Year: 2018

The White House issued a proclamation Friday evening officially announcing the doubling of steel tariffs on Turkey, slated to go into effect Monday. Earlier Friday, the Turkish lira suffered its worst one-day loss in a decade after President Donald Trump announced the United States would hike metals tariffs, prompting investor confidence to slump. Trump announced the doubling of aluminum and steel tariffs in a tweet Friday morning, citing bilateral strains. Ties between the countries have been strained, as Washington is urging Ankara to release Andrew Brunson. The American pastor is currently held under house arrest on terrorism charges. The White House dismisses the charges as baseless and accused Ankara of hostage taking. Turkey wants Brunson to stand trial. The Brunson dispute triggered the collapse in the Turkish currency as investors feared U.S. financial sanctions. All week the lira has been under pressure, which accelerated with the failure of diplomatic talks in Washington this week. ‘Just the stick’​ U.S. patience with Turkey is seen to have ended, experts say. “Most of the actors in the Washington scene think that carrots just don’t work with Turkey, just the stick,” said political analyst Atilla Yesilada of Global Source Partners. Friday saw the lira falling more than 15 percent, bringing the decline to more than 40 percent since the beginning of the year. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addressed supporters in the provincial city of Bayburt. “We will not lose the economic war,” Erdogan said Friday. “Turkey will fight economic hitmen just as it …

A threat of more U.S. sanctions has sent the ruble tumbling to its weakest since mid-2016 but authorities are not expected to leap to the currency’s defense after weathering a similar storm in April, analysts said. The ruble crashed to 67.67 versus the dollar on Friday, losing more than 6 percent of its value in just one week, as the United States said it would impose fresh sanctions against Moscow. The ruble’s slide was akin to its drop in April when, also battered by sanctions from Washington, it lost 12 percent in just a few days. Lack of action The lack of action by authorities back then is convincing market players now that they will not intervene this time either. “When we think about what has happened in April, when sanctions were introduced and we saw a similar reaction in the ruble … this is not a move in the ruble that would make policy makers extremely worried,” said Tilmann Kolb, an emerging market analyst at UBS Global Wealth Management in Zurich. Liza Ermolenko, an economist at Barclays in London, said that given the central bank refrained from intervening in the market in April, it is clear that a more sudden and deeper drop in the ruble would be required to make it step in now. The authorities have made few public comments on the latest falls, which started on Wednesday, when the U.S. State Department announced a new round of sanctions that pushed the ruble to two-year lows and …

Consumer prices in the U.S. rose a modest 2.9 percent in July from a year ago, as inflation rose gradually but slowly. Friday’s Labor Department report showed the Consumer Price Index, a broad measure of Americans’ living expenses, increased two-tenths of a percentage point from the previous month. Core prices, which exclude volatile food and energy prices, rose at the same pace.   WATCH: Economy Doing Well, But Not All Americans See It That Way The main driver of inflation in July was higher housing costs. Food expenses increased slightly, while energy, medical care and clothing prices fell modestly. The data showed that prices were rising a little faster than wages, leaving the buying power of paychecks one-tenth of a percentage point lower today than a year ago, despite an otherwise healthy economy. Inflation increases and wage declines in the past 12 months can be blamed on higher oil, gasoline and transportation costs, which had remained at relatively low levels for the previous six years. Keeping inflation in check is the job of the Federal Reserve, the central bank system of the U.S. It tries to do that by raising interest rates, which makes it more expensive to borrow money and tends to cool economic activity. Lower levels of commerce tend to reduce the pressure to raise prices and wages that fuel inflation. The Fed already has raised interest rates twice this year, and many economists expect two more interest rate hikes this year. Higher borrowing costs, however, would make …

U.S. President Donald Trump further escalated tensions with Turkey Friday by announcing a sharp increase in tariffs on steel and aluminum imports in an early morning post on Twitter. In announcing 20 percent tariffs on aluminum and 50 percent tariffs on steel, Trump said “the Turkish Lira, slides rapidly downward against our very strong Dollar!” Trump’s announcement came two days after a Turkish diplomatic delegation visited Washington in a bid to to ease tensions between the two countries. Analysts have warned that rising U.S.-Turkish tensions are threatening a financial crisis in Turkey. On Monday, the Turkish lira suffered its most significant drop in a decade following reports the Trump administration was considering ending Turkey’s duty-free access to the U.S. market. Trump’s Friday tweet caused a further drop in the Turkish currency. U.S.-Turkish tensions began to escalate last week, with Trump targeting two Turkish ministers with sanctions over the detention of U.S. pastor Andrew Brunson. Brunson is currently under house arrest in Turkey while standing trial on terrorism charges. The White House dismisses the charges as baseless and accused Ankara of hostage taking. Saying Friday Turkey faced “an economic war,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged citizens to support the lira by exchanging foreign money for the local currency. “If you have dollars, euros or gold under your pillow, go to banks to exchange them for Turkish lira,” he said on national television. “It is a national fight.” Erdogan called on Turks to not be concerned about exchange rate movements, mockingly …

Chinese state media on Thursday accused the United States of a “mobster mentality” in its move to implement additional tariffs on Chinese goods and warned that Beijing had all the necessary means to fight back. The comments marked a ratcheting up in tensions between the world’s two largest economies over a trade dispute, which is already affecting industries including steel and autos and is causing unease about which products could be targeted next. Beijing late on Wednesday said it would slap additional tariffs of 25 percent on $16 billion worth of U.S. imports, in retaliation against news the United States plans to begin collecting 25 percent extra in tariffs on $16 billion worth of Chinese goods beginning August 23. “The two countries’ trade conflict, which is merely push and shove at the moment, is likely to escalate into more than just a scuffle if the U.S. administration cannot marshal its mobster mentality,” state newspaper China Daily said in an editorial. “China continues to do its utmost to avoid a trade war, but in the face of the U.S.’s ever greater demand for protection money, China has no choice but to fight back,” it said. So far, China has now either imposed or proposed tariffs on $110 billion of U.S. goods, representing the vast majority of its annual imports of American products. Big-ticket U.S. items that are still not on any list are crude oil and large aircraft. “China has confidence in protecting its own interests [and] has many means,” state broadcaster CCTV said on its early-morning news show. Another commentary, written by China Institute of International Studies research fellow …

New York’s city council on Wednesday dealt a blow to Uber and other car-for-hire companies, passing a bill to cap the number of vehicles they operate and impose minimum pay standards on drivers. The city of 8.5 million is the biggest app-ride market in the United States, where public transport woes and astronomical parking costs have helped fuel years of untamed growth by the likes of Lyft, Uber and Via. But that growth has brought New York’s iconic yellow cabs to their knees. Since December, six yellow cab drivers have committed suicide. Those deaths have been linked, at least in part, to desperation over plummeting income. The bill stipulates a 12-month cap on all new for-hire-vehicle licenses, unless they are wheelchair accessible, as well as minimum pay requirements for app drivers — regulated by the Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC). It makes New York the first major city in the United States to limit the number of app-based rides and to impose pay rules for drivers. A recent TLC-commissioned study recommended a guaranteed income of $17.22 an hour for drivers — $15, plus a supplement to mitigate against rest time. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, a progressive Democrat, vowed to sign the bill into law, proclaiming that it would “stop the influx of cars contributing to the congestion grinding our streets to a halt.” “More than 100,000 workers and their families will see an immediate benefit from this legislation,” de Blasio said. Around 80,000 drivers work for at least …

China and Germany defended their business ties with Iran on Wednesday in the face of President Donald Trump’s warning that any companies trading with the Islamic Republic would be barred from the United States. The comments from Beijing and Berlin signaled growing anger from partners of the United States, which reimposed strict sanctions against Iran on Tuesday, over its threat to penalize businesses from third countries that continue to operate there. “China has consistently opposed unilateral sanctions and long-armed jurisdiction,” the Chinese foreign ministry said. “China’s commercial cooperation with Iran is open and transparent, reasonable, fair and lawful, not violating any United Nations Security Council resolutions,” it added in a faxed statement to Reuters. “China’s lawful rights should be protected.” The German government said U.S. sanctions against Iran that have an extra-territorial effect violate international law, and Germany expects Washington to consider European interests when coming up with such sanctions. The reimposition of U.S. sanctions followed Trump’s decision earlier this year to pull out of a 2015 deal to lift the punitive measures in return for curbs on Iran’s nuclear program designed to prevent it from building an atomic bomb. Iran’s highest authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said meanwhile the country had nothing to be concerned about, a report on his official website said in an apparent reference to the imposition of the U.S. sanctions “With regard to our situation do not be worried at all. Nobody can do anything,” Khamenei said recently, the website reported. “There is no …

China’s exports to the United States surged last month as its merchants rushed to fill orders ahead of a jump in U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods. Its shipments to the United States climbed 13 percent in July from a year earlier, to $41.5 billion, after a roughly similar rise in June, customs data show. At the same time, Beijing’s trade surplus with the United States — a frequent source of anger and threats from President Donald Trump — grew 11 percent to $28 billion. Chinese exporters appear to be trying to ship their goods to the United States before tariffs that Trump is imposing in a fight over technology policy take full effect. The trade war between the world’s two biggest economies has forced many multinational companies to reschedule purchases and rethink where they buy materials and parts to try to dodge or blunt the effects of tit-for-tat tariffs between Washington and Beijing. Beijing has warned that its exporters face “rising instabilities” after Washington slapped 25 percent duties on $34 billion of Chinese goods last month in response to complaints that China steals or pressures foreign companies to hand over technology. Beijing has retaliated against the U.S. tariffs with higher duties on a similar amount of American goods. On Tuesday, the Trump administration announced that it would proceed with previously announced 25 percent tariffs on an additional $16 billion of Chinese imports starting Aug. 23. On Wednesday, China hit back by saying it would impose identical 25 percent punitive duties …

U.S. President Donald Trump predicted Tuesday the United States and China will have a “fantastic trading relationship” but one that will be different from the way it has been under previous presidents. Speaking to a group of invited business leaders, Trump said he wants China to do well, but also wants Chinese policies to treat the United States fairly. Trump has frequently highlighted China as a target of what he says are unbalanced trade relationships he wants to alter in order to benefit American workers. He has implemented more than $30 billion in new tariffs on Chinese goods, and on Tuesday his administration said another $16 billion in tariffs would go into effect later this month. China has said it plans to counter with tens of billions of dollars in tariffs on U.S. exports. It also released its latest trade figures Tuesday showing a surge in exports in July despite the U.S. actions. Steve Hanke, a professor of applied economics at the Johns Hopkins University and a former Reagan Administration trade official, told VOA the U.S. trade deficit with China is “really not a problem.” He compared the situation to the trade deficit the United States had with Japan in the 1980s that prompted President Ronald Reagan to institute the type of protectionist policies Trump is now supporting. But Hanke said he expects China to have a stronger response than the Japanese did. “China is a big power and they’re going to play hard ball with the United States, so …