Trump says Indonesia to face 19pc tariff under trade deal
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
South China Morning Post
24 minutes ago
- South China Morning Post
Albanese's China trip shows ‘stiffening of Canberra's spine' in face of US pressure
A month after US President Donald Trump cancelled talks with Anthony Albanese , China rolled out the red carpet for the Australian leader this week. In Beijing, he had a two-hour meeting with President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People. Albanese's fiancee, Jodie Haydon, joined the lunch that followed. He held separate talks with Premier Li Qiang, and they co-chaired a CEO round table attended by nearly 30 Chinese and Australian business executives. At the banquet hosted by Li that evening, a band played iconic Australian anthems including 'a different version of Paul Kelly's 'To Her Door', of Midnight Oil's 'Power and the Passion'', Albanese later told reporters. The Australian prime minister also visited Shanghai and Chengdu on a six-day trip that shed light on Canberra's approach to navigating great power rivalry after a reset in relations with Beijing. It showed how Australia is trying to maintain ties with China – its largest trading partner – and the alliance with the United States, while side-stepping thornier issues such as Beijing's military activities and Taiwan 'Australia's predicament is not unusual in the region,' said James Laurenceson, director of the Australia-China Relations Institute at the University of Technology Sydney. 'I think there remains utility in Canberra's approach. The economic equities in relations with China and security equities in relations with the US are so large that making a binary choice is simply not realistic.'
South China Morning Post
an hour ago
- South China Morning Post
How China's pragmatic balancing puts it in Asean pole position
There is no sign that US President Donald Trump is going to budge on his tariff policy. The 90-day pause on his 'Liberation Day' tariffs does not preclude his penchant for protectionism or punishing countries for adopting what he sees as unfair trade practices. His latest round of tariffs, which is set to take effect on August 1 , bodes ill for East Asia. Japan and South Korea – two of Washington's closest allies in Asia – will see their exports hit with a 25 per cent tariff, while Southeast Asian countries such as Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia and Myanmar will see increases of between 25 and 40 per cent. All of these countries' economies rely on exports to the United States. The importance of the US market helps explain why the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) has not responded with reciprocal measures, with some members advocating for diversifying trade partners and increasing trade within Asean as a hedge against the US. Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim made this point while addressing Asean foreign ministers in Kuala Lumpur earlier this month, saying 'we need to fortify our internal foundations. Trade more among ourselves, invest more in one another'. Asean countries need contingency planning given the importance of US trade to the bloc's economy. Asean's goods trade with the US was worth US$476.8 billion in 2024, with more than 6,000 American companies operating in member nations. As such, it is understandable why Thailand pushed Trump administration officials to review their proposed tariff rate while Vietnam raced to secure an agreement with Washington. Meanwhile, Japan verbally lashed out at Trump's tariffs while South Korea tried to strike a more measured tone.
South China Morning Post
an hour ago
- South China Morning Post
Deal or no deal with US? Taiwan avoids tariffs so far, but remains on edge
When a 90-day tariff-free grace period expired this month, Taiwan escaped letters US President Donald Trump to two dozen other governments fixing new rates, including a 25 per cent duty on goods from Japan and South Korea. Is Taiwan's letter still in the mail? The Trump administration announced worldwide tariffs on April 2, including double-digit rates for a list of exporters in Asia and 32 per cent slated for Taiwan. The US later paused most tariffs, including Taiwan's, for 90 days to negotiate the tariff rates with major trading partners. Taiwanese and US officials have met three times since April, including for a round of talks this month, suggesting that both sides are trying to work something out, the analysts said. Like Japan and South Korea, fellow Asian exporter Taiwan has a substantial trade surplus with the US – the reason behind Trump's push for higher tariffs. However, analysts said this week that the absence of a Taiwan letter so far means the two sides are still negotiating toward keeping new US tariffs at a manageable level for Taiwan, which supplies advanced semiconductors for a who's who of American tech firms.
