The United States on Friday ended a tariff exemption for goods shipped from China worth less than $800, dealing a major blow to popular e-commerce sites such as Shein and Temu, whose cheap items consumers have come to rely on.The decision was announced last month, with the White House calling it a “critical step in countering the ongoing health emergency posed by the illicit flow of synthetic opioids” from China to the United States.Starting on Friday, goods shipped commercially will now be subject to new tariffs of 145 percent — the current level of levies imposed on goods coming from China.Items sent through the US Postal Service will be hit with duties of 120 percent of their value, or a $100, which will increase to $200 next month. The elimination of the ‘de minimis’ exemption now subjects even low-value imports to tariffs,” EY chief economist Gregory Daco wrote in a recent note to clients, adding it would squeeze “already-thin margins and driving up end prices.”The measures mark the latest salvo in a burgeoning trade war between the United States and China — the world’s two largest economies.The White House has also slapped additional levies of 25 percent on several sectors including automobiles, steel and aluminum from China.Beijing retaliated with sweeping 125 percent levies on US imports. Most other US trading partners face a baseline tariff of 10 percent, except for Mexico and Canada which face a higher 25 percent tariff on goods not covered by a current North America free-trade deal. The move threatens to hammer the business model of several large firms that ship cheap goods from China — including fast-fashion titans Shein and Temu.However, Chinese e-commerce sites listed on the New York Stock Exchange were largely in the green on Friday, most likely reflecting optimism about trade negotiations between Beijing and Washington, and the fact that many of these changes were already priced into the financial markets.At around 14:40 GMT, PDD, owner of Temu, was up 3.7 percent, while Alibaba was up around 4.0 percent.The Financial Times reported earlier this week that Shein was postponing a long-standing plan to list on public stock markets in London due to the looming de minimis changes.Trump first floated cancelling the exemption in February before backtracking after the move caused logistical disruptions.At the time, Beijing accused the United States of “politicizing trade and economic issues and using them as tools.”burs-da/des

Former policeman Peter Dutton, the rival for the Australian prime minister’s job in Saturday’s election, is a self-professed sceptic of the rush to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy. The 54-year-old leader of the conservative Liberal Party has attacked centre-left Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s “weak leadership” at a time of rising prices.Dutton — the son of a bricklayer and himself a former Queensland drug squad detective — accuses the government of mismanaging the economy, being weak on defence, and backing a “divisive”, failed referendum on Indigenous peoples’ rights.But one of his starkest policy disagreements with the government is over how to tackle climate change.He has criticised the scale of Albanese’s plans to boost solar and wind-driven electricity to slash Australia’s carbon emissions.Dutton wants to ramp up gas production and overturn a quarter-century ban on nuclear power with a US$200 billion scheme to construct seven industrial-scale nuclear reactors.”The renewables-only energy policy is a wrecking ball through the economy and it’s driving up the cost of food, the cost of everything when you go to the supermarket,” he said this week.Dutton — who has run defence and home affairs in previous conservative administrations — had to apologise in 2015 after a quip about the threat climate change poses to the Pacific was picked up by a microphone.”Time doesn’t mean anything when you’re about to be, you know, have water lapping at your door,” Dutton was caught saying.It is not the only time his rhetoric has caused controversy.- ‘Gang violence’ -In 2018, Dutton claimed people in Melbourne were “scared to go out to restaurants” because of “African gang violence”.As immigration minister for nearly four years from 2017, Dutton oversaw the country’s widely criticised offshore detention regime.After being chosen as opposition leader in 2022, Dutton expressed regret for boycotting a 2008 national apology to Aboriginal Australians forcibly separated from their families as children.At the time he had failed to grasp the “symbolic significance”, he said.US President Donald Trump — who Dutton raised earlier this year as a “big thinker” with “gravitas” on the global stage — became a surprise challenge to his campaign.Some polls suggested Dutton’s polling took a hit after Trump slapped 10-percent trade tariffs on Australia.The opposition leader reassured voters he would stand up for Australia. “If I needed to have a fight with Donald Trump or any other world leader, to advance our nation’s interest, I’d do it in a heartbeat,” he said.Dutton — the married father of three adult children, Rebecca, Harry and Tom — speaks with pride of his blue-collar roots.”I was born into an outer suburbs working-class family — mum and dad, a secretary and bricklayer, didn’t have much money, but they worked every day of their life,” he told party members.Dutton said he worked after school delivering papers, mowing lawns and working in a butcher’s shop.Saving enough money to buy a house at the age of 19 was “one of my proudest achievements”.