South Korea, car makers seek relief from US port fees on vehicle carriers
The U.S. Trade Representative announced the fees on April 17 as part of an ongoing effort to penalise some China-linked ships calling at U.S. ports with fees to fund a domestic shipbuilding revival and counter China's dominance on the high seas.
The fees have sent shockwaves though the vehicle carrier industry, because they go beyond targeting Chinese-built and Chinese-owned ships.
The Korea Automobile & Mobility Association, which represents Hyundai Motor (005380.KS), opens new tab, Kia (000270.KS), opens new tab and the South Korean units of General Motors (GM.N), opens new tab and Renault (RENA.PA), opens new tab, also raised concerns that the fees would impose "additional financial burdens on imported automobiles that are already subject to 25% tariffs," according to its comments submitted to the USTR.
"Such a measure risks imposing undue costs on companies, workers and consumers in both countries," South Korea's trade ministry and maritime ministry said in separate comments.
The auto association also highlighted Hyundai Motor Group's $21 billion investment plan announced by its chairman and U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House in March.
The rule "may in turn adversely impact the contributions that Korean firms are making to U.S. commerce," it said.
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BBC News
10 minutes ago
- BBC News
Summer of stink: Inside America's garbage labour dispute
Garbage bags overflowing in dumpsters. Flies buzzing in the air. Malodorous fumes wafting in the summer sun – an unsightly mess is plaguing American cities from coast to coast this employees of Republic Services – a Fortune 500 private waste-management company with municipal contracts across America - have been refusing to take out the trash since going on strike over three weeks Teamsters union, which represents the company's workers, say they are being paid far below other sanitation workers and receive worse benefits. But the company says the union isn't willing to compromise, and while relations rot, so does the garbage. The strike began on 1 July with Local 25, which serves 14 communities in the Greater Boston area, and spread to several other cities in the US: Manteca, California; Ottawa, Illinois; Cumming, Georgia; and Lacey, Washington. More employees stopped work in solidarity. "The cost of living is high – what they're offering, I wouldn't be able to live on that in a month," said Mike Ortiz, a truck driver from Malden, Massachusetts who's worked in the industry for 17 peak, effectively over 2,000 garbage collectors across the country weren't on the job, impacting millions of Americans. While Republic and the union have resolved some local disputes, there's plenty of workers still holding out. Waste strikes hit a nerve In the ocean-side city of Gloucester, about an hour north of Boston, the sharp smell of salt air has been undercut by the lingering funk of rotting garbage, and squawking seagulls circle overhead."I mean, if this were going on in, you know, November, December, it wouldn't be as noticeable, the smell of it," Greg Vargas, the city's mayor, told the become a major nuisance for the mayor, who has joined forces with five other towns to sue Republic over breach of contract."When they were talking to us before the strike, they said, don't worry about it, we're a national company. We'll have people in place and take care of everything," he recalled. "That has not been delivered on since day one."Meanwhile, Republic Services has sued the Teamsters, accusing it of engaging in illegal behaviour."The Teamsters' pattern of criminal behaviour -including truck theft, tire slashing, spraying chemicals on drivers and hate speech - demonstrates the union's preference for chaos over compromise," the company said in a union denies the accusations. Garbage collectors in major cities like New York and Philadelphia are public employees, but smaller metropolises have long outsourced to private companies, like Republic. Founded over 40 years ago, the company took in $16bn in revenue in 2024, and frequently appears on the Fortune 500 list. At the heart of its success story has been a promise to customers: we'll whisk your trash out of sight, and you won't have to think about when the trash piles up, things can get ugly. "We have these negative associations with waste, particularly smellier waste, that is associated with poverty and disease – other things we don't like to see or think about," said Sarah A Moore, a professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Wisconsin, can give striking workers leverage, she said. In Philadelphia, where a separate garbage strike made headlines this summer, it took just eight days for the city to reach a deal with public workers, after trash overflowed into the streets and residents complained of rats running Lacey, Washington, which is outside the capital city of Olympia, the union representing the workers there reached an agreement with Republic Services after about a week, ending the strike. It has also reached a deal with the union in Manteca, California, near bedraggled residents who spoke to the BBC near Lacey last week said they felt the workers' absence during the strike. They described dirty diapers piling up at home, and striking sanitation workers described working under dangerous and filthy conditions. Workers on the picket line complained that Republic has not maintained equipment since taking over the Thurston County dump around two years ago."Things are constantly breaking down," says Eric Fiel, a veteran sanitation worker whose team moves 1.5 million lbs of rubbish every day."We have a pump system that keeps breaking. Basically it just pools up. You're wading through this water. It's full of faeces, diapers, animal faeces, whatever comes through."Will Zekas, in Lacey, told the BBC he appreciated the national effort that happened around the US, and attributed it to his union's ability to negotiate a better contract."Power lies in the solidarity," he said. Talks break down and trash piles up In the parts of Massachusetts affected by the Teamsters Local 25 strike, there appears to be no sign of a quick resolution. Mr Ortiz said the union and the company were farther away then ever on pay and health-care accuses the other of misrepresenting the conflict."Republic Services is focused on facts and reaching an agreement that provides our employees with market-leading pay and benefits, while Teamsters leadership is focused on disinformation and disruption," the company said in a towns and cities are having to get creative - and dig into their own pockets - to keep the trash under towns have created dump sites where residents can bring their own refuse. Gloucester has diverted some municipal workers to pickup duty, while other cities have had to outsource to different private contractors. The additional cost has been cited in the lawsuit against even cities that don't work with Republic are struggling to deal with the stalemate. In Boston, where many local businesses rely on the company for private collection, Mayor Michelle Wu said she would start fining Republic for failure to clear trash: "Your inability to collect trash from your customers due to the ongoing labor dispute at Republic Services is taking an unacceptable toll on Boston's residents, businesses, and neighborhoods."At a coffee shop in Malden, a few miles north of Boston, a garbage dumpster was overflowing on Wednesday, attracting a cloud of buzzing insects."It's been horrible, terrible, really. I don't know how to explain how frustrating it is," said business-owner Glaicy Santos. "We need the trash to be picked up every week because we have a lot of trash. When that doesn't happen, then that creates a big problem for us. And then it also becomes mosquitoes out there, or other rodents could be out there."She's not sure how much more she can take, but she may have a while to wait. Negotiations broke off last Friday, and the two parties have no date scheduled to head back to the bargaining table.
Sky News
40 minutes ago
- Sky News
Company at heart of Coldplay viral video releases tongue-in-cheek clip - with a big twist
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Reuters
2 hours ago
- Reuters
CK Hutchison ports deal deadline likely to be extended as geopolitics weigh, sources say
HONG KONG, July 25 (Reuters) - CK Hutchison's ( opens new tab plan to sell most of its $22.8 billion ports business is unlikely to be finalised anytime soon, with political brinkmanship set to continue, and sources saying that a Sunday deadline for exclusive talks was likely to be extended. The Hong Kong conglomerate's plan to sell the business, which would include two ports along the strategically important Panama Canal, to a consortium led by BlackRock (BLK.N), opens new tab and Italian billionaire Gianluigi Aponte's family-run shipping company MSC, has become politicised amid an escalating China-U.S. trade war. Negotiations for the deal, which covers 43 ports in 23 countries, are on an exclusive basis between CK Hutchison, controlled by Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing, and the consortium for 145 days until Sunday, according to the terms announced in March. The deal talks, however, are unlikely to collapse if the two parties do not ink a pact by Sunday, with three people close to the ports-to-telecoms conglomerate saying the parties could extend the deadline to continue exclusive negotiations. The first part of the deal - definitive documentation to sell two port operations near the Panama Canal - was also not signed by an April 2 deadline set in the sales announcement. The people declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter. BlackRock declined to comment. CK Hutchison and MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company, which CK Hutchison said in May was the main investor in the consortium, did not respond to requests for comment. U.S. President Donald Trump hailed the deal as "reclaiming" the Panama Canal, after his administration previously called for the removal of what it said was Chinese ownership of the ports near the canal. But in April, China's top market regulator said that it was paying close attention to CK Hutchison's planned sale and that parties to the deal should not try to avoid an antitrust review. Beijing's stance on the planned deal was made public after pro-China media launched a stinging criticism, saying China had significant national interests in the transaction and it would be a betrayal of the country. "I think at this moment it's not very optimistic that they can directly sell the ports to the consortium," said Jackson Chan, global fixed income senior manager at FSMOne Hong Kong, which has clients holding CK Hutchison bonds. "The market has already digested the news, even if it announces next week that it won't sell anymore, I don't think it'll be a shock because the market understands it wouldn't have a large impact on its operations." CK Hutchison shares, which jumped 33% the following two days after the deal was announced in early March, erased all of the gains by mid-April. But since then it regained lost ground along with the rise in the broader Hong Kong market index (.HSI), opens new tab. The outlook for the deal has been clouded further in recent days, with a separate source telling Reuters that Chinese ports operator China Cosco Shipping Corp (COSCO) was also looking to join the consortium to buy the ports business. COSCO is requesting veto rights or equivalent power in the entity that will take over 43 ports from CK Hutchison, Bloomberg News reported this week, citing people familiar with the matter. COSCO did not respond to a request for comment. Responding to Reuters' emailed queries on the deal prospects and possible involvement of COSCO in the consortium, a White House official said: "As the president said, we didn't give it to China. We gave it to Panama, and we're taking it back." The official did not elaborate. The existing consortium would likely allow COSCO into the deal, said Cathy Seifert, an analyst at CFRA Research. "The bigger risk to the deal being consummated, in my opinion, is likely the Trump administration, which is likely to block a deal that would include China," said the New Jersey-based analyst who tracks BlackRock. Ballingal Investment Advisors strategist David Blennerhassett, who publishes on the independent online research platform Smartkarma, said the addition of COSCO in the consortium was likely to enrage Trump. "Trump, who has a handful of issues already on his plate, would be incandescent," he said.
