Ford leans on CATL batteries in push into affordable EVs
AZUSA KAWAKAMI
August 13, 2025 05:02 JST
NEW YORK -- Ford Motor will turn to Chinese battery maker CATL's technology in developing an electric vehicle priced below $30,000, as the U.S. EV industry faces headwinds from the Trump administration's tax and environmental policies.
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The Mainichi
38 minutes ago
- The Mainichi
US eyes high-level trade talks with China in fall: Treasury chief
WASHINGTON (Kyodo) -- The United States is eyeing high-level trade talks with China "within the next two or three months," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on a television program aired Tuesday. "China is like a multilevel chess game," the point man on tariff issues in President Donald Trump's administration said on the Fox Business channel, adding the United States is trying to deal with "several variables" because China is "our biggest economic rival, and our biggest military rival." "What we are trying to do is to get to more balanced trade," he said. On Monday, Trump signed an executive order extending a tariff truce with China for 90 days, until Nov. 10, with the Chinese government also announcing the extension. In the order, the president said that through discussions with the United States, China "continues to take significant steps toward remedying non-reciprocal trade arrangements," among other things. Without the extension, an additional tariff rate of 24 percent on Chinese goods imported to the United States would have taken effect early Tuesday, renewing trade tensions between the world's two largest economies. In May, the United States and China backed away from their respective triple-digit tariff rates imposed during a trade war launched by Trump. Since then, the truce, agreed to by both countries in Geneva during their first round of trade talks, has remained in place. The United States and China have held two more rounds of high-level trade talks, the most recent in Stockholm in July. Trump has suggested an in-person meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping could take place by the end of this year if an agreement on trade issues can be reached.
Asahi Shimbun
38 minutes ago
- Asahi Shimbun
South Korean president will meet Japanese leader ahead of summit with Trump
A visitor watches North Korean side from the Unification Observation in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, on Aug. 10. (AP Photo) SEOUL--South Korean President Lee Jae Myung will meet Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in Tokyo next week before flying to Washington for a summit with President Donald Trump, underscoring how Trump's push to reset global trade is drawing the often-feuding neighbors closer. Lee's two-day visit to Japan Aug. 23–24 will be an opportunity to deepen personal ties with Ishiba and put bilateral relations on firmer ground. Their talks will center on strengthening trilateral cooperation with Washington, promoting 'regional peace and stability,' and addressing other international issues, presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said Wednesday. Their meeting will come weeks after South Korea and Japan secured trade deals with Washington that shielded their trade-dependent economies from Trump's highest tariffs. The separate agreements negotiated their rates of reciprocal duties down to 15% from the originally proposed 25%, but only after pledging hundreds of billions of dollars in U.S. investments. Lee and Ishiba previously met on the sidelines of the June G-7 meetings in Canada, where they called for building a future-oriented relationship and agreed to cooperate closely on various issues including trade and countering North Korea's nuclear and missile programs. Relations between the two U.S. allies often have been strained in recent years over grievances stemming from Japan's brutal colonization of the Korean Peninsula before the end of World War II. South Korea's previous conservative president, Yoon Suk Yeol, made active efforts to repair ties with Tokyo, including a major compromise on compensation issues related to Korean victims of Japanese wartime slavery, aiming to bolster trilateral security cooperation with Washington against North Korean threats. But Yoon's presidency was cut short by his brief imposition of martial law in December, which led to his ouster and imprisonment, leaving uncertainty over Seoul-Tokyo relations under Lee, who has long accused Japan of clinging to its imperialist past and hindering cooperation. Since taking office in June after winning the early presidential election, Lee has avoided thorny remarks about Japan, instead promoting pragmatism in foreign policy and pledging to strengthen Seoul's alliance with Washington and trilateral cooperation with Tokyo. There also have been calls in South Korea to boost collaboration with Japan in responding to Trump, who has unsettled allies and partners with tariff hikes and demands they reduce reliance on the U.S. while paying more for their own defense. Following his meeting with Ishiba, Lee will travel to Washington for an Aug. 25 summit with Trump, which his office said will focus on trade and defense cooperation. His meeting with Trump comes with concerns in Seoul that the Trump administration could shake up the decades-old alliance by demanding higher payments for the U.S. troop presence in South Korea and possibly move to reduce it as Washington shifts more focus on China.
Asahi Shimbun
an hour ago
- Asahi Shimbun
Vietnam wants to be the next Asian tiger and it's overhauling its economy to make it happen.
HANOI--Beneath red banners and a gold bust of revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh in Hanoi's central party school, Communist Party chief To Lam declared the arrival of 'a new era of development' late last year. The speech was more than symbolic— it signaled the launch of what could be Vietnam's most ambitious economic overhaul in decades. Vietnam aims to get rich by 2045 and become Asia's next 'tiger economy' — a term used to describe the earlier ascent of countries like South Korea and Taiwan. The challenge ahead is steep: Reconciling growth with overdue reforms, an aging population, climate risks and creaking institutions. There's added pressure from President Donald Trump over Vietnam's trade surplus with the U.S., a reflection of its astounding economic trajectory. In 1990, the average Vietnamese could afford about $1,200 worth of goods and services a year, adjusted for local prices. Today, that figure has risen by more than 13 times to $16,385. Vietnam's transformation into a global manufacturing hub with shiny new highways, high-rise skylines and a booming middle class has lifted millions of its people from poverty, similar to China. But its low-cost, export-led boom is slowing, while the proposed reforms — expanding private industries, strengthening social protections, and investing in tech, green energy. It faces a growing obstacle in climate change. 'It's all hands on can't waste time anymore,' said Mimi Vu of the consultancy Raise Partners. Investment has soared, driven partly by U.S.-China trade tensions, and the U.S. is now Vietnam's biggest export market. Once-quiet suburbs have been replaced with industrial parks where trucks rumble through sprawling logistics hubs that serve global brands. Vietnam ran a $123.5 billion trade surplus with the U.S. trade in 2024, angering Trump, who threatened a 46% U.S. import tax on Vietnamese goods. The two sides appear to have settled on a 20% levy, and twice that for goods suspected of being transshipped, or routed through Vietnam to avoid U.S. trade restrictions. During negotiations with the Trump administration, Vietnam's focus was on its tariffs compared to those of its neighbors and competitors, said Daniel Kritenbrink, a former U.S. ambassador to Vietnam. 'As long as they're in the same zone, in the same ballpark, I think Vietnam can live with that outcome,' he said. But he added questions remain over how much Chinese content in those exports might be too much and how such goods will be taxed. Vietnam was preparing to shift its economic policies even before Trump's tariffs threatened its model of churning out low-cost exports for the world, aware of what economists call the 'middle-income trap,' when economies tend to plateau without major reforms. To move beyond that, South Korea bet on electronics, Taiwan on semiconductors, and Singapore on finance, said Richard McClellan, founder of the consultancy RMAC Advisory. But Vietnam's economy today is more diverse and complex than those countries were at the time and it can't rely on just one winning sector to drive long-term growth and stay competitive as wages rise and cheap labor is no longer its main advantage. It needs to make 'multiple big bets,' McClellan said. Following China's lead, Vietnam is counting on high-tech sectors like computer chips, artificial intelligence and renewable energy, providing strategic tax breaks and research support in cities like Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, and Danang. It's also investing heavily in infrastructure, including civilian nuclear plants and a $67 billion North–South high-speed railway, that will cut travel time from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City to eight hours. Vietnam also aspires to become a global financial center. The government plans two special financial centers, in bustling Ho Chi Minh City and in the seaside resort city of Danang, with simplified rules to attract foreign investors, tax breaks, support for financial tech startups, and easier ways to settle business disputes. Underpinning all of this is institutional reform. Ministries are being merged, low-level bureaucracies have been eliminated and Vietnam's 63 provinces will be consolidated into 34 to build regional centers with deeper talent pools. Vietnam is counting on private businesses to lead its new economic push — a seismic shift from the past. In May, the Communist Party passed Resolution 68. It calls private businesses the 'most important force' in the economy, pledging to break away from domination by state-owned and foreign companies. So far, large multinationals have powered Vietnam's exports, using imported materials and parts and low-cost local labor. Local companies are stuck at the low-end of supply chains, struggling to access loans and markets that favored the 700-odd state-owned giants, from colonial-era beer factories with arched windows to unfashionable state-run shops that few customers bother to enter. 'The private sector remains heavily constrained,' said Nguyen Khac Giang of Singapore's ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute. Again emulating China, Vietnam wants 'national champions' to drive innovation and compete globally, not by picking winners, but by letting markets decide. The policy includes easier loans for companies investing in new technology, priority in government contracts for those meeting innovation goals, and help for firms looking to expand overseas. Even mega-projects like the North-South High-Speed Rail, once reserved for state-run giants, are now open to private bidding. By 2030, Vietnam hopes to elevate at least 20 private firms to a global scale. But Giang warned that there will be pushback from conservatives in the Communist Party and from those who benefit from state-owned firms. Even as political resistance threatens to stall reforms, climate threats require urgent action. After losing a major investor over flood risks, Bruno Jaspaert knew something had to change. His firm, DEEP C Industrial Zones, houses more than 150 factories across northern Vietnam. So it hired a consultancy to redesign flood resilience plans. Climate risk is becoming its own kind of market regulation, forcing businesses to plan better, build smarter, and adapt faster. 'If the whole world will decide it's a can go very fast,' said Jaspaert. When Typhoon Yagi hit last year, causing $1.6 billion in damage, knocking 0.15% off Vietnam's GDP and battering factories that produce nearly half the country's economic output, roads in DEEP C industrial parks stayed dry. Climate risks are no longer theoretical: If Vietnam doesn't take strong action to adapt to and reduce climate change, the country could lose 12–14.5% of its GDP each year by 2050, and up to one million people could fall into extreme poverty by 2030, according to the World Bank. Meanwhile, Vietnam is growing old before it gets rich. The country's 'golden population' window — when working-age people outnumber dependents — will close by 2039 and the labor force is projected to peak just three years later. That could shrink productivity and strain social services, especially since families — and women in particular — are the default caregivers, said Teerawichitchainan Bussarawan of the Center for Family and Population Research at the National University of Singapore. Vietnam is racing to pre-empt the fallout by expanding access to preventive healthcare so older adults remain healthier and more independent. Gradually raising the retirement age and drawing more women into the formal workforce would help offset labor gaps and promote 'healthy aging,' Bussarawan said.
