US would be spared the import tax. 'We'll be putting a tariff on of approximately 100% on chips and semiconductors,' Mr Trump said in the Oval Office while meeting Apple chief executive Tim Cook. 'But if you're building in the United States of America, there's no charge.' During the Covid-19 pandemic, a shortage of computer chips increased the price of cars and contributed to an uptick in overall inflation. Mr Trump's announcement came as Mr Cook joined him at the White House to announce a commitment by the tech company to increase its investment in US manufacturing by an additional 100 billion dollars (£74.9 billion) over the next four years. 'This is a significant step toward the ultimate goal of ensuring that iPhones sold in the United States of America also are made in America,' Mr Trump said at the press conference. 'Today's announcement is one of the largest commitments in what has become among the greatest investment booms in our nation's history.' As part of the Apple announcement, the investments will be about bringing more of its supply chain and advanced manufacturing to the US as part of an initiative called the American Manufacturing Programme, but it is not a full commitment to build its popular iPhone device domestically. 'This includes new and expanded work with 10 companies across America. They produce components — semiconductor chips included — that are used in Apple products sold all over the world, and we're grateful to the president for his support,' Mr Cook said in a statement announcing the investment. The new manufacturing partners include Corning, Coherent, Applied Materials, Texas Instruments and Broadcom among others. Apple had previously said it intended to invest 500 billion dollars (£374 billion) domestically, a figure it will now increase to 600 billion dollars (£449 billion). Mr Trump in recent months has criticised the tech company and Mr Cook for efforts to shift iPhone production to India to avoid the tariffs his Republican administration had planned for China. While in Qatar earlier this year, Mr Trump said there was 'a little problem' with the Cupertino, California, company and recalled a conversation with Mr Cook in which he said he told the businessman 'I don't want you building in India'. India has incurred Mr Trump's wrath, as the president signed an order on Wednesday to put an additional 25% tariff on the world's most populous country for its use of Russian oil. The new import taxes to be imposed in 21 days could put the combined tariffs on Indian goods at 50%. Apple's new pledge comes just a few weeks after it forged a 500 million-dollar deal with MP Materials, which runs the only rare earths producer in the country. That agreement will enable MP Materials to expand a factory in Texas to use recycled materials to produce magnets that make iPhones vibrate. Speaking on a recent investors call, Mr Cook emphasised that 'there's a load of different things done in the United States'. As examples, he cited some of the iPhone components made in the US such as the device's glass display and module for identifying people's faces and then indicated the company was gearing to expand its productions of other components in its home country. 'We're doing more in this country, and that's on top of having roughly 19 billion chips coming out of the US now, and we will do more,' Mr Cook told analysts last week, without elaborating. News of Apple's latest investment in the US caused the company's stock price to surge by nearly 6% in Wednesday's midday trading. That gains reflect investors' relief that Mr Cook 'is extending an olive branch' to the Trump administration, said Nancy Tengler, chief executive of money manager Laffer Tengler Investments, which owns Apple stock. Despite Wednesday's upturn, Apple's shares are still down by 14% this year, a reversal of fortune that has also been driven by the company's botched start in the pivotal field of artificial intelligence. 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
