‘We're blowing everyone away': Trump shrugs off Latin American nations looking to China
Donald Trump on Thursday said he was not worried about
Brazil
Mexico and other Latin American nations moving closer to China, telling reporters in the Oval Office, 'They can do whatever they want.'
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The remarks came during a brief exchange at the White House. Trump added: 'You know, none of them are doing very well, and what we're doing in terms of economics, we're blowing everyone away, including China. We're doing better than any other country in the world right now.'
Trump's comments came as Brazil steps up coordination with Beijing to mount a multilateral response to the tariffs he imposed last month.
On Tuesday, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
spoke for about an hour by phone with Chinese leader Xi Jinping to discuss the 'Brics bloc's role in countering unilateral trade measures'.
The call was arranged after Washington announced a 50 per cent tariff on a wide range of Brazilian exports in late July, threatening billions of dollars in trade.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva spoke by phone this week as the two nations step up coordination. Photo: AFP
Trump has linked the tariffs to Brazil's political crisis, citing the criminal prosecution of former president Jair Bolsonaro on charges of
plotting to overturn the 2022 election
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AllAfrica
35 minutes ago
- AllAfrica
Inequality, taxes and a false fiscal dilemma in Singapore
Since its inception, Singapore's paramount economic advantage has lain in its seamless integration with global markets, attracting vast foreign investment and driving trade flows that transformed it from a sleepy entrepot into a burgeoning metropolis. Yet the turbulence unleashed by Donald Trump's tariff wars has starkly illuminated how such openness can become a strategic liability. With Singapore's GDP forecast for 2025 recently slashed to a mere 1.7% — a precipitous decline from the twenty-year average of 4.2% — it's time to reconsider the island-nation's fiscal paradigm to catalyze economic stimulus and fortify long-term resilience. Two fiscal levers merit particular scrutiny: the Goods and Services Tax (GST), a 9% consumption levy and the Net Investment Returns Contribution (NIRC), which channels returns from GIC, Temasek and the Monetary Authority of Singapore into the national budget. Parliamentary discourse has misleadingly cast these instruments in binary terms. The Workers' Party and Progress Singapore Party have advocated increasing the share of the NIRC used for public spending from 50% to 60%, potentially unlocking S$4 billion to S$5 billion (US$3.1 billion to US$3.9 billion) annually to boost the economy and strengthen social safety nets. Both have also proposed targeted GST relief, whether through the PSP's call for a rollback to 7%, or the WP's push for exemptions on essential goods. Meanwhile, the incumbent People's Action Party (PAP) remains wedded to the austere status quo, preserving the full GST rate while stockpiling national reserves for our 'rainy day fund.' To avert further economic torpor, Singapore must confront its two greatest exigencies: persistent inequality and an impending demographic crisis. The PAP should therefore harness the full spectrum of government resources by synthesizing salient opposition fiscal proposals into a hybrid framework — maintaining the existing GST structure while augmenting NIRC expenditure. Contrary to the PAP's postulations, Singapore has considerable scope to responsibly expand NIRC spending. The party routinely echoes the plight of Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand during the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis as proof that insufficient reserves can catalyze currency collapses. But this narrative is patchy at best. Those countries suffered from profound structural vulnerabilities, including fragile financial systems, vast short-term foreign-currency debts and inadequate reserves. Even South Korea, which benefitted from relatively robust investor confidence, was beset by comparable systemic risks, as exemplified by its parlously overleveraged chaebols and limited domestic savings base. None of these conditions applies to contemporary Singapore. With a meticulously regulated financial system, Singapore is the only country in Asia to boast a AAA credit rating. The country commands approximately US$511 billion in foreign exchange reserves. This comprises a minute fraction of the total estimated S$1.9 trillion, yielding an extraordinary reserves-to-GDP ratio of just under 300%, one rivaled only by resource-rich states such as Qatar and Norway. Crucially, the WP and PSP merely wish to modestly increase the share of investment returns allocated for public expenditure, not the assets themselves – hardly a radical adjustment that would imperil the country's formidable fiscal bulwark. The government's stringent criteria for reserve utilization further underline the infrequency with which such funds are deployed; over the past two decades, reserves have been tapped only twice: S$4.9 billion during the 2008 global financial crisis (which was fully replenished within two years), and S$40 billion amid the highly unprecedented Covid-19 pandemic. Former Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's admonition to restrain NIRC spending, given the unpredictability of future crises ranging from geopolitical upheavals to climate threats, should buttress rather than diminish the imperative to address pressing domestic challenges. Unmitigated, these internal issues could pose even graver risks to Singapore's long-term prosperity, increasing the necessity for emergency withdrawals in future crises. The merits of raising public spending also rationalize maintaining the GST at its current rate. While the WP and PSP rightly highlight its disproportionate burden on lower-income households, the GST confers irreplaceable advantages. It preserves Singapore's fiscal flexibility to sustain ultra-competitive personal and corporate tax rates, a pivotal asset given the city-state's dependence on foreign capital inflows. Moreover, the PAP correctly notes that as a broad-based consumption tax, GST revenue is significantly underpinned by tourists, expatriates, and the wealthiest 20% of residents, who account for 70% of total collections. Instead, transfer schemes such as GST-V should be bolstered to mitigate the GST's regressive impact. Inequality remains alarmingly rampant; even after accounting for such transfers, the bottom 10% and 20% of households only earn 15% and 30% of the median income, respectively, disparities that are both morally indefensible and economically detrimental. Financial insecurity deters lower-income individuals from risk-taking, whether by seeking better-suited employment or entrepreneurial ventures such as heartland food stalls, thereby stifling overall productivity. Furthermore, this inequity renders these groups disproportionately susceptible to economic shocks, escalating the future fiscal burden of crisis support. Additional revenues should be channelled into two pivotal areas to unlock the potential of lower-wage workers, investments that promise handsome rewards. The first involves upskilling initiatives, particularly SkillsFuture, which remain largely inaccessible to those most in need. Employer support is markedly skewed, with 69% of degree holders receiving training sponsorship compared to just 41% of those with only secondary education, and the scarcity of hybrid and online learning options further restricts participation among lower-income workers constrained by time. Enhanced funding could redress these gaps and facilitate upward mobility, an especially critical priority in the face of rising automation risks. Secondly, the increased spending from the NIRC and GST could bolster Singapore's SMEs, which employ lower-income workers more often than larger companies. 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Sean Tan is a former King's Scholar at Eton College and intern at the Center for International Governance Innovation. He has also written articles for St Antony's International Review Oxford, Yale's undergraduate US-China magazine 'China Hands', Oxford Political Review and several other notable publications.
AllAfrica
an hour ago
- AllAfrica
India's hand in Trump tariff row stronger than it looks
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The more the West applies pressure, the more New Delhi is likely to deepen its ties with BRICS and other non-Western coalitions that offer strategic autonomy in a multipolar world. Ricardo Martins holds a PhD in sociology with a specialization in geopolitics and international relations and an advanced studies certificate in international trade. He is based in the Netherlands.
RTHK
2 hours ago
- RTHK
Mexico strikes deal for tri-national 'Earth's lung'
Mexico strikes deal for tri-national 'Earth's lung' Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo hosts his Mexican counterpart Claudia Sheinbaum in Peten, Guatemala. Photo: Reuters The leaders of Mexico, Guatemala and Belize have announced they are creating a tri-national nature reserve to protect the Mayan rain forest following a meeting during which they also discussed expanding a Mexican train line criticised for slicing through jungle habitat. The nature reserve would stretch across jungled areas of southern Mexico and northern parts of the two Central American nations, encompassing more than 5.7 million hectares. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum called the move 'historic' and said it would create the second biggest nature reserve in Latin America, behind the Amazon rain forest. 'This is one of Earth's lungs, a living space for thousands of species with an invaluable cultural legacy that we should preserve with our eyes on the future,' she said, standing side by side with Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo and Belize Prime Minister Johnny Briceno. The announcement was met with cautious celebration by environmental groups like Mexico-based Selvame, who have sharply criticised the Mexican government and Sheinbaum's allies in recent years for environmental destruction wrought by megaprojects like a controversial train line, known as the Maya Train. The group said in statement that the reserve was a 'monumental step for conservation" but that it hoped that the reserve was more than just 'symbolic'. 'We're in a race against the clock. Real estate and construction companies are invading the jungle, polluting our ecosystems, and endangering both the water we consume, and the communities that depend on it,' the group wrote. It called on Sheinbaum's government to put an effective monitoring system in place to 'stop any destructive activities'. At the same time, the leaders also discussed a proposal by Mexico to expand the very train line those environmental groups have long fought from southern Mexico to Guatemala and Belize. The 1,600-kilometre train route currently runs in a rough loop around Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, and was created with the purpose of connecting Mexico's popular Caribbean resorts with remote jungle and Mayan archaeological sites in rural areas. However, it has fuelled controversy and legal battles as it sliced through swathes of jungle and damaged a delicate cave system in Mexico that serves as the area's main source of water. In a span of four years, authorities cut down approximately seven million trees, according to government figures. Sheinbaum's mentor and predecessor former president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador fast-tracked the train project without detailed environmental studies. The populist repeatedly ignored orders from judges to stop construction due to environmental concerns and publicly attacked environmentalists warning about damage done to fragile ecosystems. Lopez Obrador first proposed the idea of expanding the train to Guatemala, and Sheinbaum has continued to push for the project. On Friday, she said the extension would usher in development in rural areas with few economic opportunities. But Arevalo was already on record saying Guatemala's laws would not allow it to be built through protected jungle in the north of the country, and he said on Friday he sees the economic potential of the project to the jungle region but remained adamant that the construction should not come with the kind of environmental damage that it inflicted in Mexico. 'Connecting the Maya Train with Guatemala and eventually with Belize is a vision we share,' Arevalo said. But 'I've made it very clear at all times that the Maya Train will not pass through any protected area.' (AP)
