JGBs Edge Lower; Focus Likely on U.S. Tariffs
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CNBC
14 minutes ago
- CNBC
President Trump announces 25% tariffs on Japan and South Korea starting August 1st
CNBC's Megan Cassella joins 'The Exchange' to discuss Trump announcing 25% tariffs on Japan and South Kore starting August 1st.
Yahoo
16 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Deals made by Trump since pausing his 'Liberation Day' tariffs remain sparse
NEW YORK (AP) — Just over three months ago, President Donald Trump unveiled his most sweeping volley of tariffs yet — holding up large charts from the White House Rose Garden to outline new import taxes that the U.S. would soon slap on goods from nearly every country in the world. But in line with much of Trump's on-again, off-again trade policy playbook, the bulk of those 'Liberation Day' levies in April were postponed just hours after they took effect — in a 90-day suspension that arrived in an apparent effort to quell global market panic and facilitate country-by-country negotiations. At that time, the administration set a lofty goal of reaching 90 trade deals in 90 days. Now, with the July 9 deadline looming, the U.S. has only announced pacts with the United Kingdom and Vietnam — as well as a 'framework″ agreement with China in a separate trade dispute. News of these deals often trickled through social media posts from the president and, even when countries on both sides of a negotiation table made more official announcements, many key details — including timing — were sparse. The Trump administration has since hinted that some trading partners might get more time for talks. Over the July 4th holiday weekend, Trump said that the U.S. would start sending letters to certain countries warning that higher tariffs could kick in Aug. 1. Trump took to Truth Social on Monday to share letters he sent to the leaders of Japan and South Korea, declaring that both countries would see 25% tariffs on goods entering the U.S. starting Aug. 1. Even with negotiations ongoing, most countries have still faced a minimum 10% levy on goods entering the U.S. over the past three months, on top of punishing new taxes targeting foreign steel and aluminum as well as auto imports. The 90-day pause pushed back additional steeper rates, which Trump calls 'reciprocal' tariffs, for dozens of nations. Here's what we know about the trade deals announced since April. Vietnam On July 2, Trump announced a trade deal with Vietnam that he said would allow U.S. goods to enter the country duty-free. Vietnamese exports to the United States, by contrast, would face a 20% levy. That's less than half the 46% 'reciprocal' rate Trump proposed for Vietnamese goods back in April. But in addition to the new 20% tariff rate, Trump said the U.S. would impose a 40% tax on 'transshipping'' — targeting goods from another country that stop in Vietnam on their way to the United States. Washington complains that Chinese goods have been dodging higher U.S. tariffs by transiting through Vietnam. It wasn't immediately clear when these new rates would go into effect or whether they would come on top of any other previously-imposed levies. Like most other countries, Vietnam has faced Trump's 10% baseline tariff for the last three months. United Kingdom On May 8, Trump agreed to cut tariffs on British autos, steel and aluminum, among other trade pledges — while the U.K. promised to reduce levies on U.S. products like olive oil, wine and sports equipment. The deal was announced in grandiose terms by both countries, but some key details remained unknown for weeks. When the deal was announced, for example, the British government notably said that the U.S. agreed to exempt the U.K. from its then-universal 25% duties on foreign steel and aluminum — which would have effectively allowed both metals from the country to come into the U.S. duty-free. But the timing for when those cuts would actually take effect stayed up in the air for almost a month. It wasn't until early June, when Trump hiked his steel and aluminum tariffs to a punishing 50% worldwide, that the U.S. acknowledged it was time to implement the agreement. And even then, U.S. tariffs on British steel and aluminum did not go to zero. The U.K. was the only country spared from Trump's new 50% levies, but still faces 25% import taxes on the metals — and Trump said that rate could also go up on or after Wednesday. The U.K. did not receive a higher 'reciprocal' rate on April 2, but continues to face the 10% baseline tax. China At its peak, Trump's new tariffs on Chinese goods totaled 145% — and China's countertariffs on American products reached 125%. But on May 12, the countries agreed to their own 90-day truce to roll back those levies to 30% and 10%, respectively. And last month, details began trickling in about a tentative trade agreement. On June 11, following talks in London, Trump announced a 'framework' for a deal. And late last month, the U.S. and China both acknowledged that some sort of agreement had been reached. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that China had agreed to make it easier for American firms to acquire Chinese magnets and rare earth minerals critical for manufacturing and microchip production. Meanwhile, without explicitly mentioning U.S. access to rare earths, the Chinese Commerce Ministry said that it would 'review and approve eligible export applications for controlled items' and that the U.S. would 'lift a series of restrictive measures it had imposed on China." More specifics about those measures — and when they would actually go into effect — were not immediately clear. But on Friday, the Ministry of Commerce acknowledged that the U.S. was resuming exports of airplane parts, ethane and other items to China. And when Trump first announced the framework on June 11, the U.S. had said it agreed to stop seeking to revoke the visas of Chinese students on U.S. college campuses. _________ AP Reporters Aniruddha Ghosal in Hanoi, Paul Wiseman and Fu Ting in Washington, D.C., and Huizhong Wu in Bangkok contributed to this report. Wyatte Grantham-philips, The Associated Press 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
New York Times
18 minutes ago
- New York Times
Trump Administration Live Updates: President Announces New Tariffs of 25% on Goods From Japan and S. Korea
President Trump is set to rekindle economic pressure on America's trading partners this week, as a deadline for making trade deals elapses and the administration begins notifying countries of the tariffs they'll face on exports to the United States. For 90 days, the administration has been trying to reach trade pacts with dozens of countries in an attempt to lower economic barriers to U.S. exports. In April, the president imposed stiff global tariffs on nearly every trading partner but paused most of those levies until July 9 to try and win concessions. So far, the United States has reached only two preliminary trade deals, with Britain and with Vietnam, which are scant on details and leave much to be worked out. More such limited trade deals could be announced in the coming days, including an initial trade framework with India. Countries that have so far agreed to trade deals, even preliminary handshake agreements, have qualified for lower tariff rates than what Mr. Trump threatened in April. Other countries that have not reached agreements are expected to face sharply higher tariffs, although the president and his advisers have recently implied that the tariffs may not go into effect until Aug. 1, rather than on July 9. Still, with tariffs threatening to strain diplomatic relations and bring some global commerce to a halt, a delay of a few weeks may not to do much to soothe many foreign governments. It could also further unsettle financial markets, which revolted when Mr. Trump initially announced his global tariffs, a meltdown that prompted Mr. Trump to institute the 90-day delay. Mr. Trump said late Sunday that his administration would begin sending out letters on Monday at noon Eastern to trading partners dictating the tariff rates their products would face. He also threatened an additional 10 percent tariff against countries aligned with 'the anti-American policies of BRICS,' using an acronym for a group of countries that includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Whether Mr. Trump's pugilistic approach forces countries to agree to quick trade deals or incites retaliation and trade wars will be a critical test for the president's extraordinarily aggressive and unpredictable approach to international trade. Since taking office Mr. Trump has raised tariffs to levels not seen in a century, before abruptly pausing many of them. Mr. Trump's supporters argue that his tariff threats have created leverage to forge new agreements and secure better terms for American businesses and the economy. Critics say his tactics have disrupted global trade flows and financial markets and stripped businesses of the certainty they need to plan, resulting in higher prices, less investment and slower economic growth for the country. The president's announcement of steep global tariffs in April threw stock and bond markets into turmoil — in part because the levies were incredibly punishing for many of the nation's biggest trading partners. Mr. Trump was persuaded to pause his tariffs for a period of 90 days, which calmed markets, and convinced some investors and analysts that, although the president sees tariff threats as a valuable source of leverage, he would stop short of imposing tariffs at a level that would disrupt markets or cause severe harm to the economy. But in recent months, the president himself has repeatedly called that idea into question. In May, he threatened to impose a 50 percent flat tariff on the European Union, saying the bloc was not offering enough concessions. He then paused those levies until July 9. Mr. Trump continues to profess a belief in the value of tariffs as a way to balance out international trade relationships and finally make the world more fair for U.S. businesses, which he says have long been ripped off by foreigners. While Mr. Trump's advisers praise him as a consummate deal maker, the president has often seemed more interested in maintaining high tariffs on foreign goods than in striking trade deals that would lower economic barriers for American companies and encourage more international business flows. Speaking to reporters on Air Force One on July 4, the president said he had quickly decided what tariff rate to apply to foreign countries. 'I've been looking at it for many years,' he said. 'Frankly, I think it's ridiculous that countries were able to get away with so much.' The government's trade negotiators have also been overwhelmed as they try to simultaneously hammer out trade deals with multiple partners. Dozens of countries, ranging from South Korea and Malaysia to Lesotho and Switzerland, have reached out to the United States in recent months to try to reach an agreement that would prevent the Trump administration from applying hefty tariffs to their exports. 'People are just extremely stretched,' said Wendy Cutler, a vice president of the Asia Society Policy Institute and a former U.S. trade negotiator. Some of those negotiations have proceeded swiftly, propelled by common interests and good relations. Vietnam and the United Kingdom, for example, have agreed to open their markets to U.S. agriculture, buy more Boeing airplanes and cut down on certain ties to China, among other changes. Last week, Mr. Trump's threats against Canada also appeared to produce rapid results. After Mr. Trump said in late June that he would suspend trade talks with Canada over its digital services tax on American tech companies, the Canadian government abruptly scrapped the measure. 'Deals with Vietnam and other countries may very well show that there's method to the tariff madness,' said Michael Wessel, a longtime trade adviser. 'The devil, of course, is in the details, but it's well past time to rebalance the playing field,' he added. Still, many other businesses say the tariff threats have been extremely disruptive and there appears to be little evidence in the U.S. economic data yet that tariffs are broadly helping manufacturers. Instead, the uncertainty created by Mr. Trump's tariff threats appears to be slowing investment and hiring, potentially backfiring on the president's plans to boost U.S. factory activity. Spending on construction of factories in the United States has fallen since Mr. Trump was elected in November, and the number of Americans working in factories has slumped since last year. In recent months, U.S. manufacturers have shed roughly thousands of jobs, though growth in health care and other sectors has eclipsed those losses and resulted in strong employment data. It remains to be seen whether the tariffs Mr. Trump may reimpose in the coming weeks will again set off a drop in the stock markets or pushback from industry. But the president shows little sign of backing away from using his favorite trade tool to try to cow foreign countries and businesses into concessions. The legitimacy of the president's global tariffs has been called into question by U.S. courts, and some of his tariffs could be declared illegal this fall. Still, administration officials have said they have other legal authorities they could turn to in that event to pursue similar policies. Even for those countries that have struck deals with the Trump administration, tariffs remain extraordinarily high, creating a tax on both American consumers and importing businesses that economists expect to drag on economic activity. Exports from the United Kingdom remain subject to a 10 percent universal tariff, which the Trump administration shows no signs of dropping, even for America's closest allies. The preliminary trade deal with Vietnam lowers tariffs on some Vietnamese products to 20 percent rather than the 46 percent Mr. Trump threatened in April. But many business groups that rely on imports from Vietnam, such as the footwear industry, say that 20 percent rate will raise costs for American consumers. It is also not clear what the deal with Vietnam actually entails. The president announced the agreement with Vietnam on social media last week, but no text or other fact sheets have yet been released by the governments. Other major trading partners, like the European Union and Japan, have proven more challenging to negotiate with. Like other governments, the European Union and Japan remain wary of additional tariffs the president has imposed or is still threatening on their critical sectors, like automobiles, pharmaceuticals and steel. They have also been reluctant to open their markets to American agricultural exports that could undercut their own farmers. If the Trump administration does not strike deals with major trading partners, it could end up stoking trade wars instead. Foreign governments including the European Union have prepared retaliatory packages of tariffs on U.S. exports that they are threatening to impose if hit by further American levies. John Raines, Head of North America, economics and country risk at S&P Global Market Intelligence, said in a note that many trading partners that were currently negotiating might see their tariffs paused, but that there were many 'caveats to bear in mind.' Reaching a provisional trade deal could increase trade policy certainty at least temporarily for a country. But it does not necessarily mean tariffs will be low, as some countries face tariffs much higher than the universal 10 percent levy set by Mr. Trump. Even countries that reach deals may still face future tariffs that Mr. Trump intends to impose on critical sectors like electronics and pharmaceuticals, Mr. Raines said. But he said that Mr. Trump could also quickly back down again after imposing higher tariffs, as he has on previous occasions. 'Countries or territories threatened with higher tariffs may experience such tariffs lasting only days or weeks, as the administration may back down as a result of adverse market conditions, or if it perceives that negotiations have progressed positively following the initiation of the higher tariff threat,' he wrote. Tyler Pager contributed reporting.
