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New York Post
8 hours ago
- Business
- New York Post
Trump gives countries Wednesday deadline for ‘best offer' on trade talks
WASHINGTON — President Trump has given countries a Wednesday deadline to make their best offers on trade — with the White House calling it a 'deadline' to submit offers to avoid massive reciprocal tariffs due to take effect on July 8. The office of the US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer sent a letter, reported Monday by Reuters, 'to all of our trading partners just to give them a friendly reminder that the deadline is coming up,' White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed at her Tuesday briefing. Greer, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick 'are in talks with many of our key trading partners around the globe… and they continue to be engaged in those discussions. And this letter was simply to remind these countries that the deadline is approaching and the President expects good deals, and we are on track for that,' Leavitt said. 3 White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed Tuesday that countries have been told to submit their best trade proposals. AP 3 Trump wants countries to submit their best offers by Wednesday. Al Drago / Pool via CNP / Leavitt added that 'each country has unique advantages and unique challenges to it, based on their markets and what they export to us and what we export to them. And so that's why the president smartly advised his trade team to engage in tailor-made deal-making. And we saw that with the United Kingdom, and we will see that with other countries as well.' Trump will sign orders later Tuesday to increase tariffs on steel and aluminum to 50% — after previously tightening 25% rates to end exceptions for top importers. Trump on April 2 announced sweeping 'reciprocal' tariffs on countries, as well as a new 10% baseline tariff on most nations, which is roughly triple the prior rate. He paused most of the reciprocal tariffs shortly after they took effect to allow for trade talks. Thus far, Trump has reached deals-in-principle with China and the UK, though neither has been formally drafted and ratified — as a court battle rages over the legality of the reciprocal levies. The Chinese deal in May ended a tit-for-tat escalation that saw US tariffs rocket to about 145% before they were reduced to 30% pursuant to the agreement. Trump is expected to speak with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week to discuss the status of talks on a final deal, as well as his frustration that Beijing has not relaxed continued export restrictions on rare earth elements essential for batteries and high-tech equipment. The UK pact left in effect the new 10% baseline tariff while exempting 100,000 UK-made cars per year from Trump's new 25% global auto tariff. London, in turn, is due to drop its ethanol fuel tariff from 19% to zero, allowing market access to the corn-based fuel worth up to $700 million — while the US eliminates tariffs on British-made airplane parts, including Rolls-Royce engines. 3 US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, left, sent the letter to his counterparts overseas. AFP via Getty Images Trump, who has outlined tariffs as a way to protect or reshore major industries, previously suggested that his administration would unilaterally dictate new and lower 'reciprocal' rates if need be. The original rates were loosely correlated with the size of a country's trade deficit with the US. Trump also has indicated some flexibility with low-wage countries hammered particularly hard by the looming rates. Nations such as Bangladesh (with a 37% assessed reciprocal rate), Sri Lanka (44%) and Mauritius (40%), for example, are important cogs in the global textile trade due to cheap labor. 'We're not looking to make sneakers and T-shirts. We want to make military equipment. We want to make big things. We want to make, do the AI thing,' Trump told a Post reporter on May 25. 'I'm not looking to make T-shirts, to be honest. I'm not looking to make socks. We can do that very well in other locations. We are looking to do chips and computers and lots of other things, and tanks and ships.'
Time of India
9 hours ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Six Chilling Ways Putin's Russia Could Destroy the UK Within Hours: British Government Warns
Live Events FAQs (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel Britain might be hit by waves of kamikaze drones , missiles, and cyber hacks if a war with Russia happens soon. The UK Ministry of Defence says the country is not ready for a full-on war like this. The SDR report is 144 pages long and shows how vulnerable Britain is, as per military bases of the UK are now under constant threat of a possible Russian targeted attack, with sophisticated drones, long-range cruise, ballistic and hypersonic missiles, all on the table for the Kremlin. Key UK targets: Navy bases in Portsmouth, Plymouth, and Clyde. Overseas targets: RAF Akrotiri , Al Minhad Air Base, and Diego Garcia, as per Mail Online report.A digital army of Russian hackers might attack UK government websites, the stock market, communications, and power saboteurs could attack oil rigs, satellite systems, and merchant ships. They might also try to stop trade ships and harm industries that help the UK military. Russia could spread lies and fake news to confuse people, cause panic, and divide society. Russia might damage or block space-based communication systems the UK depends on. UK troops and military spots outside Britain could also be hit hard, as per defences are weak right now, low missile stock, poor recruitment, low morale. The UK's current defences are not enough to stop drone or missile swarms like the ones seen in Ukraine, Israel, and Russia. Recent attacks by Ukraine's cheap kamikaze drones showed how powerful even small weapons can be. Ukraine used vans and drones to destroy two secret Russian airbases, costing Russia £5.2 billion in damage, as per Mail Secretary John Healey said £1 billion will go to boost air and missile defences and start a cyber and electromagnetic warfare unit. £1.5 billion will be spent to build at least six new munitions factories in the UK. The UK plans to buy 7,000 long-range British-made weapons. Britain plans on pushing the defence budget, with more funds for homes for military jets might carry nuclear weapons again. British troops in Estonia will get hundreds of new kamikaze drones called HX-2. The UK cadet force will grow to 250,000 school students for a 'whole of society' defence system, as stated in the United Kingdom is at risk of a potential Russian attack, with reports suggesting that a string of drone attacks, economic sabotage, cyber hacks and propaganda are being prepped by the Kremlin. The country is not well-prepared today, but the government is planning new defences, more weapons, and stronger forces. Experts say it's time for a huge shift in mindset to keep the UK safe in the future, as mentioned in the Mail Online could use drones, missiles, cyber hacks, and fake news to cause say the UK is not fully prepared but is working on improving defences.
The National
14 hours ago
- Business
- The National
UK's arms sales to Israel must end to stop 'ethnic cleansing in Gaza'
Steve Witherden, MP for Montgomeryshire and Glyndŵr, held a Parliamentary debate on British arms sales to Israel on Monday evening, calling on the UK Government to suspend all arms exports. During the debate, Witherden described Gaza as a 'slaughterhouse' and said that the UK Government is still letting the 'weapons flow' into Israel despite the country's genocidal acts on Gaza. Witherden also highlighted the lack of transparency surrounding the true extent of UK military exports to Israel, particularly regarding the supply of components for the F-35 fighter jet programme, and urged ministers to outline the specific conditions that would trigger a halt to further exports. READ MORE: SNP reject Reform UK claims they 'organised protests against Nigel Farage' 'The Government have claimed that there are red lines that would trigger a halt to exports, but Gaza is already a slaughterhouse,' Witherden said. 'Children are emaciated or dying of hunger, hospitals have been intentionally destroyed and Israel's leaders vow to wipe out Gaza, and still the weapons flow, so finally, Minister, where is our red line?' The Labour MP added: 'I call on this Government to suspend all arms exports to Israel, to ensure that no British-made weapons are used in Israel's brutal plans to annex, starve and ethnically cleanse the Palestinian population. 'The credibility of this House depends not just on what we condemn, but on what we enable, and history will remember that we enabled too much.' Witherden has called on the UK Government to publish an exact list of export licences still in effect and has asked why it has not suspended F-35 component shipments after admitting a 'clear risk' of violations of international law. The debate comes after the UK Government said it would suspend negotiations with the Israeli government on a new free trade deal last month. The Foreign Secretary David Lammy described Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government as 'extremists' at the time, but it was revealed that the UK Government sent a spy plane to surveil Gaza just hours later after his statement. In September last year, Lammy announced the suspension of around 30 arms sale licences to Israel amid concerns that a 'clear risk' exists that they could be used to breach international humanitarian law. The UK Government said exports to the global F-35 programme would be excluded from the suspension decision to avoid 'prejudicing the entire' global supply pool – despite media confirmation that the jets had been used by Israel to bomb the Al-Mawasi humanitarian zone in Gaza in July 2024. In May, figures published by the UK Government showed that Labour licensed the export of more military equipment to Israel in the final three months of 2024 than the Tories had for all of 2020-2023 combined. Challenged on those figures in the Commons, Lammy suggested the story was 'clickbait'.
Yahoo
15 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
UK Rushes to Save Steel Tariff Deal With US Before Levies Double
(Bloomberg) -- UK Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds will meet US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer in an attempt to rescue a deal to remove tariffs on British steel exports that is in danger of failing to be implemented ahead of a doubling of levies to 50% that's due to be imposed on Wednesday. Where the Wild Children's Museums Are Billionaire Steve Cohen Wants NY to Expand Taxpayer-Backed Ferry The Economic Benefits of Paying Workers to Move At London's New Design Museum, Visitors Get Hands-On Access LA City Council Passes Budget That Trims Police, Fire Spending If the UK and US are unable to reach a resolution, it would risk the so-called economic prosperity agreement announced last month between two nations not delivering on one of its key components. The agreement was sold by US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Keir Starmer as a trade deal to reduce tariffs — but so far it hasn't taken effect. 'When it comes to implementation of the agreement, that work is ongoing,' Starmer's spokesman, Dave Pares, told reporters on Tuesday, signaling the UK does not know whether its steel industry will face 50% US tariffs on Wednesday. 'It's up to the United States to make their own policy announcements,' he said ahead of the meeting between Reynolds and Greer in Paris later Tuesday. Under the agreement announced last month, the UK will fast-track US items through their customs process and reduce barriers on 'billions of dollars' of agricultural, chemical, energy and industrial exports, including beef and ethanol. The British government said auto tariffs on British-made vehicles exported to the US would be reduced to 10% and duties on metals slashed to zero. 'That agreement is committed to removing tariffs on steel and aluminium to save jobs and help the UK industry,' Pares said. 'That would mean that once that deal has been implemented, the steel industry will not pay tariffs for the majority of steel products that they're exporting to the US.' YouTube Is Swallowing TV Whole, and It's Coming for the Sitcom Millions of Americans Are Obsessed With This Japanese Barbecue Sauce Mark Zuckerberg Loves MAGA Now. Will MAGA Ever Love Him Back? Trump Considers Deporting Migrants to Rwanda After the UK Decides Not To Will Small Business Owners Knock Down Trump's Mighty Tariffs? ©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
Powys County Times
17 hours ago
- General
- Powys County Times
MP Steve Witherden demands government response on Gaza
The UK Government must suspend all arms exports to Israel to remove the risk of British-made weapons being used to 'ethnically cleanse' Palestinians, the Commons has heard. Labour MP Steve Witherden said Gaza is 'already a slaughterhouse' as he urged ministers to detail their 'red line' which would halt further exports. The MP for Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr added the 'true scale' of UK military exports to Israel 'remains unknown and unaccountable' before raising questions over the supply of 'crucial' components to Israel connected to the F-35 fighter jet programme. Business minister Douglas Alexander said the UK Government is not selling F-35 components 'directly to the Israeli authorities' and the export licence prevents 'direct shipments for Israel for use in Israel'. MPs were told the UK's exports of spare F-35 parts are part of a global supply network and exporters have 'no sight and no control over the specific ultimate end users for their export'. In September last year, Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced the suspension of around 30 arms sale licences to Israel amid concerns a 'clear risk' exists that they could be used to breach international humanitarian law. The Government said exports to the global F-35 programme would be excluded from the suspension decision, except where going directly to Israel, to avoid 'prejudicing the entire' scheme. Al-Haq, a Palestinian human rights organisation, which has brought a legal action against the Department for Business and Trade over its decisions, said the 'carve-out' gives 'rise to a significant risk of facilitating crime'. Mr Witherden, leading an adjournment debate on arms and military cargo export controls and Israel, told the Commons: 'The Foreign Secretary's recent condemnation of Israel's action as 'monstrous' was welcome but incomplete for my very same Government continues to facilitate such actions. 'We cannot have it both ways. We cannot condemn atrocity whilst simultaneously fuelling the machinery that enables it. We cannot claim to uphold international law while profiting from its breach.' Mr Witherden raised several issues, including asking the Government to explain how it defines 'defensive' weapons and what makes an F-35 component compatible with this definition. He said: 'It's the Government's position that the need to continue to supply F-35 components outweighs the risk of genocide and, if so, is there any circumstance that would lead to the UK stopping that supply? 'The Government has claimed that there are red lines that would trigger a halt to exports, but Gaza is already a slaughterhouse. 'Children are emaciated or dying of hunger. Hospitals have been intentionally destroyed. Israel's leaders vow to wipe out Gaza and still the weapons flow. 'So finally I ask the minister where is our red line? I call on this Government to suspend all arms exports to Israel to ensure that no British-made weapons are used in Israel's brutal plans to annexe, starve and ethnically cleanse the Palestinian population. 'The credibility of this House depends not just on what we condemn but on what we enable and history will remember we enabled too much.' Mr Alexander began by condemning the 'act of barbarism' by Hamas in Israel on October 7 2023, which killed around 1,200 people, before he warned that Israel's operations have been 'indefensible', 'disproportionate' and 'counterproductive to any lasting peace settlement'. The minister reiterated that the UK Government in September last year suspended arms exports licences for items to the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) that could be used in military operations in Gaza. 'There are a relatively small number of licences for the IDF relating to equipment which we assess would not be used in the current conflict, including – for example – parts of air defence systems that defend Israel from acts such as the major aerial attack from Iran in April 2024," he added. 'We also think it is right for us to continue providing military grade body armour used by non-governmental organisations and journalists and to provide parts to the supply chain which are ultimately re-exported back out of Israel to support the defence of our Nato allies.'
