South Korean president will meet Japanese leader ahead of summit with Trump
Their meeting will come weeks after South Korea and Japan secured trade deals with Washington that shielded their trade-dependent economies from Trump's highest tariffs. The separate agreements negotiated their rates of reciprocal duties down to 15% from the originally proposed 25%, but only after pledging hundreds of billions of dollars in U.S. investments.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Calgary Herald
18 minutes ago
- Calgary Herald
U.S., Russia agreed on Ukraine security pledges, Witkoff says
Article content (Bloomberg) — Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin agreed at their summit in Alaska last week that the US would be able to offer Ukraine security guarantees, according to Steve Witkoff, Trump's special envoy. Article content 'We got to an agreement that the US and other nations could effectively offer Article 5-like language to Ukraine,' Witkoff said on CNN's State of the Union, referring to the NATO provision that says if one ally is attacked, it is considered an attack on all member states. Article content Article content But Witkoff, who attended the leaders' meeting at a military base in Alaska on Friday, said their agreement stopped short of allowing Ukraine to achieve its longstanding goal of NATO membership. Article content Article content Russia went into the summit demanding that Ukraine give up territory that Russia seized in its three-year war. Witkoff said Putin 'made some concessions with regards with all five of those regions,' and added, 'There needs to be a discussion of Donetsk' with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy when he meets Trump at the White House on Monday, suggesting there is room to negotiate. European leaders will be joining Zelenskiy at the White House meeting with Trump, in a show of support as Ukraine's leader faces growing US pressure to agree to a quick peace deal with Russia that involves giving up territory. Article content Article content Trump on Sunday insisted that he made 'BIG PROGRESS ON RUSSIA' in a post on Truth Social. Article content While Trump had gone into Friday's summit with Putin seeking a ceasefire, he'd emerged saying he was going to focus on a final settlement. Article content Witkoff said the switch was made because Putin and Trump made 'so much progress' that there was no need for a ceasefire period in which the details would be worked out. Article content 'The thesis of a ceasefire is that you'd be discussing all of these issues that we already resolved' in Alaska, Witkoff said on CNN, noting that they couldn't finalize any discussion of land swaps because Zelenskiy needed to be directly involved. Trump didn't invite Zelenskiy to the meeting in Alaska. Article content Secretary of State Marco Rubio told NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday the US hasn't ruled out a ceasefire in Ukraine as part of the goal of brokering a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine, while arguing that additional sanctions would be unlikely to force Putin to accept a deal.
Calgary Herald
18 minutes ago
- Calgary Herald
Trade partners grow restless waiting for Trump's tariff breaks
Article content Cecilia Malmström, the former European commissioner for trade who's now a nonresident fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, cautioned that any delays may be purely administrative. Article content But 'if nothing happens, there will be huge pressure on the European Commission to retaliate or to act in some way, especially from carmakers in Germany, Italy, France, Sweden and others,' she said. 'There are so many other things that are vague in the EU-US deal — and in the others as well — so it is likely we will see forever negotiations and a lot of filibustering.' Article content At a press briefing on Aug. 14, European Commission spokesperson Olof Gill said Washington and Brussels are finalizing a joint statement. 'The US has made political commitments to us in this respect and we look forward to them being implemented,' he said. Article content Japan's Uncertainty Article content Article content Less than a week before the EU's announcement, the US and Japan clinched a surprise deal on July 22 that lowered across-the-board tariffs and car levies to 15%. So far the broader duties have been implemented but the added tax on autos remains at 25%. Article content Officials in Asia's No. 2 economy are waiting for an executive order from Trump to bring down the car levies, as well as an official directive — like the EU already received — to clarify that the universal tariffs don't stack on top of existing duties. Article content Akazawa has mentioned how a Japanese carmaker is losing ¥100 million ($680,000) every hour due to the tariffs. Article content Last month Nissan Motor Corp. said it foresaw a ¥300 billion hit from the lower tariff rate, down from a previous estimate of ¥450 billion. But Chief Executive Officer Ivan Espinosa has warned of the difficulties in giving an accurate forecast as long as it's unclear when the tariffs will take effect and in what way. Article content Article content Akazawa flew to the US earlier this month to confirm that the US will be adjusting its executive order soon to remove the stacking, and pay back overcharges on tariffs. Neither has yet to materialize. Article content Hyundai, Kia Article content Facing similar questions is South Korea, which announced a trade agreement with Washington on July 31. That pact would impose a 15% tariff on imports to the US, including autos, alongside a $350 billion Korean investment pledge focused on shipbuilding, and $100 billion in energy purchases. Article content The 15% universal tariff took effect earlier this month under Trump's order, but like Japan, the sectoral auto tariff remain at 25%. While South Korea's exports overall have stayed resilient in the first half of the year, thanks to front-loading by companies anticipating higher US tariffs, the value of car shipments to the US fell nearly 17%, and steel exports dropped more than 11%, trade data showed. Article content South Korea's top automaker Hyundai Motor Co. and affiliate Kia Corp. could face as much as $5 billion in additional costs this year even under the new 15% auto tariff, according to Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Joanna Chen. While avoiding a 25% levy will save more than $3 billion, the duty squeezes margins amid softer demand and tighter subsidies, intensifying competition with Japanese automakers, Chen said. Article content Korean President Lee Jae Myung's planned summit with Trump on Aug. 25 — their first meeting since Lee took office in June — will test the durability of the $350 billion investment pledge, as well as their alliance over sensitive issues like defense spending, US troop levels and North Korea policy. Article content 'Just Overwhelmed' Article content For Starmer and the UK, most aspects of the pact have now come into force, including a 10% so-called reciprocal rate that's the lowest among all US trading partners. Yet Trump's 25% tax on British steel still chafes amid the delays in cutting it. Article content Article content Among the issues to resolve is the US's insistence that steel should be melted and poured in the UK in order to qualify. That's a requirement which Tata Steel UK, one of the country's biggest producers, is no longer able to fulfill after closing down its blast furnace last year. Its new electric arc furnace is not due to be ready until late 2027. Article content People familiar with the government's thinking are cautiously optimistic they might be able to secure exemptions to the melt-and-pour rule, whereby steel imported from certain European countries before being further processed in the UK is allowed to qualify as British. Article content 'It's not for lack of trying by the UK government,' said Tim Rutter, director of public affairs at Tata Steel. 'We hear that US departments are just overwhelmed.' Article content A spokesperson for the UK Department for Business and Trade said officials will continue to work with Washington to implement the deal as soon as possible. Article content Article content Late on Friday in Washington, the US Customs and Border Protection agency issued new inclusions to steel and aluminum product lists for tariffs that take effect Monday, with some of the guidance affecting imports from the UK. Article content Japan's Akazawa acknowledged that even with the UK, actual implementation of key parts of their deal took 54 days. As a result, he's said that it's 'not bad' if an executive order from the US comes by around mid-September. Article content 'It's just further confirmation that negotiations never really end,' especially with more US tariffs coming for sectors including pharmaceuticals and semiconductors, said Sam Lowe, a partner at Flint Global in London and head of its trade and market access practice.
Toronto Star
an hour ago
- Toronto Star
Trump administration halts visas for people from Gaza after Laura Loomer questions arrivals
WASHINGTON (AP) — A day after conservative activist Laura Loomer posted videos on social media of children from Gaza arriving in the U.S. for medical treatment and questioning how they got visas, the State Department said it was halting all visitor visas for people from Gaza pending a review. The State Department said Saturday the visas would be stopped while it looks into how 'a small number of temporary medical-humanitarian visas' were issued in recent days. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday told 'Face the Nation' on CBS that the action came after 'outreach from multiple congressional offices asking questions about it.'
