How Europe could go ‘MEGA' very soon
The government in the Netherlands has just been felled by an anti-migrant firebrand.
The Telegraph London
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West Australian
an hour ago
- West Australian
THE ECONOMIST: Ship happens — supply chains reroute as nations push back on Donald Trump's trade tariff war
The 'Trump Round' of trade negotiations, as Jamieson Greer, America's trade representative, calls it, was meant to reassert American primacy. Peter Navarro, a longtime adviser to Donald Trump, even suggested that the president deserved a Nobel prize in economics for showing how the world's biggest market can bend global commerce to its will. The White House's bet is that dismantling the old order, once policed — however fitfully — by the World Trade Organisation, will usher in a new one with America at its centre. Yet by acting as if America remains the axis of world trade, Mr Trump may be accelerating its shift elsewhere. The world's biggest market is less central in global trade today than it once was. At the start of the century, America accounted for a fifth of global imports; today it makes up just an eighth. Even as countries strike tariff deals with Mr Trump to secure market access, they are drawing up alternatives. As one South Korean official puts it, 'The first step is to make concessions to America. The second is to look elsewhere.' Around the world, governments are hedging against the end of the old economic order in different ways. Some are propping up local firms with subsidies and protectionism. Others are seeking new markets. And the boldest are forging alliances to counterbalance America's clout. The choice for many is not between deference to Washington or a Hobbesian state of nature, but between short-term fixes and longer-term alternatives. Given Mr Trump's predilection for levies and the tendency for taxes to outlast their creator, handouts to trade-war victims risk wasting money and distorting markets. Brazil has unveiled a $US6 billion ($9.2b) credit package, which includes tax holidays and state-purchasing guarantees. With public finances already strained, the plan spooked investors. Canada has taken a similar approach, pledging nearly $US1b ($1.5b) to support its lumber industry. South Africa's trade ministry has proposed policies to let exporters co-ordinate on shipping costs and jointly build infrastructure, even if that means skirting antitrust rules. Others are reaching for blunter tools. Canada and Japan are slapping new levies on metal imports. Meanwhile, India is doubling down on its 'Made in India' campaign. On August 15 Narendra Modi, the country's prime minister, extolled self-reliance in everything from energy to fighter jets. 'If we continue to be vocal for local, we will achieve prosperity,' he declared. Although so far there has not been much retaliation against Mr Trump, the risk is that copycat protectionism multiplies, raising costs for everyone. Global is noble More promising is the search for new markets. From Asia to Africa, governments are nudging companies abroad with export funds and incentives. Singapore and South Korea, for instance, are bankrolling small firms to scout out opportunities in South Asia, the Middle East and Mexico. Some are already redirecting trade. South African farmers are sending more produce to China and pushing the EU to relax its citrus-health rules. Lesotho's garment-makers — once geared to American firms like Gap and Levi's — are turning to regional buyers and testing demand in Asia. Brazil's coffee exporters, hit with a 50 per cent American tariff, are stepping up shipments to North Africa and the Middle East, where sales volumes rose by three-fifths last year. Yet even with such diversification, replacing America, still the destination for 16 per cent of Brazil's beans, will take time. Most consequential are the new alliances. Canada and Mexico, America's two neighbours and partners in the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), are edging closer as America becomes less reliable. Next month Mark Carney, Canada's prime minister, will visit Mexico, where he is set to discuss supply-chain resilience, port-to-port trade and joint ventures in energy and artificial intelligence. With the USMCA trade pact up for review next year, the two countries are hoping to create leverage they can use against Mr Trump. Many of the BRICS countries — a club of 11 emerging economies including Brazil, China, India, Russia and South Africa — have been targets of Mr Trump's ire, most recently with his levies of 50 per cent on Brazil and India. In response, Brazil's president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (known as Lula), has worked the phones to rally allies. On August 7 he and Mr Modi discussed closer ties, including digital-payments links that could chip away at the dominance of American banks. Four days later Lula spoke with Xi Jinping, China's leader, about deepening trade, after which Mr Xi declared relations with Brazil to be 'at their best in history'. When it comes to trade, the bloc is hardly beholden to America. Uncle Sam buys only a sixth of Indian goods and a seventh of Brazilian exports, the latter down from a quarter two decades ago. As a group, the BRICS members now trade more goods with one another than with America and the gap is widening. Integration is accelerating after Mr Trump's tariffs. Over a dozen countries, including Thailand and Vietnam, have sought partner-country status or applied to join. The biggest winner from the new alliances may be China. Its exports to the global south have doubled since 2015 — and it sells more to South and South-East Asia, Latin America and the Middle East than to America and western Europe. In July, even as exports to America collapsed, its overall exports grew by 7 per cent from a year earlier. Mr Trump's tariffs have deepened these links. In June Mr Xi pledged to scrap nearly all duties on imports from Africa, and he is attending summits with Latin American and South-East Asian leaders. China and the Association of South-East Asian Nations — home to a quarter of the world's people and a fifth of its GDP — are revamping their free-trade deal, due to be ratified by the year's end. Relations with India, meanwhile, are thawing. Indian firms are exploring joint projects with Chinese counterparts in electric vehicles and batteries; this month Mr Modi is expected to visit China for the first time in seven years. Mr Trump wanted America at the centre of world trade. Things are not going to plan.
West Australian
an hour ago
- West Australian
White House officials visit troops in Washington
Top officials in the Trump administration have visited National Guard troops in Washington, to support a deployment that's left parts of the US capital looking like occupied territory. Anger and frustration dotted the city as Vice President JD Vance lauded an operation that he asserted has "brought some law and order back." The tense situation, which began more than a week ago, appeared primed for escalating confrontations between residents who say they feel under siege and federal forces carrying out the president's vision of militarised law enforcement in Democratic cities. Other residents have said they welcome the federal efforts as a way to cut crime and bolster safety. Vance and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth shared burgers with soldiers at the city's main railroad hub as they were loudly jeered by demonstrators gathered nearby. The appearance, a striking scene that also included White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, illustrated the Republican administration's intense dedication to an initiative that has polarised the Democratic-led city. "You guys are doing a hell of a job," Vance told the troops assembled in the Union Station Shake Shack. While protest chants echoed through the restaurant, he rejected polling that shows city residents don't support the National Guard deployment as a solution to crime. Trump has already suggested replicating his approach to DC in other cities, such as Chicago and Baltimore. He previously deployed the National Guard and the Marines in Los Angeles in response to immigration protests. In the seven months since Trump took office for the second time, the traditionally liberal city of Washington has buckled under his more aggressive presidency. Thousands of federal employees have been laid off, landmark institutions like the Smithsonian are being overhauled on grounds of doctrine, and local leaders have been increasingly wary of angering the commander-in-chief. Now parts of the city are bristling with resentment over Trump's approach. Spectators chanted " free DC " at a soccer game. On some nights, people bang pots and pans outside their front doors in a cacophonous display of defiance. An armoured National Guard vehicle collided with a civilian car in the early morning Wednesday, trapping the driver inside until emergency crews arrived. The massive military transport towered over the crushed sport utility vehicle. "You come to our city and this is what you do? Seriously?" a woman yelled at the troops in a video posted online. An estimated 1,900 troops are being deployed in total, with most posted in downtown areas like the National Mall, metro stations and near the park where baseball's Washington Nationals play. Col Larry Doane, the commander of the joint task force in the DC National Guard, said they're trying to provide "an extra set of eyes and ears" for police and "helping them maintain control of the situation." The actions from law enforcement have occasionally veered beyond safety and crime reduction and into regulating expression. Over the weekend, masked agents took down a profane protest banner in the Mount Pleasant neighbourhood — to the apparent delight of the administration, which posted a video of the incident online. "We're taking America back, baby," one of the agents said in the video. The White House said more than 550 people have been arrested so far, and the US Marshals are offering $500 rewards for information leading to additional arrests. "Together, we will make DC safe again!" Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote on social media. City statistics show crime was already declining before Trump's intervention, despite his claims of a crisis necessitating the federal takeover of the DC police department. The number of people arrested each day in Washington has increased by about 20 per cent since the government began sending in a surge of federal agents, according to law enforcement data.
Perth Now
an hour ago
- Perth Now
White House officials visit troops in Washington
Top officials in the Trump administration have visited National Guard troops in Washington, to support a deployment that's left parts of the US capital looking like occupied territory. Anger and frustration dotted the city as Vice President JD Vance lauded an operation that he asserted has "brought some law and order back." The tense situation, which began more than a week ago, appeared primed for escalating confrontations between residents who say they feel under siege and federal forces carrying out the president's vision of militarised law enforcement in Democratic cities. Other residents have said they welcome the federal efforts as a way to cut crime and bolster safety. Vance and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth shared burgers with soldiers at the city's main railroad hub as they were loudly jeered by demonstrators gathered nearby. The appearance, a striking scene that also included White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, illustrated the Republican administration's intense dedication to an initiative that has polarised the Democratic-led city. "You guys are doing a hell of a job," Vance told the troops assembled in the Union Station Shake Shack. While protest chants echoed through the restaurant, he rejected polling that shows city residents don't support the National Guard deployment as a solution to crime. Trump has already suggested replicating his approach to DC in other cities, such as Chicago and Baltimore. He previously deployed the National Guard and the Marines in Los Angeles in response to immigration protests. In the seven months since Trump took office for the second time, the traditionally liberal city of Washington has buckled under his more aggressive presidency. Thousands of federal employees have been laid off, landmark institutions like the Smithsonian are being overhauled on grounds of doctrine, and local leaders have been increasingly wary of angering the commander-in-chief. Now parts of the city are bristling with resentment over Trump's approach. Spectators chanted " free DC " at a soccer game. On some nights, people bang pots and pans outside their front doors in a cacophonous display of defiance. An armoured National Guard vehicle collided with a civilian car in the early morning Wednesday, trapping the driver inside until emergency crews arrived. The massive military transport towered over the crushed sport utility vehicle. "You come to our city and this is what you do? Seriously?" a woman yelled at the troops in a video posted online. An estimated 1,900 troops are being deployed in total, with most posted in downtown areas like the National Mall, metro stations and near the park where baseball's Washington Nationals play. Col Larry Doane, the commander of the joint task force in the DC National Guard, said they're trying to provide "an extra set of eyes and ears" for police and "helping them maintain control of the situation." The actions from law enforcement have occasionally veered beyond safety and crime reduction and into regulating expression. Over the weekend, masked agents took down a profane protest banner in the Mount Pleasant neighbourhood — to the apparent delight of the administration, which posted a video of the incident online. "We're taking America back, baby," one of the agents said in the video. The White House said more than 550 people have been arrested so far, and the US Marshals are offering $500 rewards for information leading to additional arrests. "Together, we will make DC safe again!" Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote on social media. City statistics show crime was already declining before Trump's intervention, despite his claims of a crisis necessitating the federal takeover of the DC police department. The number of people arrested each day in Washington has increased by about 20 per cent since the government began sending in a surge of federal agents, according to law enforcement data.
