The EU Sees Sweden as a Model as It Looks to Encourage Investors
Europe is expected to detail its plan this quarter to mobilize citizens' funds sat in bank deposits as part of its Savings and Investments Union. By making it easier for people to invest, it aims to lift household wealth and boost firms' access to funding. Analysts say it might promote wider adoption of Swedish-style bank accounts that enable people to easily invest savings in stocks.
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Yahoo
43 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Singapore key exports slip in July as US shipments tumble 42.7 pct
Singapore's non-oil domestic exports slipped 4.6 percent in July from a year earlier, government data showed Monday, as shipments to the United States plunged by more than 40 percent. Southeast Asia's second-largest economy is heavily reliant on international trade and is vulnerable to any global slowdown induced by the tariffs -- even if Singapore only faces a baseline 10 percent levy from US President Donald Trump. On August 6, Trump announced a 100 percent tariff on chips from firms that do not invest in the United States, and threatened levies of up to 250 percent on pharmaceutical imports. The 42.7 percent July contraction in main exports to the US -- Singapore's biggest market -- was largely caused by a 93.5 percent decline in pharmaceutical shipments, the government body Enterprise Singapore said on Monday. Meanwhile, exports of specialised machinery dropped 45.8 percent and food preparations were down 48.8 percent. Non-oil domestic shipments to China and Indonesia also declined in July, but grew to the EU, Taiwan, South Korea, and Hong Kong. The city-state last Tuesday raised its 2025 economic growth forecast, but warned the outlook for the rest of the year remains clouded by global uncertainty, in part due to US tariffs. The trade ministry lifted its gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecast to 1.5-2.5 percent from an earlier range of 0-2.0 percent. Prime Minister Lawrence Wong on Sunday said that he took "little comfort" from the 10 percent baseline tariff rate the US imposed on Singapore. "Because no one knows if, or when, the US might raise the baseline, or set higher tariffs on specific industries like pharmaceuticals and semiconductors," he said in a National Day speech. "What we do know is that there will be more trade barriers in the world. That means small and open economies like us will feel the squeeze," Wong added. llk/fox
New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
Trump's Plans for A.I. Might Hit a Wall. Thank Europe.
President Trump wants to unleash American A.I. companies on the world. For the United States to win the unfolding A.I. arms race, his logic goes, tech companies should be unfettered by regulations and free to develop artificial intelligence technology as they generally see fit. He is convinced that the benefits of American supremacy in this technology outweigh the risks of ungoverned A.I., which experts warn could include heightened surveillance, disinformation or even an existential threat to humanity. This conviction is at the heart of the administration's recently unveiled A.I. Action Plan, which looks to roll back red tape and onerous regulations that it says paralyze A.I. development. But Mr. Trump can't single-handedly protect American A.I. companies from regulation. Washington may be able to eliminate the rules of the road at home, but it can't do so for the rest of the world. If American companies want to operate in international markets, they must follow the rules of those markets. That means that the European Union, an enormous market that is committed to regulating A.I., could well thwart Mr. Trump's techno-optimist vision of a world dominated by self-regulated, free-market U.S. companies. In the past, the E.U.'s digital regulations have resonated well beyond the continent, with technology companies extending those rules across their global operations in a phenomenon I have termed the Brussels Effect. Companies like Apple and Microsoft now broadly use the E.U.'s General Data Protection Regulation, which gives users more control over their data, as their global privacy standard in part because it is too costly and cumbersome for them to follow different privacy policies in each market. Other governments also often look to E.U. rules when drafting their own laws regulating the tech sector. The same phenomenon could at least partly hold for A.I. technology. Over the past decade, the E.U. has put in place a number of regulations aimed at balancing A.I. innovation, transparency and accountability. Most important is the A.I. Act, the world's first comprehensive and binding artificial intelligence law, which entered into force in August 2024. The act establishes guardrails against the possible risks of artificial intelligence, such as the loss of privacy, discrimination, disinformation and A.I. systems that could endanger human life if left unchecked. This law, for instance, restricts the use of facial recognition technology for surveillance and limits the use of potentially biased artificial intelligence for hiring or credit decisions. American developers looking to get access to the European market will have to comply with these rules and others. Some companies are already pushing back. Meta has accused the E.U. of overreach and even sought the Trump administration's help in opposing Europe's regulatory ambitions. But other companies, such as OpenAI, Google and Microsoft, are signing on to Europe's A.I. code of practice. These tech giants see an opportunity: Playing nice with the European Union could help build trust among users, pre-empt other regulatory challenges and streamline their policies around the world. Individual American states looking to govern A.I., too, could use E.U. rules as a template when writing their own bills, as California did when developing its privacy laws. By holding its ground, Europe can steer global A.I. development toward models that protect fundamental rights, ensure fairness and don't undermine democracy. Standing firm would also boost Europe's tech sector by creating fairer competition between foreign and European A.I. firms, which have to abide by E.U. laws. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
CNBC
an hour ago
- CNBC
European markets set to open higher ahead of Trump-Ukraine crunch talks
LONDON — European stocks are expected to open in positive territory on Monday as traders focus on a meeting between European leaders and U.S. President Donald Trump to discuss Ukraine. The U.K.'s FTSE index is seen opening 0.23% higher, Germany's DAX up 0.16%, France's CAC 40 up 0.24% and Italy's FTSE MIB 0.2% higher. European leaders, including German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, are traveling with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Washington to meet Trump at the White House to discuss a peace deal. Zelenskyy is likely to come under pressure to enter a deal. In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the president could "end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight." The meeting follows Trump's summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin last Friday, but the talks concluded without a ceasefire. It's been widely reported since then that Putin told Trump that he would agree to one, if Russia was handed Ukraine's eastern Donbas region. On Sunday, U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff suggested Ukraine could be given some security guarantees to bring an end to the war. Overnight, Asia-Pacific markets mostly rose ahead of the talks, while U.S. stock futures traded slightly higher early Monday after hopes for lower interest rates fueled a winning week on Wall Street. There are no major earnings on Monday. Data releases include Spanish and EU trade balance figures.
