BREAKING NEWS: Trump complains about Japan not importing enough American rice
KYODO NEWS - 4 minutes ago - 03:10 | Others
BREAKING NEWS: Trump complains about Japan not importing enough American rice
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The Diplomat
12 minutes ago
- The Diplomat
Indonesia to Relax Import Restrictions as US Tariff Deadline Looms
Jakarta says that the measures will aid its tariff negotiations with the Trump administration, while advancing its broader economic goals. Indonesia will relax import restrictions and rules on a selection of goods in an apparent concession in its ongoing tariff negotiations with the United States. This is aimed at enhancing Indonesia's competitiveness and making it easier to do business in the country. Speaking at a press conference yesterday, Airlangga Hartarto, the coordinating minister for economic affairs, said that the government would ease import regulations on 10 groups of commodities, including fertilizers, footwear, and bicycles. The change will also exclude some industrial raw materials, including plastic and chemical products, from the import restriction list. Airlangga said that the changes 'would come into effect in two months.' Satya Bhakti Parikesit, an official in the Indonesian Ministry of State Secretariat, said that President Prabowo Subianto had 'instructed all ministerial bodies to ensure the process of business licensing is not hindered by a long bureaucratic process.' According to Bloomberg, Airlangga said that the measures would both aid ongoing tariff negotiations with the United States and support Jakarta's broader economic goals, including its aims of finalizing a trade deal with the European Union and joining the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The loosening of import regulations on these goods will be matched by a further tightening on ready-made garments and accessories, in a bid to prevent domestic manufacturers from being swamped by cheap imports, particularly from China. As per Bloomberg, 'restrictions remain unchanged for strategic goods, including rice, salt, fisheries products, goods related to security and health, and goods produced by labor-intensive industries such as some textiles, iron and steel.' The problem of red tape was among the numerous non-tariff barriers identified by the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) in a report published in late March. The report claimed that Indonesia's overly complicated bureaucracy has long been a concern for many companies operating in Indonesia, including American ones, 'due to numerous, overlapping import licensing requirements that impede market access.' The USTR argues that this has contributed to its $17.9 billion goods trade deficit with the country. The deficit formed the mathematical basis for U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to impose a 32 percent 'reciprocal' tariff on Indonesian goods during his 'liberation day' tariff announcement on April 2. The tariff is due to come into effect on July 9, and Indonesian officials continue to negotiate with their U.S. counterparts over a fair resolution. With next week's U.S. tariff negotiation deadline fast approaching, Airlangga told reporters on Friday that the Indonesian government had approved several U.S. government proposals for tariffs and trade barriers and had submitted what he described as 'Indonesia's second-best offer.' 'We have fulfilled several U.S. requests regarding tariffs, non-tariff barriers, and commercial matters,' he said, adding that U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had expressed a willingness to accommodate a number of Indonesian concessions. Indonesia has previously proposed relaxing some of its local content requirements – another significant non-tariff barrier identified in the USTR's report – as a carrot to the Trump administration. In particular, Prabowo has proposed reducing the requirement on government procurements that will permit any state ministry and institution to buy products with 25 percent locally produced content, down from the current minimum of 40 percent. Also yesterday, Airlangga said that Indonesia has invited U.S. firms to invest in its critical minerals sector, in collaboration with the country's new sovereign investment fund, Danantara.
The Mainichi
an hour ago
- The Mainichi
Bush, Obama -- and singer Bono -- fault Trump's gutting of USAID on agency's last day
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush delivered rare open criticism of the Trump administration -- and singer Bono recited a poem -- in an emotional video farewell Monday with staffers of the U.S. Agency for International Development. Obama called the Trump administration's dismantling of USAID "a colossal mistake." Monday was the last day as an independent agency for the six-decade-old humanitarian and development organization, created by President John F. Kennedy as a peaceful way of promoting U.S. national security by boosting goodwill and prosperity abroad. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has ordered USAID absorbed into the State Department on Tuesday. The former presidents and Bono spoke with thousands in the USAID community in a videoconference, which was billed as a closed-press event to allow political leaders and others privacy for sometimes angry and often teary remarks. Parts of the video were shared with The Associated Press. They expressed their appreciation for the thousands of USAID staffers who have lost their jobs and life's work. Their agency was one of the first and most fiercely targeted for government-cutting by President Donald Trump and his billionaire ally Elon Musk, with staffers abruptly locked out of systems and offices and terminated by mass emailing. Trump claimed the agency was run by "radical left lunatics" and rife with "tremendous fraud." Musk called it "a criminal organization." Obama, speaking in a recorded statement, offered assurances to the aid and development workers, some listening from overseas. "Your work has mattered and will matter for generations to come," he told them. Obama has largely kept a low public profile during Trump's second term and refrained from criticizing the monumental changes that Trump has made to U.S. programs and priorities at home and abroad. "Gutting USAID is a travesty, and it's a tragedy. Because it's some of the most important work happening anywhere in the world," Obama said. He credited USAID with not only saving lives, but being a main factor in global economic growth that has turned some aid-receiving countries into U.S. markets and trade partners. The former Democratic president predicted that "sooner or later, leaders on both sides of the aisle will realize how much you are needed." Asked for comment, the State Department said it would be introducing the department's foreign assistance successor to USAID, to be called America First, this week. "The new process will ensure there is proper oversight and that every tax dollar spent will help advance our national interests," the department said. USAID oversaw programs around the world, providing water and life-saving food to millions uprooted by conflict in Sudan, Syria, Gaza and elsewhere, sponsoring the "Green Revolution" that revolutionized modern agriculture and curbed starvation and famine, preventing disease outbreaks, promoting democracy, and providing financing and development that allowed countries and people to climb out of poverty. Bush, who also spoke in a recorded message, went straight to the cuts in a landmark AIDS and HIV program started by his Republican administration and credited with saving 25 million lives around the world. Bipartisan blowback from Congress to cutting the popular President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, known as PEPFAR, helped save significant funding for the program. But cuts and rule changes have reduced the number getting the life-saving care. "You've showed the great strength of America through your work -- and that is your good heart,'' Bush told USAID staffers. "Is it in our national interests that 25 million people who would have died now live? I think it is, and so do you," he said. Former Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, former Colombian President Juan Manual Santos and former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield also spoke to the staffers. So did humanitarian workers, including one who spoke of the welcome appearance of USAID staffers with food when she was a frightened 8-year-old child in a camp for Liberian refugees. A World Food Program official vowed through sobs that the U.S. aid mission would be back someday. Bono, a longtime humanitarian advocate in Africa and elsewhere, was announced as the "surprise guest," in shades and a cap. He jokingly hailed the USAID staffers as "secret agents of international development" in acknowledgment of the down-low nature of Monday's unofficial gathering of the USAID community. Bono spoke passionately as he recited a poem he had written to the agency and its gutting. He spoke of children dying of malnutrition, in a reference to people -- millions, experts have said -- who will die because of the U.S cuts to funding for health and other programs abroad. "They called you crooks. When you were the best of us," Bono said.
NHK
3 hours ago
- NHK
Trump administration threatens to cut all funding from Harvard
The administration of US President Donald Trump says an investigation into Harvard University found that the school failed to respond to discrimination against Jewish students. The administration said antisemitism is unacceptable and threatened to cut all federal funding from the school if it fails to act. Harvard is one of the universities where students held rallies to protest Israel's offensive in Gaza. The administration's Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism sent a letter to Harvard on Monday. It said it concluded that the university is "in violent violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin." The task force cited "anti-Semitic harassment of Jewish students, faculty, and staff." It said Jewish and Israeli students were denied access to campus spaces. The letter warned that a failure to "institute adequate changes immediately will result in the loss of all federal financial resources" for Harvard. The administration has kept up pressure on Harvard. It froze billions of dollars in grants and contracts to the university, and revoked the school's ability to enroll foreign students. It is demanding Harvard keep an eye on pro-Palestine students and drop its diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Trump wrote on social media on June 20 that it is "very possible" that a deal with Harvard will be announced "over the next week or so." Trump added that Harvard acted "extremely appropriately" during talks with the administration. Since then, no announcement has been made on the matter. In response to the letter, Harvard said in a statement that the school has taken "substantive, proactive steps" to address antisemitism on the campus.
