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The Star
5 days ago
- Business
- The Star
Trump's sweeping tariffs on dozens of countries take effect; Myanmar and Laos among the worst hit at 40%
People walk past fresh produce at a street market in Yangon on August 4, 2025. Myanmar was hit with a 40% tariff on imports by the United States. - Photo: Sai Aung MAIN / AFP WASHINGTON (dpa): US President Donald Trump's tariffs on imports from around 70 countries and the European Union went into force on Thursday, including a whopping 50% on Brazilian imports, 39% on Switzerland and 35% on Canada. In a Truth Social post shortly before they went into effect, Trump wrote: "BILLIONS OF DOLLARS, LARGELY FROM COUNTRIES THAT HAVE TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF THE UNITED STATES FOR MANY YEARS, LAUGHING ALL THE WAY, WILL START FLOWING INTO THE USA." Trump has defended his aggressive trade stance by citing persistent deficits, which he claims pose a national security threat. Framing the issue as an emergency, he argues the tariffs will shield US businesses and revive domestic manufacturing. The measures are now being challenged in US courts. Since the start of his second term, Trump has targeted virtually every country with the threat of higher duties, including close allies. The tariffs have often been revised, delayed or scrapped altogether, and used as leverage to push countries into striking bilateral deals with Washington. Also among the slew of countries worst hit are South Africa (30%), Laos and Myanmar (40%), and war-ravaged Syria (41%). The European Union's 27 member states must now pay a 15% levy, down from the 30% Trump initially threatened following a last-minute deal with the European Commission. Critics of the deal said the commission had settled for a compromise that, while less severe than initially threatened, still clearly favours the US. In addition to the 15%, the EU promised Trump that it would buy US energy worth $750 billion by the end of his term. According to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, US liquefied natural gas, oil, and nuclear fuels will fill the gaps left by the complete phase-out of Russian gas and oil. The commission also announced that $600 billion in European investment is expected to flow into the US, citing private-sector interest. But officials clarified these are not government commitments, and no company names or figures were disclosed. Other countries, including Britain and Japan, recently reached separate trade agreements with the US to avoid steeper penalties. Attention now turns to Washington and Beijing, as the world's two largest economies near the expiration of their 90-day tariff truce next Tuesday. Both sides have threatened to slap import duties of over 100% on each other if talks collapse. India, already hit with a 25% levy on Thursday, is bracing for that rate to double by month's end.
The Star
28-06-2025
- The Star
Myanmar burns confiscated drugs worth around US$300 million
TOPSHOT - A firefighter sprays water to control burning pile of seized illegal drugs during a destruction ceremony to mark the "International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking" in Yangon on June 26, 2025. -- Photo by Sai Aung MAIN / AFP YANGON, Myanmar (AP): Officials in Myanmar's major cities destroyed about $300 million worth of confiscated illegal drugs Thursday. The destroyed drugs included opium, heroin, methamphetamine, marijuana, ketamine and the stimulant known as ice, or crystal meth, Yangon Police Brig. Gen. Sein Lwin said in a speech at a drug-burning ceremony. The drug burnings came nearly a month after UN experts warned of unprecedented levels of methamphetamine production and trafficking from South-East Asia's Golden Triangle region, where the borders of Myanmar, Laos and Thailand meet. The production of opium and heroin historically flourished there, largely because of the lawlessness in border areas where Myanmar's central government has been able to exercise only minimum control over various ethnic minority militias, some of them partners in the drug trade. The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said in a May report that the political crisis across the country after the military takeover in 2021 - which led to a civil war - has turbocharged growth of the methamphetamine trade. In the country's biggest city, Yangon, a massive pile of drugs worth more than US$117 million were set to be blazed, Sein Lwin said before the burning of several hundred kilograms of drugs. Similar events to mark the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking also occurred in the country's second-largest city of Mandalay, and in Taunggyi, the capital of eastern Myanmar's Shan state, all areas close to where the drugs are produced. The state-run MRTV television reported on Thursday that 66 types of seized narcotics worth US$298 million were torched and buried in three locations at the same time. Myanmar has a long history of drug production linked to political and economic insecurity caused by decades of armed conflict. It has been a major source of illegal drugs destined for East and Southeast Asia, despite repeated efforts to crack down. That has led the flow of drugs to surge across not only East and South-East Asia, but also increasingly into South Asia, in particular Northeast India, the UN said last month. Drugs are increasingly trafficked from Myanmar to Cambodia, mostly through Laos, as well as through maritime routes linking Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines, with Sabah in Malaysia serving as a key transit hub, it added. The UN agency labelled Myanmar in 2023 as the world's largest opium producer. - AP
The Star
01-06-2025
- Politics
- The Star
Myanmar junta asks for time as govt extends temporary to June 30 as it needs time for reconstruction due to upcoming elections
People wait at a bus stop as rain falls in Yangon on May 25, 2025. -- Photo by Sai Aung MAIN / AFP PHNOM PENH (Bernama): The Myanmar government has extended the temporary ceasefire, which expired on Saturday, until June 30 to facilitate reconstruction and to prepare for the general elections. The Office of the Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services said on Sunday that reconstruction of damaged government offices, public residences and transport facilities in the earthquake-affected areas is in progress. "The Tatmadaw (armed forces) extends the temporary ceasefire period from June 1 to 30, 2025 to facilitate rehabilitation and reconstruction activities in earthquake-affected areas. "To hold a free and fair multi-party democracy general election successfully, to serve the interest of the entire nation and people with greater acceleration, to achieve genuine and long-lasting peace and in view of peace and stability,' according to a statement posted on the Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services' website. The government plans to hold elections either at the end of this year or in January 2026. There was mounting regional pressure on the Myanmar government to extend the ceasefire to allow humanitarian aid to reach those impacted by the March 28 earthquake. In April, Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim held talks with military leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing and the National Unity Government to pause the conflict on humanitarian grounds. In the just-concluded 46th Asean Summit in Kuala Lumpur from May 26 to 27, regional leaders also urged for an extended and expanded ceasefire to allow aid delivery without any hindrance and for peace to prevail nationwide. Nearly 3,700 people have lost their lives in the natural disaster and thousands were made homeless when the 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck on March 28. - Bernama
Al Bawaba
30-03-2025
- General
- Al Bawaba
Myanmar earthquake's death toll jumps to over 1,600
NEWS Published March 30th, 2025 - 09:26 GMT Rescuers search for survivors amid the rubble of the collapsed Sky Villa Condominium building in Mandalay on March 29, 2025, a day after an earthquake struck central Myanmar. (Photo by Sai Aung MAIN / AFP) TDT | Manama Also Read Watch: Brave nurses shield newborns during deadly Myanmar quake The death toll from a major earthquake in Myanmar has risen to 1,644, the ruling junta said Saturday, with 3,408 people injured. A statement from the junta's information team said that at least 139 people are still missing after Friday's shallow 7.7-magnitude quake. Via � 2022 News of Bahrain
