Tag - trade

 
 

TRADE

Stacked parcels are seen as an employee stands at a service counter at a post office in Hong Kong on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 16, 2025
Hong Kong postal service halts U.S. parcels over tariff ‘bullying'
The move comes as Trump’s tariff offensive on China increasingly affects the former British colony.
Samples of rare earth minerals on display at the Molycorp Mountain Pass Rare Earth facility in California in 2015
WORLD / Politics
Apr 16, 2025
Seven rare earth metals that China is weaponizing against the U.S.
China’s dominance of both mining and processing rare earth minerals means these niche metals have become a cudgel to use against opponents.
Facing a new round of U.S. tariffs, China may devalue the yuan — possibly by as much as 20% — if fiscal stimulus falls short, risking a global currency war as it fights to meet its growth target.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 16, 2025
When will China start to devalue the yuan?
One way to think about China’s currency policy is its fiscal stance. Unless Beijing brings out the stimulus bazooka, devaluing the yuan might be the most expedient option.
The Canton Fair in Guangzhou, China, on Tuesday
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 16, 2025
Ground zero of China trade boom reckons with decoupling from U.S.
"The China-U.S. relation is beyond salvation — this change of gears is irreversible,” said the China director at a political risk consultancy.
A Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) logo is displayed on a wall in Hsinchu, Taiwan, on Tuesday. A recent rout saw TSMC’s forward price-to-earnings ratio hit a two-year low at one point.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 16, 2025
TSMC and ASML outlooks to reveal depth of tariff pain and AI angst
Both have borne the brunt of a broader market selloff, weighed down by both U.S. tariff threats and doubts over future AI demand.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (left) speaks to Communist Party of Vietnam chief To Lam in Hanoi on Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 16, 2025
Xi’s visit shows Vietnam’s balancing act amid looming U.S. tariffs
Hanoi’s initial silence on the Chinese president's request to jointly oppose "unilateral bullying” shows its attempt to walk a tightrope between the two powers.
Recently, private companies have sharply increased rice imports while paying high tariffs, against the backdrop of shortages of rice as a staple food.
JAPAN
Apr 15, 2025
Finance Ministry calls for increasing tariff-free rice imports
Recently, private companies have sharply increased rice imports while paying high tariffs, against the backdrop of shortages of rice as a staple food.
The U.S. Commerce Department has begun investigating how semiconductors and pharmaceuticals impact national security.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 15, 2025
Trump initiates chips and drug probes, ahead of more tariffs
The moves, announced Monday in the Federal Register, are a precursor to imposing tariffs and threaten to broaden the president’s sweeping U.S. trade war.
The trade war is ratcheting up tensions between Beijing and Washington. Taipei needs to be more prepared. 
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 15, 2025
Taiwan is under siege with or without tariffs
Taiwan must urgently strengthen defenses and unite politically to counter rising threats from China, despite Trump’s trade war.
Toyota and Lexus cars and sport utility vehicles unloaded from car carrier ships to the Toyota Logistics Services automotive processing terminal at the Port of Long Beach in Long Beach, California, on Thursday
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 15, 2025
Trump floats temporary reprieve for autos as parts tariffs loom
The president said he is exploring exemptions to his tariffs on imported vehicles and parts to give auto companies more time to set up manufacturing in the U.S.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping shakes hands with Vietnam's National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man, in Hanoi on Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 15, 2025
Xi urges Vietnam to join China in opposing ‘unilateral bullying’
The two countries signed a total of 45 deals covering areas including connectivity, AI, customs inspection, agricultural trade, culture and sports, among others.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore during an interview in Tokyo. The governor is in Japan on a four-day trade and investment mission.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 14, 2025
Maryland governor talks trains and trade while in Japan
Gov. Wes Moore said he believes the Northeast Maglev — which may use technology from Japan — could transform the region's economy.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping waves as he arrives for a two-day state visit at Hanoi's Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi on Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 14, 2025
Xi seeks to win with Southeast Asia trip as Trump pauses some tariffs
Xi arrived in Vietnam on Monday and was due to visit Malaysia and Cambodia later this week, just days after Trump raised tariffs on China but gave everyone else a 90-day pause.
While U.S. President Donald Trump has imposed new tariffs on nearly every country in the world, China is clearly his primary target.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 14, 2025
How should Beijing respond to Trump’s tariffs?
Many are already comparing it to President Herbert Hoover’s 1930 Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which slashed global trade by 66% in five years and deepened the Great Depression.
U.S. President Donald Trump holds a chart next to Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick as Trump delivers remarks on tariffs in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington on April 2.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 14, 2025
Trump warns tariffs are coming for electronics after reprieve
The American president downplayed a weekend exemption as a procedural step in his overall push to remake U.S. trade.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese delivers a speech during the Labor party campaign launch in Perth, Australia, on Sunday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 14, 2025
Australia’s prime minister approval rises as Trump looms over May election
The prime minister is seeking to become the first in over two decades to win consecutive elections in Australia.
A sign outside the headquarters of JP Morgan Chase & Co in New York in 2013
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 14, 2025
JPMorgan analyst says he now tempers public comments on U.S. tariffs
Michael Cembalest, chair of market and investment strategy and a Wall Street veteran, said he had not been able to fully express his views.
U.S. President Donald Trump attends a bilateral meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping during the Group of 20 leaders summit in Osaka in June 2019.
BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS
Apr 14, 2025
How China went from courting Trump to ‘never yield’ tariff defiance
Beijing has put civilian government officials on a "wartime footing” and ordered a diplomatic charm offensive aimed at encouraging other countries to push back.
Workers transport soil containing rare earth elements for export at a port in Lianyungang, in China's Jiangsu province, in October 2010.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 14, 2025
China halts critical rare earth exports as trade war intensifies
The official crackdown is part of Beijing’s retaliation for President Donald Trump’s sharp increase in tariffs that started April 2.
The Trump administration, in a desperate bid to cushion trade war inflation, is pushing for cheap oil, but $50-a-barrel will ultimately widen the very trade deficit the U.S. president wants to reduce.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 13, 2025
$50-a-barrel oil is a problem for the U.S. trade deficit
If oil prices fall to $50, under that scenario, total petroleum production in America will probably decline by 1 million barrels a day by the end of 2025.

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.