
U.K. urges ‘50-day drive' to arm Ukraine and raise pressure on Putin
Defense Secretary John Healey will make the announcement on Monday when he chairs a virtual meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group along with his German counterpart Boris Pistorius, according to a statement released by the U.K. Ministry of Defense.
The ministry confirmed the U.K. had sent £150 million ($201 million) of air defense and artillery to Ukraine in the past two months, and said further commitments will be announced during the contact group meeting. They include an agreement between Britain and Germany to procure more air defense ammunition, using €170 million ($198 million) of funding from Berlin.
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Japan Times
4 minutes ago
- Japan Times
Out-gunned Europe accepts least-worst U.S. trade deal
In the end, Europe found it lacked the leverage to pull Donald Trump's America into a trade pact on its terms and so has signed up to a deal it can just about stomach — albeit one that is clearly skewed in the U.S.'s favor. As such, Sunday's agreement on a blanket 15% tariff after a monthslong standoff is a reality check on the aspirations of the 27-country European Union to become an economic power able to stand up to the likes of the United States or China. The cold shower is all the more bracing given that the EU has long portrayed itself as an export superpower and champion of rules-based commerce for the benefit both of its own soft power and the global economy as a whole. For sure, the new tariff that will now be applied is a lot more digestible than the 30% "reciprocal" tariff that Trump threatened to invoke in a few days. While it should ensure Europe avoids recession, it will likely keep its economy in the doldrums: it sits somewhere between two tariff scenarios the European Central Bank last month forecast would mean 0.5-0.9% economic growth this year compared with just over 1% in a trade tension-free environment. But this is nonetheless a landing point that would have been scarcely imaginable only months ago in the pre-Trump 2.0 era, when the EU along with much of the world could count on U.S. tariffs averaging out at around 1.5%. Even when Britain agreed a baseline tariff of 10% with the United States back in May, EU officials were adamant they could do better and — convinced the bloc had the economic heft to square up to Trump — pushed for a "zero-for-zero" tariff pact. It took a few weeks of fruitless talks with their U.S. counterparts for the Europeans to accept that 10% was the best they could get and a few weeks more to take the same 15% baseline that the United States agreed with Japan last week. "The EU does not have more leverage than the U.S., and the Trump administration is not rushing things," said one senior official in a European capital who was being briefed on last week's negotiations as they closed in around the 15% level. That official and others pointed to the pressure from Europe's export-oriented businesses to clinch a deal and so ease the levels of uncertainty starting to hit businesses from Finland's Nokia to Swedish steelmaker SSAB. "We were dealt a bad hand. This deal is the best possible play under the circumstances," said one EU diplomat. "Recent months have clearly shown how damaging uncertainty in global trade is for European businesses." That imbalance — or what the trade negotiators have been calling "asymmetry" — is manifest in the final deal. Not only is it expected that the EU will now call off any retaliation and remain open to U.S. goods on existing terms, but it has also pledged $600 billion of investment in the United States. The time frame for that remains undefined, as do other details of the accord for now. As talks unfolded, it became clear that the EU came to the conclusion it had more to lose from all-out confrontation. The retaliatory measures it threatened totaled some €93 billion ($109 billion) — less than half its U.S. goods trade surplus of nearly €200 billion. True, a growing number of EU capitals were also ready to envisage wide-ranging anti-coercion measures that would have allowed the bloc to target the services trade in which the United States had a surplus of some $75 billion last year. But even then, there was no clear majority for targeting the U.S. digital services that European citizens enjoy and for which there are scant homegrown alternatives — from Netflix to Uber to Microsoft cloud services. It remains to be seen whether this will encourage European leaders to accelerate the economic reforms and diversification of trading allies to which they have long paid lip service but which have been held back by national divisions. Describing the deal as a painful compromise that was an "existential threat" for many of its members, Germany's BGA wholesale and export association said it was time for Europe to reduce its reliance on its biggest trading partner. "Let's look on the past months as a wake-up call," said BGA President Dirk Jandura. "Europe must now prepare itself strategically for the future — we need new trade deals with the biggest industrial powers of the world."


NHK
5 hours ago
- NHK
US, EU agree on 15% tariff
US President Donald Trump says he has reached a tariff agreement with the European Union. Trump had said Washington would impose a 30 percent levy on goods from the EU starting on August 1. But he told reporters on Sunday after a meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen that the rate will be set at 15 percent.


NHK
12 hours ago
- NHK
Trump in Scotland, set to talk with EU, British leaders on tariffs
US President Donald Trump is staying at a golf resort in Scotland owned by his family's business. He is expected to hold talks with EU and British leaders on tariffs. Trump has been in Scotland since Friday. On Saturday, he was seen playing golf and driving his own golf cart, as local police maintained tight security in the area. Trump said he plans to meet with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Sunday to discuss what he calls "reciprocal tariffs." He has suggested that he would levy a 30-percent tariff on products coming from the European Union, starting on August 1. Trump is also due to meet with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer during his stay. British media say the two will discuss reducing additional tariffs on UK-made steel products, a topic they have continued to negotiate, among other things. People in Scotland held rallies in several places to protest against Trump's political moves and other matters.