Month: May 2019

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday said U.S. tariffs on China bring billions of dollars into U.S. coffers. He said China’s retaliatory tariffs can have no effect on the U.S. economy. The escalation of the U.S.-China trade war sent stock markets tumbling on Monday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling more than 600 points. Earlier, China announced new tariffs of up to 25 percent on $60 billion worth of U.S. goods, starting June 1. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke has more. …

As Washington and Beijing impose ever-higher tariffs, prompting financial markets to falter, U.S. lawmakers are expressing hope for a swift but comprehensive resolution of America’s deepening trade disputes with China.  Unease prevailed on Capitol Hill after China retaliated against a new round of American tariffs by hiking duties on U.S.-made goods. Even so, senators of both parties say China must be confronted.  “We need to challenge China to change a lot of its trade practices and its domestic business practices.”said Maryland Democrat Chris Van Hollen. “For example, they’ve been stealing U.S. (technological) secrets for a long time.” But Van Hollen faults President Donald Trump’s focus on tariffs. “What I see is a tariff-only strategy. I don’t see a more comprehensive strategy towards China,” Van Hollen said. “American consumers are paying more and more by the day. It’s not all about how many sales they (Chinese producers) are making and how many sales the United States is making to China.”   Among the most vocal about trade war concerns are American farmers. Republican Senator Roy Blunt represents agriculture-rich Missouri. “We (Missouri farmers) were selling about one out of every four rows of soybeans just to China,” Blunt said. “Soybeans, corn, livestock  that’s a great market that’s being disrupted.” But Blunt believes Americans understand that short-term economic pain is necessary to secure better trading terms with China. “If there’s a trade fight worth having, it’s the trade fight with China,” Blunt said. “They have not been fair traders.” While the U.S.-China dispute …

A drop in the consumer outlook for inflation and intensifying trade tensions drew caution from Federal Reserve officials on Monday as policymakers faced fresh market volatility and a renewed set of risks. While Fed officials have largely discounted the trade war so far as unlikely to derail the U.S. economic expansion, officials emphasized Monday that a protracted tit-for-tat battle between the United States and China was a different matter that might require a Fed response. “If the impact of the tariffs — and whatever financial market reaction to those tariffs is — causes more of a slowdown, then we do have the tools available to us, including lower interest rates,” Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren, a voter this year on Fed rate policy, said in an interview with Reuters. While Rosengren said he was “not necessarily” expecting a rate cut to be necessary, the market sell-off Monday was deep and potentially disruptive to the Fed’s core expectation that interest rates will remain on hold for some time to come. Major U.S. equity markets were down between 2% and 3.5% on Monday, while bond investors sharply increased their bets that the Fed would be forced to cut rates this year. A closely watched spread between long- and short-term bonds turned negative, seen by some officials as a sign of weakened market confidence in the economic outlook. After the collapse of U.S.-China talks last week and the threat of tariffs ratcheting ever higher, there was more reason to believe the tensions will …

The Supreme Court is allowing consumers to pursue an antitrust lawsuit that claims Apple has unfairly monopolized the market for the sale of iPhone apps. New Justice Brett Kavanaugh is joining the court’s four liberals Monday in rejecting a plea from Cupertino, California-based Apple to end the lawsuit over the 30 percent commission the company charges software developers whose apps are sold through the App Store.   The lawsuit was filed by iPhone users who must purchase software for their smartphones exclusively through Apple’s App Store.   Four conservative justices dissented.     …

China said Monday it would impose tariffs on $60 billion worth of imports from the United States, retaliating after President Donald Trump boosted taxes on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods sent to the U.S. and moved to impose duties on another $300 billion of Chinese exports. The Chinese finance ministry said its new 5% to 25% tax would be imposed June 1 and affect 5,140 U.S. products exported to China. Beijing said its response was targeting “U.S. unilateralism and trade protectionism.” “China will never succumb to foreign pressure,” the foreign ministry said. “We are determined and capable of safeguarding our legitimate rights and interests. We still hope that the U.S. will meet us half way.” The new Chinese taxes came hours after Trump, on Twitter, urged China not to strike back, claiming that “China has taken so advantage of the U.S. for so many years, that they are way ahead (Our Presidents did not do the job). Therefore, China should not retaliate-will only get worse!” The escalation of the tit-for-tat tariff increases had an immediate effect on the U.S. stock market, with the key Dow Jones Industrial Average plunging more than 2% in mid-day trading in New York. The Chinese announcement came after the world’s two biggest economies ended their latest trade talks Friday in Washington without reaching a deal. ‘Both sides will suffer’ Chief White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow told Fox News Sunday that “both sides will suffer” from the escalating trade war. Trump claimed in another …

Honda has confirmed its western England car factory, which employs 3,500 people, will close in 2021. The Japanese carmaker announced Monday that the Swindon plant will shut in two years, “at the end of the current model’s production life cycle.”   Honda makes its popular Civic model at the factory, 70 miles (115 kms) west of London.   Reports of the closure first emerged in February, heightening concerns about the impact of Brexit-related uncertainty on the U.K. economy.   Honda said the closure is not Brexit-driven but “is part of Honda’s broader global strategy in response to changes to the automotive industry.”   It said it had spoken to the British government and union consultants, but “no viable alternatives to the proposed closure of the Swindon plant have been identified.”   …

Amazon, which is racing to deliver packages faster, is turning to its employees with a proposition: Quit your job and we’ll help you start a business delivering Amazon packages. The offer, announced Monday, comes as Amazon seeks to speed up its shipping time from two days to one for its Prime members. The company sees the new incentive as a way to get more packages delivered to shoppers’ doorsteps faster. Amazon says it will cover up to $10,000 in startup costs for employees who are accepted into the program and leave their jobs. The company says it will also pay them three months’ worth of their salary. The offer is open to most part-time and full-time Amazon employees, including warehouse workers who pack and ship orders. Whole Foods employees are not eligible to receive the new incentives. Seattle-based Amazon.com Inc. declined to say how many employees it expects to take them up on the offer. The new employee incentive is part of a program Amazon started a year ago that lets anyone apply to launch an independent Amazon delivery business. It is part of the company’s plan to control more of its deliveries on its own, rather than rely on UPS, the post office and other carriers. Startup costs start at $10,000 and contractors that participate are able to lease blue vans with the Amazon smile logo stamped on the side. Overall, more than 200 Amazon delivery businesses have been created since it launched the program last June, said John …

Usually, the U.S. ambassador in Hanoi brings American interests to Vietnam, but next month he plans to take Vietnamese companies to the United States. U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam Daniel J. Kritenbrink and his team have been recruiting companies in the Southeast Asian country for a business delegation to Washington, D.C., which sparks a broader question: Is it time for Vietnam’s firms to go abroad? “Investing in the United States is one of the best decisions that Vietnamese firms can make, especially as the country’s economy continues to rapidly expand,” Kritenbrink said. “As firms benefit from this expansion, they should look to expand into new markets and it’s only natural to consider one of Vietnam’s largest export markets, the United States.” U.S. economic officers have been holding events in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City throughout the year to lobby them to join the delegation to Washington, which is scheduled for June 10-12. The proposition comes as Vietnam’s economy is maturing, prompting more companies to consider if this is the time for them to take the next step in their growth and expand beyond the country’s borders. As Kritenbrink noted, the U.S. is the biggest market for Vietnamese products, which is a reminder that the communist country already has a big presence in the international arena, having established itself as an export powerhouse in the past two decades. ​But Vietnam thinks it would be a major achievement if companies take it to the next level, no longer just shipping goods overseas, …

The U.S. said Sunday it expects that China will retaliate with increased tariffs on U.S. exports after President Donald Trump sharply boosted levies on Chinese products headed to the United States. Chief White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow told “Fox News Sunday” that “both sides will suffer” from the escalating trade war between the U.S. and China, the world’s two biggest economies. In the U.S., he said that “maybe the toughest burdens” are on farmers who sell soybeans, corn and wheat to China. But he said the Trump administration has “helped them before on lost exports” with $12 billion in subsidies and that “we’ll do it again if we have to and if the numbers show that out.” Trump on Friday more than doubled tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods, boosting the rate from 10 percent to 25 percent, while also moving to impose tariffs on an additional $300 billion of Chinese products, although Kudlow said it could take months for the full effect of the tariffs to be felt. China had previously imposed taxes on $110 billion of American products, but has not said how it might retaliate against Trump’s latest increase in tariffs. Trade talks between the two economic super powers have been going on in Beijing and Washington for months, but they recessed again in the U.S. capital on Friday without a deal being reached. “We were moving well, constructive talks and I still think that’s the case,” Kudlow said. “We’re going to continue the talks …

President Donald Trump’s combative approach to trade has been one of the constants among his often-shifting political views. And he’s showing no signs of backing off now, even as the stakes intensify with the threat of a full-blown trade war between the world’s two biggest economies.      The president went after China on Day 1 of his presidential bid, promising to “bring back our jobs from China, from Mexico, from Japan, from so many places.”    Trump’s views on trade helped forge his path to victory in states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Ohio, where he linked the loss of manufacturing jobs to the North America Free Trade Agreement and other trade deals. He warned the worst was yet to come with President Barack Obama’s proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership.      His trashing of existing and proposed trade agreements grabbed the headlines, but he also made clear his view that globalization had been bad for America and that he would use tariffs to protect national security and domestic producers. He cited the nation’s Founding Fathers, Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan as leaders whose footsteps he was following when it came to trade and tariffs.    “Our original Constitution did not even have an income tax,” Trump told voters in Monessen, Pa., four months before the 2016 presidential election. “Instead, it had tariffs, emphasizing taxation of foreign, not domestic production.”  ​Taking on China   No. 7 on his list of trade promises in that speech: taking on China for “its theft of …