Latest news with #trade deal
Bloomberg
an hour ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Canada Finance Chief Downplays Odds of Reaching Tariff-Free Deal with US
Canada's finance minister signaled that any trade deal with the US is likely to include at least some tariffs, and repeated that the country's dairy and poultry protections won't be on the table during negotiations. 'There's not evidence to suggest that you can have a trade deal with the US without tariffs,' Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne said Thursday in an interview with Bloomberg Television.
CBS News
an hour ago
- Business
- CBS News
In U.S.-EU trade dispute, Trump claims Europe doesn't buy American cars or food. Is that true?
The U.S. and European Union have just weeks to reach a new trade deal before President Trump plans to impose a 30% tariff on most imports from the 27 EU member countries starting Aug. 1. The EU negotiates trade policy as a single entity and was the U.S.'s top goods trading partner in 2024, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. In 2024, the U.S. imported around $606 billion in goods from the EU and exported around $370 billion worth of products to it. EU leaders have warned they're prepared to impose higher tariffs on hundreds of U.S. imports unless a deal can be reached in the coming weeks. Economists say the dispute could drive up consumer prices on both sides of the Atlantic. Mr. Trump has defended tariffs as necessary to protect American workers, pointing to the trade imbalance on goods and higher EU tariffs as evidence the bloc has treated the U.S unfairly for years. The president has also repeatedly said the European Union does not buy American cars or agricultural products. However, trade data from 2024 shows that's inaccurate. While the U.S. has imported more cars and agricultural products from Europe in recent years than it exports there, the EU remains a significant market for these American products. Here's a breakdown of the data. President Trump has repeatedly suggested Europe does not buy agricultural goods from U.S. farmers and producers. "The European Union is, in many ways, nastier than China, OK?," President Trump said at an event May 12. "They sell us their agricultural products. We sell them virtually none. They don't take our products." But according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the EU was the fourth-largest buyer of American agricultural products in 2024, purchasing a record $12.8 billion in these goods. Top exports to the EU included oilseeds like sunflower and sesame seeds, nuts and processed nut products like peanut butter, and soybeans. By comparison, the U.S. imported $36 billion in agricultural products from the EU in 2024 — buying billions of dollars worth of European wine, animal products, and grains and feeds. The White House has not responded to a request for clarification on the president's claim. Before Mr. Trump raised tariffs to a baseline of 10% in April, the EU maintained a higher average tariff on foreign agricultural products than the United States. In 2023, the EU average tariff on foreign agricultural goods was 10.8%, compared to the U.S. rate of 5%. Certain American food products are also less available in Europe because of consumer preferences and regulations, as the EU bans some American food products that contain certain additives they have deemed unsafe for human consumption. Another frequent target of President Trump's criticism is the EU's trade imbalance on cars. "They sell us 13 million cars. We sell them none," Mr. Trump claimed at an event in May. It is true that the United States imports far more European vehicles than the number of American-made vehicles it exports to the EU, but the EU does buy some American cars. In 2024, the EU imported about 165,000 American vehicles, valued at roughly $8.8 billion at current exchange rates, according to a report by the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association. By comparison, the same data shows the U.S. imported about 750,000 vehicles from the EU in 2024, worth $43 billion. Both trading partners have long imposed tariffs on foreign vehicles. The EU charges a 10% tariff on U.S. passenger cars, while the U.S. charged 2.5% on EU passenger cars until Mr. Trump raised the tariff on all foreign vehicles to 25%. The U.S. has also maintained a 25% tariff on EU pickup trucks since the 1960s. Apart from tariffs, industry analysts say U.S. cars are less competitive in the EU market for a number of other reasons, including that the member nations tend to have higher fuel economy standards, higher gas costs, and their buyers tend to prefer smaller cars. Though Mr. Trump often focuses on cars, they're not the biggest sector. Biological products and medication are actually the top commodities the U.S. imports from the EU, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. This is driven partly by some American pharmaceutical companies maintaining manufacturing facilities in EU countries with lower corporate tax rates like Ireland. In recent weeks, President Trump has floated tariff rates as high as 200% on foreign-made pharmaceuticals unless companies onshore manufacturing to the U.S. On the export side, the top U.S. exports to the EU include oil and natural gas, airplanes, and immunological products like blood plasma. Over the weekend, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said the EU still hopes to reach a new agreement with the U.S. "We have always been clear that we prefer a negotiated solution," von der Leyen said, adding, "We will continue to prepare countermeasures so we are fully prepared."Rachel Gold contributed to this report.
Wall Street Journal
8 hours ago
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
Podcast: Stock Indexes Close Mixed Amid New Trade Deal
President Trump announced a new trade deal with Indonesia, while Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the formal search for Fed Chair Jerome Powell's successor has begun. Plus: Nvidia shares rose after the White House said the company will be able to sell artificial-intelligence chips to China. And, MP Materials struck a $500 million deal with Apple. 🎧 Listen: Danny Lewis hosts the Morning Briefing podcast.
South China Morning Post
9 hours ago
- Business
- South China Morning Post
US-China trade deal may resemble phase 1 agreement from Trump's first term: ex-official
The US-China deal under negotiation is likely to bear similarities to the phase one trade agreement from Donald Trump's first term, according to a former senior official in that administration – offering clues to what the highly anticipated pact may look like just weeks before a trade truce between the two rival economies is set to expire. The agreement is 'very likely to resemble, in its broad contours, the phase one trade deal negotiated between 2017 and 2020, and at the heart of that was a substantial purchase of US agricultural and industrial goods', said Stephen Biegun, deputy secretary of state under Donald Trump from 2019 to 2021, at the Aspen Security Forum on Wednesday. Under the deal struck in 2020, China agreed to buy an additional US$200 billion worth of American goods and services over two years compared to 2017 levels. Much of that deal did not materialise, partly due to the economic devastation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic that began soon after the agreement was signed. Trump officials have, to varying degrees, signalled a desire to revive the deal . On the first day of his second term, the US president signed an executive order directing a review of China's compliance with the agreement. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who is leading the current trade negotiations, has cited Beijing's failure to meet its commitments as something to 'take into account' – and called the phase one deal a 'road map' for current talks. Explaining why he expects a similar framework this time, Biegun said Chinese officials have recognised that they have to 'pay a certain price' to create 'at least some temporary balance in the US-China trade relationship'. 'The [US] president uses the trade balance as his singular yardstick to measure the economic fairness in bilateral relations with any country around the world, including allies,' Biegun explained. 'And it's no different in the case of China.'
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump says India and US very close to finalising trade deal
Washington and Delhi are "very close" to finalising a trade deal, US President Donald Trump has said, as high-level talks between the two sides continue. "We're very close to a deal with India where they open it [the market] up," Trump told reporters at the White house on Wednesday. Later in the day, he reiterated that the deal with India was "very close" when asked about upcoming trade agreements in an interview with broadcaster Real America's Voice. India and the US have been locked in intense negotiations over the past few months, aiming to reach an agreement before steep tariffs kick in. Trump had first announced 27% tariffs on Indian goods in 2 April as part of a wider trade policy move. While the tariffs were initially paused until 9 July, the US later extended the deadline to 1 August. An Indian delegation is in the US this week for discussions on the agreement, Reuters reported, citing sources in the Indian government. Last month, a team of Indian officials extended their stay in Washington for another round of talks, raising questions about what was holding up the agreement. Both sides have sounded optimistic about the deal. On Tuesday, Trump signalled a potential breakthrough, saying that the US would gain "access" to the Indian market as part of the agreement. Suggesting that the deal with India was following a similar track to a recent agreement with Indonesia, where Jakarta granted full access to American companies Trump said: "India is basically working along that same line. We are going to have access to India." Is the 'big, beautiful' India-US trade deal in trouble? Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said this week that talks are progressing at a fast pace. However, a couple of weeks ago, he had cautioned that India did not negotiate trade agreements based on deadlines and would only enter deals that served its national interest. While the two sides have been negotiating for months, key sticking points persist, particularly over agricultural access, auto components and tariffs on Indian steel. For years, Washington has pushed for greater access to India's farm sector, seeing it as a major untapped market. But India has fiercely protected it, citing food security, livelihoods and interests of millions of small farmers. Until recently, the US was India's largest trading partner, with bilateral trade reaching $190bn. Trump and Modi have set a target to more than double this figure to $500bn. India has already reduced tariffs on a range of goods - including Bourbon whiskey and motorcycles - but the US continues to run a $45bn (£33bn) trade deficit with India, which Trump is keen to reduce. Meanwhile, Trump has recently renewed his aggressive tariff plans from earlier this year. He has issued warning letters to dozens of countries, signalling his intent to impose steep tariffs starting 1 August. The list of targeted nations includes all of America's major trading partners - the European Union, Canada, Mexico, Japan and South Korea. On Wednesday, in addition to the deal with India, he said the US "could possibly make a deal with (the) EU" soon. Follow BBC News India on Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
