Experts assess impact of US-Japan trade deal
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Nikkei Asia
29 minutes ago
- Nikkei Asia
US, China hold new talks on tariffs, easing path for Trump-Xi meeting
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (Reuters) -- Top U.S. and Chinese economic officials resumed talks in Stockholm on Monday to resolve longstanding economic disputes at the center of a trade war between the world's top two economies, aiming to extend a truce by three months. U.S. Treasury Chief Scott Bessent was part of a U.S. negotiating team that arrived at Rosenbad, the Swedish prime minister's office in central Stockholm, in the early afternoon. China's Vice Premier He Lifeng was also seen at the venue on video footage. China is facing an August 12 deadline to reach a durable tariff agreement with President Donald Trump's administration, after Beijing and Washington reached preliminary deals in May and June to end weeks of escalating tit-for-tat tariffs and a cut-off of rare earth minerals. Trump touched on the talks during a wide-ranging press conference with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in Scotland. "I'd love to see China open up their country. So we're dealing with China right now as we speak," Trump said. Without an agreement, global supply chains could face renewed turmoil from U.S. duties snapping back to triple-digit levels that would amount to a bilateral trade embargo. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said he did not expect "some kind of enormous breakthrough today" at the talks in Stockholm that he was attending. "What I expect is continued monitoring and checking in on the implementation of our agreement thus far, making sure that key critical minerals are flowing between the parties and setting the groundwork for enhanced trade and balanced trade going forward," he told CNBC. The Stockholm talks follow Trump's biggest trade deal yet with the European Union on Sunday for a 15% tariff on most EU goods exports to the United States. Trade analysts said another 90-day extension of a tariff and export control truce struck in mid-May between China and the United States was likely. An extension would facilitate planning for a potential meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in late October or early November. The Financial Times reported on Monday that the U.S. had paused curbs on tech exports to China to avoid disrupting trade talks with Beijing and support Trump's efforts to secure a meeting with Xi this year. Meanwhile, in Washington, U.S. senators from both major parties plan to introduce bills this week targeting China over its treatment of minority groups, dissidents, and Taiwan, emphasizing security and human rights, which could complicate talks in Stockholm. Previous U.S.-China trade talks in Geneva and London in May and June focused on bringing U.S. and Chinese retaliatory tariffs down from triple-digit levels and restoring the flow of rare earth minerals halted by China and Nvidia's H20 AI chips, and other goods halted by the United States. So far, the talks have not delved into broader economic issues. They include U.S. complaints that China's state-led, export-driven model is flooding world markets with cheap goods, and Beijing's complaints that U.S. national security export controls on tech goods seek to stunt Chinese growth. "Geneva and London were really just about trying to get the relationship back on track so that they could, at some point, actually negotiate about the issues which animate the disagreement between the countries in the first place," said Scott Kennedy, a China economics expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. Bessent has already flagged a deadline extension and has said he wants China to rebalance its economy away from exports to more domestic consumption -- a decades-long goal for U.S. policymakers. Analysts say the U.S.-China negotiations are far more complex than those with other Asian countries and will require more time. China's grip on the global market for rare earth minerals and magnets, used in everything from military hardware to car windshield wiper motors, has proved to be an effective leverage point on U.S. industries.
Nikkei Asia
an hour ago
- Nikkei Asia
Trump sets deadline of 10 or 12 days for Russia on Ukraine war
TURNBERRY, Scotland (Reuters) -- U.S. President Donald Trump set a new deadline of 10 or 12 days for Russia to make progress toward ending the war in Ukraine or face consequences, underscoring frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin for the 3-1/2-year-old conflict. Trump has threatened both sanctions on Russia and buyers of its exports unless progress is made. Speaking in Scotland, where he is holding meetings with European leaders and playing golf, Trump said he was disappointed in Putin and was shortening a 50-day deadline he had set on the issue earlier this month. "I'm going to make a new deadline of about ... 10 or 12 days from today," Trump told reporters during a meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. "There's no reason in waiting ... We just don't see any progress being made." There was no immediate comment from the Kremlin. Trump, who has expressed annoyance also with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has not always followed up on his tough talk about Putin with action, citing what he deems a good relationship that the two men have had previously. On Monday Trump indicated he was not interested in more talks with Putin. He said sanctions and tariffs would be used as penalties for Moscow if it did not meet Trump's demands. "There's no reason to wait. If you know what the answer is going to be, why wait? And it would be sanctions and maybe tariffs, secondary tariffs," Trump said. "I don't want to do that to Russia. I love the Russian people." The U.S. president has repeatedly voiced exasperation with Putin for continuing attacks on Ukraine despite U.S. efforts to end the war. Trump has played up successes in other parts of the world where the U.S. has helped to broker peace agreements and has been flattered by some leaders who suggest he should be given the Nobel Peace Prize. "I'm disappointed in President Putin," Trump said on Monday. "I'm going to reduce that 50 days that I gave him to a lesser number because I think I already know the answer what's going to happen." Before returning to the White House in January, Trump had promised to end the conflict within 24 hours. "We thought we had that settled numerous times, and then President Putin goes out and starts launching rockets into some city like Kyiv and kills a lot of people in a nursing home or whatever," Trump said. "And I say that's not the way to do it."
NHK
3 hours ago
- NHK
Supermarket rice prices in Japan drop for 9th week
The average rice price at supermarkets in Japan has fallen for a ninth straight week. The agriculture ministry released its weekly survey on about 1,000 supermarkets nationwide. The average price of a 5-kilogram bag came in at 3,585 yen, or roughly 24 dollars. That's a decline of one-tenth of a percent from the previous week. Officials began tapping national reserves of rice after prices almost doubled in the space of a year. Following a sharp decline, the sticker price has been dropping at a slower pace in recent weeks. Orikasa Shunsuke, Principal Researcher at Distribution Economics Institute of Japan, said: "People who want to save money are buying from the government stockpiles, and those who prefer other varieties are buying brand-name rice. The decline in prices is slowing down as more consumers start choosing what they want." Orikasa points out that unusually hot weather during the recent rainy season may also affect supply. He said the lack of rainfall could reduce this year's new harvest.
