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Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Gold Gains as Trump Doubles Down on Tariffs Before Deadline
(Bloomberg) -- Gold gained, bolstered by haven demand as traders weighed fresh tariff threats from President Donald Trump after he declared a 30% rate for the European Union and Mexico effective next month. Why Did Cars Get So Hard to See Out Of? How German Cities Are Rethinking Women's Safety — With Taxis Philadelphia Reaches Pact With Workers to End Garbage Strike Bullion traded near $3,370 an ounce, following a 0.6% increase last week. US trading partners continued to navigate the final weeks of negotiations as Trump's patience with talks appeared to wear thin before his Aug. 1 deadline. The president on Saturday gave trade ultimatums to Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the latest in a string of letters he's sent since last week to economies including Canada and Brazil that set out new duty rates. Rising trade tensions have underscored gold's haven appeal, although investors have grown increasingly less convinced about the likelihood of widespread upheaval after previously backed down from some aggressive tariff threats. Gold has rallied more than a quarter this year, setting a record above $3,500 an ounce in April. Trump's overhaul of trade policies has served as a steady source of uncertainty for markets, spurring investors to seek safety in the metal amid worries about the long-term impact on the global economy. The advance has also been aided by heightened geopolitical tensions and central-bank buying. Spot gold was 0.5% higher at $3,372.75 an ounce at 7:13 a.m. in Singapore. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was up 0.1%. Silver edged up to trade near the highest level since 2011. Platinum and palladium dipped. 'Our Goal Is to Get Their Money': Inside a Firm Charged With Scamming Writers for Millions Trump's Cuts Are Making Federal Data Disappear Trade War? No Problem—If You Run a Trade School Soccer Players Are Being Seriously Overworked Will Trade War Make South India the Next Manufacturing Hub? ©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
New York Times
3 days ago
- Business
- New York Times
Trump Administration Live Updates: Noem Defends Flood Response Amid Intense Scrutiny
President Trump announced in letters posted to social media on Saturday that he would place a 30 percent tariff on goods from the European Union and Mexico, upending months of careful negotiations and disrupting America's economic relationships with two of its biggest trading partners. Mr. Trump's tariffs would take effect on Aug. 1, like those on many other trading partners. But the letters to Mexico, America's largest source of imports, and the European Union, a trading bloc of 27 nations that collectively make up the world's third-largest economy, are notable. They marked a significant escalation aimed squarely at two of America's closest and most pivotal trading partners. Both economies do a huge amount of trade in goods and services with the United States. And both governments have been in intense negotiations with the United States, right up until Mr. Trump's letters were sent. Maros Sefcovic, the European Union's trade commissioner, was in regular contact with the U.S. commerce secretary and trade representative. Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, spoke to Mr. Trump. And until very recently, officials had hoped they were on the cusp of a deal. E.U. policymakers had gradually come around to the possibility that the bloc could face 10 percent across-the-board tariffs on all goods sent to the United States, and were hoping to negotiate exceptions for important products. Many of the policymakers were eager to end the economic uncertainty that Mr. Trump's trade announcements had unleashed on German carmakers, Italian wine exporters and Irish pharmaceutical companies alike. But things changed with Mr. Trump's announcement on Saturday of a flat 30 percent tariff, and his threat to make that rate even higher should the bloc retaliate. 'If for any reason you decide to raise your tariffs and retaliate, then, whatever the number you choose to raise them by, will be added onto the 30 percent that we charge,' Mr. Trump wrote in the letter, which echoed a form letter he has been sending out to many American trading partners announcing their tariff rate. Mexican officials had also been in active negotiations. A delegation led by economy minister Marcelo Ebrard arrived in Washington on Friday to discuss an 'integral agreement' with U.S. officials covering border security, migration, trade and water management. After an intense volley of tariffs from the United States earlier this year related to Washington's desire to curb the flow of fentanyl across the border, Mexican officials felt they had cultivated a more productive relationship with U.S. officials. Mr. Trump placed a 25 percent tariff on all Mexican imports earlier this year, sparking an intense dispute. But the administration ultimately lifted most of those tariffs by exempting goods that trade under the United States Mexico Canada Agreement, the North American trade pact, which includes agriculture and other products. According to data from Mexican officials, about 87 percent of exports from Mexico to the United States are not currently subject to tariffs. Mr. Ebrard said in a statement posted on social media Saturday that U.S. officials had told their Mexican counterparts that 'as part of the profound change in the United States' trade policy,' the Trump administration was going to send letters to all world leaders announcing new tariffs. 'We mentioned at the negotiating table that it was an unjust move and that we did not agree with it,' Mr. Ebrard. He said that Mexican officials would work to ensure that they had an alternative proposal that protects jobs and businesses on both sides of the border before the tariffs take effect Aug. 1. Mexico's president, Claudia Sheinbaum, said at an event on Saturday that she believed her administration would be able to reach a deal. 'We know very clearly what we can work out with the government of the United States and what we can't,' she said. In a letter addressed to Mexico's leader and posted to his social media platform, Truth Social, on Saturday, Mr. Trump said, 'Mexico has been helping me secure the border, BUT, what Mexico has done, is not enough.' He blamed Mexico for the American fentanyl crisis, saying cartels had flooded his country with fentanyl and that 'Mexico still has not stopped the Cartels who are trying to turn all of North America into a Narco-Trafficking Playground.' In recent months, the Trump administration has taken aim at Mexican cartels and those it says work with the groups. To avoid an earlier threat of tariffs this spring, Ms. Sheinbaum deployed 10,000 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border, building on recent efforts to curb migration by intercepting migrant caravans and busing migrants to places far from the border. Crossings have plummeted to their lowest level in decades. She also announced a crackdown that has led to record fentanyl seizures, and agreed to extradite dozens of cartel operatives to the United States, breaking with Mexico's previous stance on extraditing the leaders. And Mexico's leaders imposed tariffs and restrictions on many Chinese imports. Ms. Sheinbaum was broadly praised for her coolheaded approach to Mr. Trump, who called her a 'marvelous woman' after the two spoke about tariffs in February and he offered Mexico an additional month to make gains. Mr. Trump earlier this week announced that he would aim 35 percent tariffs at Canada — another key trading partner, and another nation that had hoped it might be closing in on a negotiated deal with the United States. And he has threatened to slap tariffs ranging from 20 to 50 percent on other nations, including Brazil, Japan and South Korea. The latest round of levies underscores that Mr. Trump is willing to upend long-held relationships in his quest to rewrite the rules of global commerce. But for major trading partners, the question now is whether they will hit back. Mexico has never retaliated against the United States, but officials have repeatedly said that they reserve the right to, and have analyzed which U.S. exports they could apply tariffs to. Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the E.U. executive, said in a statement that Mr. Trump's latest tariffs 'would disrupt essential trans-Atlantic supply chains, to the detriment of businesses, consumers and patients on both sides of the Atlantic.' She also threatened to hit back, though she did not make a retaliation sound like a foregone conclusion at this point, talking about the 'proportionate countermeasures if required.' The bloc had already prepared a retaliatory package in response to earlier tariffs, but had paused them to create leeway for negotiation. That retaliation would apply to some 21 billion euros (nearly $25 billion) worth of imports from the United States. The tariffs are scheduled to kick in at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday unless E.U. officials choose to suspend them. 'Of course, there are possibilities to react, but we don't want to,' Kaja Kallas, the European Union's top diplomat, said in an interview on Friday in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 'We don't want to retaliate. We don't want this trade war.' In the run-up to Mr. Trump's announcement, officials from the European Union had reiterated that their goal was to reach an agreement in principle, a sort of rough-draft trade plan that could serve as a basis for more detailed negotiations. If the newly announced tariffs rates remain, however, 'that means trade war,' said Jacob Funk Kirkegaard, a senior fellow at the economic think tank Bruegel in Brussels. He did not think that Mr. Trump's warning against retaliation would have much effect on the E.U.'s appetite to hit back. He said the best Europe can hope for is a situation in which many of America's global trading partners retaliate, perhaps in a coordinated way, and Mr. Trump is pressured to strike a less extreme stance. 'They have consistently said they would defend themselves under the right circumstances,' he said. 'Now those circumstances are here.' Zunaira Saieed , Emiliano Rodríguez Mega and Annie Correal contributed reporting.
CBS News
3 days ago
- Business
- CBS News
European Union to delay retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods in hopes of reaching deal
The European Union will suspend retaliatory tariffs on goods from the United States that were scheduled to take effect on Monday. The EU hopes it can reach a trade deal with the Trump administration by the end of the month. "This is now the time for negotiations," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told reporters in Brussels on Sunday. A day earlier, President Trump sent a letter to the EU announcing new 30% tariffs on goods starting Aug. 1. In the letter, Mr. Trump said the relationship between the bloc and the U.S. has been "far from Reciprocal," and that the U.S. trade deficit was a national security threat. "We have had years to discuss our Trading Relationship with The European Union, and have concluded that we must move away from these long-term, large, and persistent Trade Deficits, engendered by your Tariff, and Non-Tariff, Policies and Trade Barriers," he wrote. Mr. Trump sent a similar letter to Mexico. The EU – the United States' biggest trading partner and the world's largest trading bloc – had been scheduled to impose "countermeasures" starting Monday at midnight Brussels time (6 p.m. EST). The EU negotiates trade deals on behalf of its 27 member countries. President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen talking to the media at the end of a bilateral meeting in the Berlaymont, the EU Commission headquarters. Thierry Monasse / Getty Images Von der Leyen said those countermeasures would be delayed until Aug. 1, and that Mr. Trump's letter shows ″that we have until the first of August″ to negotiate. European leaders have urged Mr. Trump and von der Leyen to give negotiations more time. ″We have always been clear that we prefer a negotiated solution,″ she said. If they can't reach a deal, she said that ″we will continue to prepare countermeasures so we are fully prepared.″ Mr. Trump has said his global tariffs would set the foundation for reviving a U.S. economy that he claims has been ripped off by other nations for decades. He was on an announcement blitz of new tariffs with allies and foes alike last week. U.S. trade partners have faced months of uncertainty and on-and-off threats from the U.S. president to impose tariffs, with deadlines sometimes extended or changed. The tariffs could have ramifications for nearly every aspect of the global economy. The value of EU-U.S. trade in goods and services amounted to 1.7 trillion euros ($2 trillion) in 2024, or an average of 4.6 billion euros a day, according to the EU statistics agency Eurostat. Europe's biggest exports to the U.S. were pharmaceuticals, cars, aircraft, chemicals, medical instruments and wine and spirits. Trade ministers from EU countries are scheduled to meet on Monday to discuss trade relations with the U.S., as well as with China.
CNN
3 days ago
- Business
- CNN
EU announces delay to its trade countermeasures against United States until early August
The European Union will delay the implementation of its trade countermeasures against the United States from Monday until early August to allow more time to negotiate a deal. At a news conference on Sunday, Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, referenced the letter the United States sent to the bloc Saturday, which threatened to impose a 30% tariff on European goods exports on August 1 absent a trade agreement. 'We will therefore also extend the suspension of our countermeasures till early August,' she said at the briefing in Brussels. 'At the same time, we will continue to prepare further countermeasures so we are fully prepared.' 'We have always been very clear that we prefer a negotiated solution. This remains the case, and we will use the time that we have now till the 1st of August (to negotiate),' von der Leyen added. In mid-April, the EU said it was suspending until July 14 its planned countermeasures on €21 billion ($25 billion) worth of US exports, unveiled earlier in retaliation for the 25% tariff Washington slapped on all steel and aluminum imports. The bloc has also been preparing additional countermeasures in response to further tariffs announced by US President Donald Trump. On Sunday, von der Leyen said the 27-nation bloc had 'developed a second potential list of countermeasures' and has sought to diversify its trade relationships, citing a 'big and important' free trade deal with Indonesia. According to the US Trade Representative's office, EU member countries are together America's largest trading partner at nearly $976 billion in two-way goods traded in 2024. Von der Leyen noted that the EU prefers to negotiate a trade solution with the United States. 'Few economies in the world match the European Union's level of openness and adherence to fair trading practices,' she said on Saturday.
Reuters
3 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
EU to keep US trade countermeasures on hold until August, says von der Leyen
BRUSSELS, July 13 (Reuters) - The EU will extend its suspension of countermeasures to U.S. tariffs until early August as it aims for a negotiated solution on trade with the United States, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Sunday. U.S. President Donald Trump escalated his global trade war on Saturday and threatened to impose a 30% tariff on imports from the European Union from Aug. 1, separate from sector-specific duties, despite months of intense talks. Announcing the extension of the halt on retaliatory measures, von der Leyen told reporters the bloc would "continue to prepare further countermeasures so we are fully prepared". A first package of countermeasures to U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminium that would hit 21 billion euros ($24.6 billion) in U.S. goods was suspended in April for 90 days to allow time for negotiations. The suspension had been due to expire on Monday. A second package has been in the works since May and would target 72 billion euros of U.S. goods, but these measures have not yet been made public and the final list requires approval by member states. Von der Leyen added that use of the EU's Anti-Coercion Instrument was not yet on the table. "The (anti-coercion) instrument is created for extraordinary situations, we are not there yet," she said. The instrument allows the bloc to retaliate against third countries that put economic pressure on EU members to change their policies. Possible retaliatory steps could include restricting EU market access to goods and services, and other economic measures related to areas including foreign direct investment, financial markets and export controls. ($1 = 0.8555 euros)
