Latest news with #USconsumer
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
US and Chinese officials will resume trade talks in London on Monday, Trump says
President Donald Trump announced Friday that US and Chinese officials will meet in London on Monday to discuss trade between the two nations. 'I am pleased to announce that Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, and United States Trade Representative, Ambassador Jamieson Greer, will be meeting in London on Monday, June 9, 2025, with Representatives of China, with reference to the Trade Deal,' the president wrote in a post on Truth Social. The announcement comes after Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping spoke for 90 minutes on Thursday. After the phone call, the US president said he was encouraged that ongoing trade tensions could soon be resolved. The last talks between the Trump administration and their Chinese counterparts, held on May 12 in Geneva, represented a major turning point for the global trade war. Delegates from China and the United States announced they would significantly roll back their historically high tariffs on one another. Markets rallied, Wall Street banks curtailed their recession forecasts, and moribund USconsumer confidence rebounded significantly. That marked a significant change from April, when tensions ran so high that trade between the United States and China came to an effective halt. The 145% tariffs on most Chinese imported goods made the math impossible for American businesses to buy virtually anything from China, America's second-largest trading partner. But since then, tensions had re-escalated. Trump on Wednesday said in a Truth Social post that Chinese leader Xi Jinping was 'extremely hard to make a deal with.' Trade talks have stalled, Bessent said, apparently frustrating Trump. Last week, Trump posted on social media that China 'TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US.' Trump said that he made a 'fast deal' with China to 'save them from what I thought was going to be a very bad situation.' He added: 'So much for being Mr. NICE GUY!' The Trump administration had expected China to lift restrictions on rare earth materials that are critical components for a wide range of electronics, but China has largely refused, causing intense displeasure inside the Trump administration and prompting a recent series of measures to be imposed on the country three administration officials told CNN last week. For example, the White House warned US companies against using AI chips made by China's national tech champion Huawei. It stopped US companies from selling to China software that is used to design semiconductors. And the US State Department announced it would 'aggressively revoke visas' for some Chinese students in in turn, has accused the United States of 'provoking new economic and trade frictions.' 'The United States has been unilaterally provoking new economic and trade frictions, exacerbating the uncertainty and instability of bilateral economic and trade relations,' the Chinese Commerce Ministry said Sunday. In the meantime, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, America's chief negotiator in the détente with China, said talks with China had stalled. But Trump and and Chinese leader Xi Jinping held a long-awaited phone call Thursday, which appears to have lowered the temperature a bit. The New York Times on Friday reported China has issued some licenses for rare earths, although the market is hardly back open. The talks in the UK are significant, and much is riding on their success – US economic growth remains steady but there are signs of cracking. And no one wants to return to April's standoff, which threatened to plunge the global economy into a stocks, which had rallied earlier in the day on a strong jobs report, rose a bit higher after Trump's Truth Social message about the resumed talks. The Dow was up 450 points, or 1.1%. The S&P 500 rose 1.2%, and the Nasdaq was 1.3% higher.
Bloomberg
6 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Citizens CEO: Worst of Tariff Pain is Behind Us
Citizens CEO Bruce Van Saun says businesses are adjusting to President Trump's tariffs. He joined Wall Street Beat on Bloomberg Open Interest to talk about the strength of the financial sector and how the US consumer is holding up. (Source: Bloomberg)
Arab News
27-03-2025
- Automotive
- Arab News
Canadian Prime Minister Carney calls Trump's auto tariffs a ‘direct attack' on his country
TORONTO: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Wednesday that US President Donald Trump's auto tariffs are a 'direct attack' on his country and that the trade war is hurting Americans, noting that American consumer confidence is at a multi-year low. Trump said earlier Wednesday that he was placing 25 percent tariffs on auto imports and, to underscore his intention, he stated 'This is permanent.' 'This is a very direct attack,' Carney responded. 'We will defend our workers. We will defend our companies. We will defend our country.' Carney said he needs to see the details of Trump's executive order before taking retaliatory measures. He called it unjustified and said he will leave the election campaign to go to Ottawa on Thursday to chair his special Cabinet committee on US relations. Carney earlier announced a CA$2 billion ($1.4 billion) 'strategic response fund' that will protect Canadian auto jobs affected by Trump's tariffs. Autos are Canada's second largest export, and Carney noted it employs 125,000 Canadians directly and almost another 500,000 in related industries. 'Canada will be there for auto workers,' he said. Trump previously granted a one-month exemption on his stiff new tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada for US automakers. The president has plunged the US into a global trade war — all while on-again, off-again new levies continue to escalate uncertainty. The Conference Board reported Tuesday that its USconsumer confidence index fell 7.2 points in March to 92.9, the fourth straight monthly decline and its lowest reading since January of 2021. 'His trade war is hurting American consumers and workers and it will hurt more. I see that American consumer confidence is at a multi-year low,' Carney said earlier while campaigning in Windsor, Ontario ahead of Canada's April 28 election. The tax hike on auto imports starting in April means automakers could face higher costs and lower sales. Trump previously 25 percent tariffs on Canada's steel and aluminum and is threatening sweeping tariffs on all Canadian products — as well as all of America's trading partners — on April 2. 'He wants to break us so America can own us,' Carney said. 'And it will never ever happen because we just don't look out for ourselves we look out for each other.' Carney, former two-time central banker, made the earlier comments while campaigning against the backdrop of the Ambassador Bridge, which is considered the busiest US-Canadian border crossing, carrying 25 percent of all trade between the two countries. It plays an especially important role in auto manufacturing. Carney said the bridge carries $140 billion Canadian dollars ($98 billion) in goods every year and CA$400 million ($281 million) per day. 'Now those numbers and the jobs and the paychecks that depend on that are in question,' Carney said. 'The relationship between Canada and the United States has changed. We did not change it.' In the auto sector, parts can go back and forth across the Canada-US border several times before being fully assembled in Ontario or Michigan. Ontario Premier Doug Ford said, whose province has the bulk of Canada's auto industry, Ford said auto plants on both sides the border will shut simultaneously if the tariffs go ahead. 'President is calling it Liberation Day. I call it Termination Day for American workers. I know President Trump likes tell people 'Your fired!' I didn't think he meant US auto workers when he said it,' Ford said. Trump has declared a trade war on his northern neighbor and continues to call for Canada to become the 51st state, a position that has infuriated Canadians. Canadians booed Trump repeatedly at a Carney election rally in Kitchener, Ontario. The new prime minister, sworn in March 14, still hasn't had a phone call with Trump. It is unusual for a US president and Canadian prime minister to go so long without talking after a new leader takes office. 'It would be appropriate that the president and I speak given the action that he has taken. I'm sure that will happen soon,' Carney said. Opposition Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre said the tariffs will damage American auto workers just as they will damage Canadian auto workers. 'The message to President Trump should be to knock it off,' Poilievre said. 'He's changed his mind before. He's done this twice, puts them on, takes them off. We can suspect that may well happen again.'
