Trump signs order extending China tariff truce by 90 days: US media
The halt on steeper tariffs will be in place for another 90 days, the Wall Street Journal and CNBC reported. The world's two biggest economies had imposed tit-for-tat tariffs on each other's products this year before reaching a temporary truce in May.
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Jordan Times
40 minutes ago
- Jordan Times
Most markets rise as China-US truce extended, inflation in focus
HONG KONG — Asian markets mostly rose Tuesday, with Tokyo hitting a record, as investors welcomed the extension of a China-US tariff truce but looked ahead apprehensively to the release of key US inflation data later in the day. Donald Trump's widely expected trade announcement avoids the re-imposition of sky-high levies and allows officials from Washington and Beijing to continue talking into November to settle their standoff. In an executive order, the White House reiterated its position that there are "large and persistent annual US goods trade deficits" and they "constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and economy of the United States". However, William Yang, an analyst at the International Crisis Group, said: "Beijing will be happy to keep the US-China negotiation going, but it is unlikely to make concessions." With the president's tariffs set and talks with various trading partners ongoing, markets are now turning their focus back towards the possible economic outlook and the impact of Trump's trade war. First up is the US consumer price index (CPI) later in the day, which could play a major role in the Federal Reserve's decision-making with regard to interest rates. Bets on a cut have ramped up in recent weeks owing to signs that the world's number one economy is showing signs of slowing, with figures indicating that the labour market softened considerably in the past three months. Expectations are for CPI to come slightly above June's reading, but analysts warned investors were walking a fine line. "CPI is the storm front straight ahead. A soft number, and the market exhales. A hot number, and the stagflation whisper becomes the only language anyone speaks," said SPI Asset Management's Stephen Innes. While there have been warnings that the tariffs will stoke inflation National Australia Bank's Ray Attrill said: "The larger tariff impacts... probably will not be felt until August/September, with firms now only gaining some clarity on the degree of reciprocal tariffs. "The current profit reporting season has noted firms on the whole were waiting for greater clarity on final tariff rates before adjusting prices." Also on the agenda this week are wholesale prices and retail sales, with the Fed's favoured gauge of inflation at the end of the month. Bank officials are then set to make their decision in the middle of September. Forecasts are for a reduction at that gathering and one more before the end of the year. Asia's rally was led by Tokyo's Nikkei 225, which soared around 2.8 per cent to hit a record high of 42,983.34 on renewed optimism over the Japanese economy after officials reached a deal to avert the worst of Trump's tariffs. The gains came as traders returned to work after a long weekend. Hong Kon g, Shanghai, Sydney, Seoul, Taipei, Mumbai, Jakarta and Manila also advanced. Singapore and Wellington dropped.
Jordan Times
40 minutes ago
- Jordan Times
Trump signs order to extend China tariff truce by 90 days
WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump on Monday ordered a delay in the reimposition of higher tariffs on Chinese goods, hours before a trade truce between Washington and Beijing was due to expire. The White House's halt on steeper tariffs will be in place until November 10. "I have just signed an Executive Order that will extend the Tariff Suspension on China for another 90 days," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. While the United States and China slapped escalating tariffs on each other's products this year, bringing them to prohibitive triple-digit levels and snarling trade, both countries in May agreed to temporarily lower them. Their 90-day halt of steeper levies had been due to expire Tuesday. Around the same time that Trump confirmed the new extension, Chinese state media Xinhua news agency published a joint statement from US-China talks in Stockholm saying it would also extend its side of the truce. China will continue suspending its earlier tariff hike for 90 days starting August 12 while retaining a 10-per cent duty, the report said. It would also "take or maintain necessary measures to suspend or remove non-tariff countermeasures against the United States, as agreed in the Geneva joint declaration," Xinhua reported. In the executive order posted Tuesday to its website, the White House reiterated its position that there are "large and persistent annual US goods trade deficits" and they "constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and economy of the United States." The order acknowledged Washington's ongoing discussions with Beijing "to address the lack of trade reciprocity in our economic relationship" and noted that China has continued to "take significant steps toward remedying" the US complaints. The 90-day extension means the truce is now set to expire just after midnight on November 10. Trump-Xi summit? "Beijing will be happy to keep the US-China negotiation going, but it is unlikely to make concessions," warned William Yang, an analyst at the International Crisis Group. He believes China sees its leverage over rare earth exports as a strong one, and that Beijing will likely use it to pressure Washington. US-China Business Council president Sean Stein said the current extension is "critical to give the two governments time to negotiate an agreement" providing much-needed certainty for companies to make plans. A trade deal, in turn, would "pave the way for a Trump-Xi summit this fall," said Asia Society Policy Institute senior vice president Wendy Cutler. But Cutler, herself a former US trade official, said: "This will be far from a walk in the park." Even as both countries reached a pact to cool tensions after high level talks in Geneva in May, the de-escalation has been shaky. Key economic officials convened in London in June as disagreements emerged and US officials accused their counterparts of violating the pact. Policymakers met again in Stockholm last month. Trump said in a social media post Sunday that he hoped China will "quickly quadruple its soybean orders," adding this would be a way to balance trade with the United States. As part of their May truce, fresh US tariffs targeting China were reduced to 30 percent and the corresponding level from China was cut to 10 per cent. Separately, since returning to the presidency in January, Trump has slapped a 10-per cent "reciprocal" tariff on almost all trading partners, aimed at addressing trade practices Washington deemed unfair. This surged to varying steeper levels last Thursday for dozens of economies. Major partners like the European Union, Japan and South Korea now see a 15-per cent US duty on many products, while the level went as high as 41 per cent for Syria. The "reciprocal" tariffs exclude sectors that have been targeted individually, such as steel and aluminum, and those that are being investigated like pharmaceuticals and semiconductors. They are also expected to exclude gold, although a clarification by US customs authorities made public last week caused concern that certain gold bars might still be targeted. Trump said Monday that gold imports will not face additional tariffs, without providing further details. The president has taken separate aim at individual countries such as Brazil over the trial of former president Jair Bolsonaro, who is accused of planning a coup, and India over its purchase of Russian oil. Canada and Mexico come under a different tariff regime.
Ammon
2 hours ago
- Ammon
Climate security is energy security
Ammon News - NEW YORK — For all the uncertainties generated by Donald Trump's administration over the past six months, one thing is clear: 'climate' technologies are out, and 'energy' technologies are in. But while going along with this rhetorical shift may appease some, it should be recognized for what it is: a change in wording. The fundamental economic and technological forces that are pushing the world away from oil, coal, and gas and toward low-carbon, high-efficiency technologies have not abated. Over the past two decades, climate change has been a leading item on the global agenda, driving efforts to deploy technologies that will reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Those efforts are now facing headwinds, and not just in the United States. Geopolitical developments elsewhere, like Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, have called attention to the importance of energy affordability and security over other considerations. Policymakers in the US, Europe, and elsewhere initially responded to the war by doubling down on the shift from fossil fuels, and for good reason. Oil, coal, and gas are commodities whose prices will always be linked to geopolitical vagaries (that goes for not only global oil markets but also regional gas markets, which are increasingly linked by trade in liquefied natural gas). As a case in point, the summer of 2022 brought massive inflation, largely driven by fossil-fuel price spikes. Europe's gas prices peaked at ten times their long-term average, and US gas prices at around triple their long-term average. While the US Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 is widely considered a misnomer, history will judge the name kindly: The only permanent way to address such bouts with 'fossilflation' is to stop using fossil fuels. Though the blowback against climate policies has been particularly strong at the federal level in the US, Europe, too, has undergone a retrenchment. This is somewhat understandable, even if it is shortsighted. Germany, Europe's largest economy, has been in a recession for more than two years, with high energy prices a chief culprit. Climate technologies that are already commercially viable could help, of course. But taking full advantage of the lower prices of solar, wind, and (increasingly) batteries requires a willingness to reform power markets and pass these savings to households and industrial consumers. It also calls for more upfront public investment, an area where climate priorities compete with other priorities like national security that are often perceived to be more immediate. In grappling with these tradeoffs, the European Union delivered the kinds of efficiency measures that Trump's 'Department of Government Efficiency' (DOGE) had promised but failed to achieve. For example, Europe dialed back its carbon border adjustment mechanism by requiring 90 per cent fewer companies to comply. On the surface, this seems like a decisive blow to the goal of establishing a carbon tariff for imports, commensurate with Trump's DOGE hatchet. But unlike Trump and Elon Musk, the EU ensured that the remaining 10 per cent of importers still accounted for over 90 per cent of emissions. This outcome is far from ideal when viewed solely through a climate lens. But viewed from a broader climate-economic perspective, it is exactly the kind of surgical intervention that DOGE promised but never delivered. Still, fiddling at the climate-policy margins ignores the bigger picture. While Europe and America are taking steps back, China is leaping forward. It alone accounted for over 40 per cent of the record $2.1 trillion of global investment in the energy transition last year – more than the EU, the United Kingdom, and the US combined. The balance is even more lopsided for specific clean-energy technologies. China produces around 75 per cent of the world's solar panels and 80 per cent of its lithium-ion batteries. That dominance is the result of a concerted green industrial policy, in which innovation plays a key role. The claim that China only manufactures and assembles is woefully outdated. China's electric vehicles, for example, are second to none. BYD, the country's leading carmaker, recently unveiled a groundbreaking charging system capable of adding 470 kilometers (292 miles) of range in just five minutes, putting the company in a league of its own globally. China's dominance extends to technologies that are not yet competitive without price support. LONGi, one of the world's top solar manufacturers, formed LONGi Hydrogen in 2021 to pursue green hydrogen production. It now leads the world in electrolyzer manufacturing capacity. These are not isolated examples. China's ambitious industrial policy has helped lift five other Chinese hydrogen companies into the global top ten. Have Europe and the US already lost this race for the future? While the US now seems hellbent on turning itself into a petrostate, the EU has a chance to revive its clean-energy fortunes. It is even starting with a significant policy advantage: a CO2 price hovering around $100 per metric ton means that most low-carbon technologies – from clean electrons and electrification to clean molecules like biofuels – are already economically viable. Others, like green hydrogen, will need further support to help climb the learning curve and slide down the cost curve. According to Bernd Heid, a senior partner at McKinsey & Company who leads its Platform for Climate Technologies, around 90 per cent of climate technologies will be in the money by 2030 with a $100 carbon price. While China dominates with six top-ten global players, three of the others are European. The Swedish startup Stegra is building the world's first low-carbon steel plant using electrolyzers made by ThyssenKrupp Nucera, in which the German steelmaker has a majority stake. Despite recent political developments, the US, too, has shown that rapid change is possible. Although breaking China's solar manufacturing dominance will be difficult, the US has made significant inroads just over the past three years. Earlier this year, it exceeded 50 gigawatts of panel manufacturing capacity, a fivefold increase since 2022. These 50 GW in panel supply roughly matched US demand. True, onshoring the solar supply chain comes with costs that can be justified only by priorities other than the climate, such as national security or promoting domestic manufacturing. But that is the point. If political conditions require stronger emphasis on technologies like geothermal and nuclear, and if technologies formerly known as 'climate tech' must be relabeled as more neutral-sounding 'energy tech,' so be it. The larger forces propelling us toward decarbonization remain the same.
