Latest news with #NationalEconomicCouncil
CNBC
4 hours ago
- Business
- CNBC
Europe stock markets set for negative start to week after Trump doubles steel tariffs
Good morning from London, where futures data from IG suggest stock markets will nudge higher at the open — following declines in France, Germany and Italy. U.S. tariffs will be in focus yet again this week, after President Donald Trump said Friday that he will double tariffs on steel imports from 25% to 50% on June 4. The European Union criticized the move over the weekend, saying it undermines wider trade negotiations and will lead to higher costs for businesses and consumers on both sides of the Atlantic. Investors will also be monitoring any developments in trade talks between the U.S. and China, which soured last week. National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett suggested Sunday that Trump and China's President Xi Jinping could have a conversation as soon as this week. Skyline view of the City of London financial district from the viewpoint in Greenwich Park in London, United Kingdom. Mike Kemp | In Pictures | Getty Images China on Monday refuted Washington's claims that it had broken the Geneva trade agreement, instead accusing the U.S. for breaching deal terms, signaling talks between the worlds top two economies have taken a turn for the worse. Trade frictions between Washington and Beijing have flared up after a hiatus following a meeting between U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and his Chinese counterpart He Lifeng in Geneva, Switzerland, that had led them to suspend most tariffs on each other goods for 90 days. The Trump administration has ratcheted up export restrictions on semiconductor design software and chemicals to China, while announcing it would revoke visas for Chinese students, drawing ire from Beijing. Read the full story here. —Anniek Bao
CNBC
7 hours ago
- Business
- CNBC
China says the U.S. undermined Geneva trade deal after Trump accuses Beijing of violations
China on Monday refuted Washington's claims that it had broken the Geneva trade agreement, instead accusing the U.S. for breaching deal terms, signaling talks between the worlds top two economies have taken a turn for the worst. Trade frictions between Washington and Beijing have flared up after a hiatus following a meeting between U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and his Chinese counterpart in Geneva, Switzerland, that had led them to suspend most tariffs on each other goods for 90 days. The Donald Trump administration has ratcheted up export restrictions on semiconductor design software and chemicals to China, while announcing it would revoke visas for Chinese students, drawing ire from Beijing. Those measures "seriously undermine" the deal reached in Geneva, a Chinese commerce department spokesperson said. China, meanwhile, has kept a firm grip on its rare earths exports, contrary to Washington's expectations. "The U.S. government has continued to unilaterally provoke new economic and trade frictions, increasing the uncertainty and instability in the bilateral economic and trade relations," the spokesperson said. Last Friday, U.S. President Donald Trump accused China of violating its preliminary trade agreement with the U.S. In a social media post, Trump wrote, "China, perhaps not surprisingly to some, HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US. So much for being Mr. NICE GUY!" The accusations were "seriously contrary to the facts," the Chinese spokesperson said Monday, claiming that Beijing had "strictly implemented and actively upheld" the agreements, citing its steps to cancel and suspend certain tariff and non-tariff measures announced in April in response to Trump's "reciprocal" tariffs. Bessent said in a Fox News interview last week that bilateral trade talks were "a bit stalled," requiring the two countries' leaders to speak directly. On Sunday, National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett suggested that Trump and China's President Xi Jinping could have a conversation about trade as soon as this week. Tensions between the U.S. and China have risen beyond just trade. Addressing the annual defense summit Shangri-La Dialogue on Saturday in Singapore, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth warned that the threat from China's mounting military pressure in the Indo-Pacific region was "real" and "imminent," urging allied nations to boost defense spending to push back on Beijing. China's defense minister was absent at this year's summit, a rare departure from its tradition of dispatching the top military official to the annual event for the first time since 2019. In a statement responding to Hegseth's speech on Sunday, a spokesperson for China's defense ministry criticized Hegseth's remarks for "instigating cold-war mentality" and "severely challenging China's sovereignty and rights." China's embassy in Singapore said in a social media post on Saturday, following Hegseth's speech, that "the U.S. itself is the biggest 'troublemaker' for regional peace and stability."
Boston Globe
11 hours ago
- Business
- Boston Globe
Trump aides insist that tariffs will remain, even after court ruling
Asked about the future of the president's so-called reciprocal tariffs, first announced and quickly suspended in April, Lutnick added, 'I don't see today that an extension is coming.' Advertisement The president's tariff strategy entered uncharted political and legal territory last week after a federal trade court ruled that Trump had misused an emergency economic powers law in trying to wage a global trade war. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up The decision would have put a quick halt to those duties, which form the centerpiece of the president's strategy of pressuring other countries into trade talks. But an appeals court soon granted the government a brief administrative pause to sort out arguments in the case, which is expected to reach the Supreme Court. The administration has said that a ruling against its tariffs would harm negotiations and undercut the president, a point Trump repeated Sunday. In a social media post that projected confidence he would ultimately prevail in court, he wrote that any ruling against his tariffs would allow other countries to 'hold our Nation hostage' and result in 'Economic ruination' for the United States. Advertisement Top White House officials once promised to strike 90 deals in 90 days, but they have since managed to announce only one framework for a possible deal, with Britain. On Sunday, though, the commerce secretary dismissed the notion that Trump had suffered a new setback, saying it 'cost us a week, maybe.' He said the White House would ultimately reach 'first-class deals.' The decision has not slowed down Trump, who attacked China on Friday for failing to adhere to an agreement brokered between Washington and Beijing in which the two nations lowered their once-withering tariff rates, pending a longer-term deal. The president also announced that day that he would double tariffs applied to imported steel, which would now be set at 50 percent, in a move that could result in higher prices for American consumers. Kevin Hassett, the director of the White House National Economic Council, told ABC's 'This Week' that he expected Trump and China's leader, Xi Jinping, could speak about trade as soon as this week, though he later said that a conversation had not been scheduled or finalized. Scott Bessent, the treasury secretary, separately reiterated that talks with China had stalled, citing the fact that Beijing is holding back its exports of rare earth minerals, which are critical for global industrial supply chains. 'Maybe it's a glitch in the Chinese system; maybe it's intentional,' Bessent said on CBS' 'Face the Nation.' Bessent also defended the steel tariffs as a means of protecting American steel jobs. He acknowledged that it was unclear how the new rates could affect the construction industry, which he characterized as a 'very complicated ecosystem.' Advertisement This article originally appeared in
Yahoo
15 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump, Xi likely to discuss trade soon: Bessent
President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping will likely talk about trade 'soon' amid trade tensions between the two countries, Treasury Department Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday. Bessent said during a Sunday interview on CBS's 'Face the Nation' that he expects to see talks between the two leaders 'soon,' which would include discussions on critical minerals. 'I am confident that when President Trump and party Chairman Xi have a call, that this will be ironed out,' he said. 'But the fact that they are withholding some of the products that they agreed to release during our agreement — maybe it's a glitch in the Chinese system, maybe it's intentional.' When host Margaret Brennan asked if there was a scheduled date for the discussion, Bessent replied, 'I believe we'll see something very soon, Margaret.' National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett hinted that the two leaders may have discussions as soon as this week. 'President Trump, we expect, is going to have a wonderful conversation about the trade negotiations this week with President Xi, that's our expectation,' Hassett said on ABC's 'This Week.' Their statements come days after Bessent said talks with China over trade are 'a bit stalled.' Last week, a federal court ruled that an emergency law did not grant Trump unilateral authority to impose tariffs on nearly every country, blocking the president's April 'Liberation Day' tariffs and earlier orders imposing tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China. A federal appeals court lifted the first ruling a day later, although a separate federal court blocked the majority of the president's tariffs on the same day. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
CNBC
16 hours ago
- Business
- CNBC
Trump advisers defend tariffs amid legal fight, insisting they're 'not going away'
President Donald Trump's top economic advisers maintained confidence on Sunday that the "tariffs are not going away," as a key tenet of Trump's policy agenda hangs in legal limbo. "Rest assured, tariffs are not going away," Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on "Fox News Sunday," days after a federal court ruled that Trump overstepped his authority when he imposed the sweeping duties. A federal appeals court later granted the Trump administration's request to temporarily pause the ruling, giving the White House some breathing room, but officials now stare down a potentially arduous legal battle. The looming legal fight, which could ultimately wind up before the U.S. Supreme Court, injects uncertainty into Trump's tariff plan, which has upended the global economy in the weeks since his initial April 2 announcement of so-called reciprocal tariffs. Trump's advisers insist, however, that the tariffs will stay in place in the face of the legal challenges — or the administration will find new ways to implement them. National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said Sunday that he is "very confident" that the judges on the nation's top court would back Trump's tariffs. "We are very confident that the judges will uphold this law. And so I think that's Plan A. And we're very, very confident that Plan A is all we're ever going to need," he said on ABC News' "This Week." But he added that if the tariffs are blocked, "we'll have other alternatives that we can pursue as well to make sure that we make America trade fair again," without giving specifics on what that route would look like. "There's all these laws that your listeners don't want to listen to that are alternative ways to pursue what we're doing," he said. The U.S. Court of International Trade on Wednesday blocked Trump's tariffs, ruling that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which Trump invoked to impose the tariffs, does not authorize a president to levy universal duties on imports. To justify the tariffs, Trump said that the "large and persistent annual U.S. goods trade deficits" constituted a national emergency. The Trump administration swiftly appealed the ruling, and a federal appeals court granted their request for a temporary stay. It's not clear how the nation's highest court would eventually rule on Trump's tariffs, but it is not a given that the conservative-majority Supreme Court would automatically side with the president, POLITICO reports. The White House has argued that a court ruling overturning Trump's tariffs would undermine his negotiating leverage with other nations. "A ruling that narrows IEEPA would have ripple effects across every domain in which economic instruments are used for strategic effect," Lutnick said during a deposition last month. Trump said Sunday: "If the Courts somehow rule against" the U.S. on tariffs, it would "allow other Countries to hold our Nation hostage with their anti-American Tariffs that they would use against us." "This would mean the Economic ruination of the United States of America!" he wrote on Truth Social.
