Latest news with #RAQ
Yahoo
20-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Aussie boss reveals huge cost of Trump vs China tariff war bloodbath: 'Scramble'
An Australian boss has been forced to shut down the US part of her business to avoid any further fallout from Donald Trump's tariffs against China. Sophia Argyropoulos has been running her RAQ Apparel swimwear company for nearly a decade, and while this decision was a "no-brainer", it's a massive hit. The US President has escalated his tariffs against the import of Chinese goods multiple times, and the country now faces a jaw-dropping 245 per cent penalty. Argyropoulos told Yahoo Finance that this makes it virtually impossible to sell her swimwear to Americans. "If we sell a bikini for $100 and it's made in China, even though it's coming from Australia and it's going into the US, the customer has to pay $245 before it's delivered," she said. China-US tariffs war risks collapse of Aussie dollar as Trump wields dangerous $732 billion power ATO warning for every Aussie who plays lottery after $70 million Oz Lotto jackpot Pay rise coming for half a million Aussies after 'landmark' ruling: 'Up to 35 per cent' "Who's going to do that? The math doesn't work." RAQ has been specifically designed for women with a fuller bust and its founder said the skill needed to create each garment couldn't be done in Australia. There are 66 different cup sizes available, and Argyropoulos said she struggled to find an Australian manufacturer that could bring her vision to life. She cycled through several manufacturers until she settled on one in China."The way that they're cutting fabrics or the way that they're mapping out pattern pieces, or the way that they're doing their grading with CAD software, that expertise, that technical expertise, they have it there," she told Yahoo Finance. All the garments are shipped from China to Australia and then to RAQ's customers. The Melbourne-based boss said the US had become a great market for her company, making up 20 per cent of RAQ's revenue. But the tariffs would have either forced her to take a massive hit on every product sold, or she would have had to hike prices for her customers to unaffordable prices. Trump has been steadily lifting his tariff rate against China, but dozens of other countries have been given a 90-day pause on the penalty while they negotiate certain terms. Argyropoulos said the chaos of the tariff rollout had caused her too many headaches, and she didn't want to wake up to another morning where the situation had become even worse. "Every time it changes, it impacts us," she said. "We have to scramble and try work out what our policy is going to be, how that's going to impact our profitability. Uncertainty, I think, in itself, is a huge tax." So, she decided to shut RAQ off for Americans. "To be honest, it was a relief to switch it off, because then we don't have that uncertainty," she said. "We don't have to be at the whim of every change of every tariff." She's hoping to pivot to the UK market in the meantime and hopes to reopen the US side of the site if the tariffs are brought down to an affordable level. Trump threatened the tariff against China could hit 245 per cent because the Asian superpower introduced "retaliatory" tariffs against the US. Despite that being an incredibly high rate, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it would no longer be paying attention to the US president's 'numbers game'. China's Ministry of Finance called the ever-increasing tariffs coming from the US a 'joke' because they don't have 'any economic significance'. Yahoo Finance contributor David Llewelyn-Smith fears the tit-for-tat between China and the US "could, in the worst case, collapse the Australian dollar, perhaps to as low as 40 cents". "Commodities, interest rates and house prices could all be impacted by the trade war Australia has been swept up in," he said. In the meantime, Aussie businesses with US customers are faced with uncertainty if their products are made in China. Australia's trade minister, Don Farrell, said the government would "always stand up for Australia and support local businesses and Australian jobs". "This includes advocating for no tariffs on Australian products and for a de-escalation in global trade tensions, while promoting greater trade diversification," he in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
09-03-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Push for more point to point speeding cameras as millions face new driver crackdown
Road safety experts are urgently calling for action to curb the rising death toll on roads in Australia, pushing for stronger measures including increased police patrols, mandatory roadside drug testing after crashes, and expanded use of point-to-point speed cameras in high-risk areas. The Royal Automobile Club of Queensland (RAQ) said the vast majority of the 303 deaths that occurred on the state's roads last year were preventable. The last time Queensland's road toll exceeded 300 was in 2009, with 2025 already "tracking for an even worse total", the group warned. The authority argued several strategies must be implemented in response, which are of particular importance given that so far this year, almost one fatality has occurred every day on the state's roads. RACQ wants to see the installation of more point-to-point speed cameras in high-risk crash zones, which deter speeding by recoding the average speed of motorists over a stretch of road. It also wants to see the state government immediately boost police presence on the roads, in addition to mandatory roadside drug testing after all crashes. Point-to-point speed cameras, also known as average speed cameras, measure a vehicle's speed over a set distance rather than at a single location. They work by recording the time a vehicle passes two fixed points along a road and calculating its average speed between them. If the vehicle's average speed exceeds the legal limit for that stretch of road, the driver receives a fine. These cameras are particularly effective in reducing speeding over long distances, discouraging drivers from simply slowing down for traditional fixed cameras and then speeding up again. They are commonly used in high-risk crash zones, highways and tunnels to improve road safety. In NSW, their use is set to be expanded in the near future. In addition to the cameras, RACQ is also pushing for expanded hooning laws to cover a broader range of reckless speeding, drink-driving and drug-driving offences, leading to offenders' vehicles being impounded or immobilised for 30 to 90 days. General Manager of Advocacy Joshua Cooney said the reforms are desperately needed to combat Queenslanders' "worsening" attitudes toward road safety, arguing that extreme driving and deliberate rule breaking was on the rise. "Speeding, drink driving and drug driving are the main killers on our roads, and we need strong and urgent law reform to quickly curb these alarming trends and dramatically improve our road safety culture," he warned. "Increasing fines clearly has not worked, so we must rethink enforcement and deterrents for drivers breaking the rules. Motorists need to know that if they do the wrong thing, they will be caught and will face significant consequences. "There must be more focus on law and order on our roads." Before Covid-19, road fatalities were on a downward trend. Had that continued, the annual toll would be closer to 200 lives lost. However, at the current trajectory, we are on track for another alarmingly high road toll in 2025, possibly reaching around 350 deaths, Cooney said. Urgent warning over deadly trend on Aussie roads Older drivers 'exposed' on Aussie roads after major shift Major change to speed cameras as drivers told to expect 'letters' Across the country, governments are facing mounting pressure to take bold action to reduce national road fatalities, as data revealed the toll has been rising in recent years at a pace not seen since 1966. Research conducted by the the federal Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics (BITRE) showed that 1,300 people died on Australian roads in 2024 — up from 1,258 in 2023. It's reflective of a four-year period of surging deaths our roads, which has not occurred since before seatbelts were made mandatory in the '60s. An alarming 359 people died in the three months to the end of December last year. This grim statistic made 2024 the deadliest year on Australian roads since 2012, which also recorded 1,300 fatalities. The data further revealed that last year's road toll was 18.5 per cent higher than in 2021, the year a 10-year plan to halve road deaths was launched. Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@ You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube.
