BOJ Should Consider Rate Hikes Without Delay, Board Member Tamura Says
The Bank of Japan should consider additional interest-rate hikes without delay, board member Naoki Tamura said, as it could hit its inflation target sooner than expected.
'My basic thinking is that the bank will analyze the data and various information without preconceptions, and will accordingly raise the policy interest rate and adjust the degree of monetary accommodation in a timely and appropriate manner in line with improvements in economic activity and prices, without haste or delay,' he said Wednesday.
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Yahoo
34 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump's Threat of More Tariffs Makes US Trade Partners Wary of Signing Deals
(Bloomberg) -- Tariff negotiations with the Trump administration are running into roadblocks, as partners including Japan, India and the European Union balk at signing deals without knowing how badly they'll be hit by separate levies on exports including chips, drugs and steel. US Renters Face Storm of Rising Costs US State Budget Wounds Intensify From Trump, DOGE Policy Shifts Mapping the Architectural History of New York's Chinatown Commuters Are Caught in Johannesburg's Taxi Feuds as Transit Lags Squeezed by Crowds, the Roads of Central Park Are Being Reimagined The US Commerce Department is set within weeks to announce the outcomes of its investigations into sectors deemed vital to national security, including semiconductors, pharmaceuticals and critical minerals. The probes are widely expected to result in levies applied under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act on a range of foreign-made products in those industries. Problem is, governments seeking agreements to whittle down country-by-country tariffs President Donald Trump announced on April 2, and then suspended till July 9, have no idea where those sectoral levies will land. For many, industry-specific tariffs may be more damaging than the broader levies. Trumponomics Podcast: Can the World Count on TACO Anymore? 'Imagine you're a Vietnam or Japan or Korea, and you've just agreed to some potentially painful compromises on reciprocal tariffs, and the very next day after this is announced, they turn around and levy new 232s against you,' said Deborah Elms, head of trade policy at the Hinrich Foundation. 'The last thing you want is to agree to a deal only to be hammered the next day.' A cautionary tale for many countries is the partial deal Britain accepted. That pact left key details about bilateral steel trade subject to further negotiation on a quota system and stronger origin requirements. In the meantime, the Trump's tariffs of UK steel remain at 25% — failing to meet the British government's goal of lowering them to zero. 'There is no clarity in how all of these tariffs would interplay, which is also causing major concerns among our partners,' said Wendy Cutler, a former senior US trade negotiator who's now vice president of the Asia Society Policy Institute. The UK framework showed there is some wiggle room with the US on sectoral tariffs, but other nations should not view it as a template for their own negotiations, according to a White House official. The 232 tariffs are meant to reshore manufacturing of goods viewed as critical to national security, which is separate from the aims of the April 2 tariffs, the official said. Among the difficulties for many countries is understanding how the Trump administration can at times view the tariffs — and the threat of them — in a transactional way. US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, testifying before the Senate earlier this month, gave an example of how 232 tariffs could be used in negotiations to induce commercial deals. Part of the UK's deal was no American tariffs on aerospace products — which are subject to a pending 232 investigation. 'In exchange for us doing a zero tariff — I mean think of Donald Trump — he then gets an agreement by British Airways to buy $10 billion,' Lutnick said. 'They were competing with Airbus, and in part of that agreement, they committed to buying Boeing aircraft of $10 billion.' 'Play Ball' Lutnick added that 'if other countries play ball with us, I would expect that's an offer we make provided they're buying our aircraft.' For the EU, which is already getting hit hard by 25% auto tariffs and 50% on steel, talks around the sectoral levies have made less progress and are unlikely to be solved before July 9, according to people familiar with the process. Officials in Brussels see an agreement on broad principles to allow negotiations to continue as the best-case scenario at this stage in the EU-US talks, the people said. Japan is keen on settling all potential US tariffs — from duties on cars, auto parts and metals to Trump's country-specific levies – in one go. But a sticking point in negotiations has been the 25% tariffs on cars and car parts imposed by the Trump administration. Washington is focused on autos because it's the sector that's responsible for most of its trade deficit with Japan. But Tokyo sees that industry as a key economic pillar, since it employs about 8.3% of Japan's workforce and generates around 10% of gross domestic product. 'For Japan, automobiles are truly a matter of national interest. We will do whatever it takes to protect that,' Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba told reporters in Canada earlier this month, shortly after he failed to reach a deal with Trump in their in-person meeting on the sidelines of the Group of Seven summit. His hand-picked trade negotiator, Ryosei Akazawa, has said Japan won't fixate on the July 9 tariff deadline as he continues talks with his US counterparts. Akazawa has said he expects a deal with the US will spare Japan from higher auto tariffs, even if Trump increases them against other nations. India Digs In India has dug in its heels on the issue and is unwilling to sign a trade deal with Washington that doesn't address both sectoral and reciprocal tariffs for its exports, people familiar with the matter said. When it comes to potential sectoral tariffs, Indian officials are pushing for a commitment from Washington that any deal matches the best agreement offered to any other nation it's in talks with, they said. Any deal with the US has to be defensible in the eyes of domestic stakeholders and the US insistence on retaining these additional levies will render Indian producers uncompetitive, the people said, requesting anonymity to disclose private discussions. Indian officials are also reluctant to sign a tariff deal amid uncertainty over their legality after a US federal court deemed illegal last month, the people said. A higher court later gave Trump a temporary reprieve of that order. Court Challenge Amid the legal uncertainty, some Trump administration officials believe the 232 levies could effectively supplant the country-by-country duties, Bloomberg News has reported. Trump's tariffs on steel and aluminum, automobiles and the expected levies on pharmaceuticals have raised concerns among Indian exporters that have been urging the government to not ink a deal that will adversely impact their shipments. Exporters say the US move to raise levies on metals and autos are a huge setback for them. 'These duties impact India's engineering exports to the US, which are valued at over $20 billion annually,' said Pankaj Chadha, chairman of Engineering Exports Promotion Council. 'We hope that these sectoral tariffs will be suitably addressed in the bilateral trade agreement. --With assistance from Jennifer A. Dlouhy. How to Steal a House Inside Gap's Last-Ditch, Tariff-Addled Turnaround Push Apple Test-Drives Big-Screen Movie Strategy With F1 Luxury Counterfeiters Keep Outsmarting the Makers of $10,000 Handbags America's Top Consumer-Sentiment Economist Is Worried ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. 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
Bloomberg
44 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
Oil Tanker Rates Collapse as Conflict in Middle East Abates
The cost of shipping Middle East crude to customers in Asia collapsed on Thursday, the latest sign of oil markets returning to normal after conflict eased in the world's top petroleum-exporting region. Charter rates slumped by 17% to 55.50 industry-standard Worldscale points, according to data from the Baltic Exchange in London. It works out at roughly $1.60 a barrel.
Bloomberg
an hour ago
- Bloomberg
Trump's Threat of More Tariffs Makes US Trade Partners Wary of Signing Deals
Tariff negotiations with the Trump administration are running into roadblocks, as partners including Japan, India and the European Union balk at signing deals without knowing how badly they'll be hit by separate levies on exports including chips, drugs and steel. The US Commerce Department is set within weeks to announce the outcomes of its investigations into sectors deemed vital to national security, including semiconductors, pharmaceuticals and critical minerals. The probes are widely expected to result in levies applied under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act on a range of foreign-made products in those industries.
