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China on Monday hit out at other countries making trade deals with the United States at Beijing’s expense, vowing countermeasures against those who “appease” Washington in the blistering tariff war as its neighbours rush to secure favourable terms from the White House.While the rest of the world has been hit with a blanket 10 percent tariff, China faces levies of up to 145 percent on many products. Beijing has responded with duties of 125 percent on US goods.Parallel to Washington’s full trade war against top economic rival China, a number of countries are now engaged in negotiations with the United States to lower tariffs.The finance and trade ministers from South Korea — a major exporter to the United States — will hold high-level trade talks in Washington this week, Seoul said.South Korean giants such as Samsung Electronics and auto maker Hyundai stand to take a hefty hit if the White House goes ahead with its threatened levies.Japan’s prime minister Shigeru Ishiba said on Saturday that talks between Japan and the United States could be a “model for the world”, after Tokyo’s tariffs envoy Ryosei Akazawa visited Washington and met President Donald Trump last week.”The fact that President Trump came out (to negotiate with Japan’s envoy)… shows he sees talks with Japan as important,” he told the country’s parliament on Monday.”Japan is their ally and the biggest investor and job creator in the US,” Ishiba said.Tokyo and Washington are due to hold more talks soon  — but the Japanese prime minister also said that substance was more important than speed.”They (the United States) are not in a hurry and we think haste makes waste. At stake is how substantive (the negotiations) will be rather than how quickly they proceed,” local media quoted Ishiba as saying.Reports have suggested that as concessions for Trump, Japan might increase imports of US soybean and rice, or relax car safety standards.But Ishiba said Monday that “be it cars or agricultural products, we will not do anything that will affect safety”.- ‘Appeasement’ -US Vice President JD Vance also arrived in India on Monday for a four-day official visit as the two countries work to hash out a trade agreement.That came the same day as Beijing warned nations not to seek a deal with the United States that compromised its interests.”Appeasement will not bring peace, and compromise will not be respected,” a spokesperson for China’s commerce ministry said in a statement.”To seek one’s own temporary selfish interests at the expense of others’ interests is to seek the skin of a tiger,” Beijing said.That approach, it warned, “will ultimately fail on both ends and harm others”.”China firmly opposes any party reaching a deal at the expense of China’s interests,” the spokesperson said.”If such a situation occurs, China will never accept it and will resolutely take reciprocal countermeasures,” they added.- ‘Talking to China’ -The China-US standoff has sparked global recession fears and rattled markets.Trump said last week that the United States was in talks with China on tariffs, adding that he was confident the world’s largest economies could make a deal to end the bitter trade war.”Yeah, we’re talking to China,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “I would say they have reached out a number of times.””I think we’re going to make a very good deal with China,” he said at the White House.China has vowed to fight the trade war “to the end” and has not confirmed specific talks with Washington, though it has called for dialogue.Speaking alongside his Indonesian counterpart in Beijing on Monday, top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi called for “openness, inclusiveness, mutual benefit and win-win” and condemned “any form of unilateralism and trade protectionism”.”The abuse of tariffs will seriously damage the normal economic and trade exchanges among countries,” he warned.Beijing’s commerce ministry also warned about an international order reverting to the “law of the jungle”.As part of Trump’s trade war, the US government has also lowered the threshold at which parcels to individuals require formal entry processing by US Customs — to $800 from $2,500 as of April 5.Trump’s government has taken particular aim at China, and earlier this month Washington closed a duty-free exemption for small parcels from the country, a move that appeared to be designed to target low-cost online retailers like Temu and Shein.In a statement in response, global shipping giant DHL said it will “temporarily” suspend the shipping of parcels worth more than $800 from businesses to individuals in the United States as of Monday.burs-oho/dan

Gold prices hit a fresh record on Monday while the dollar weakened further and stocks were mixed amid worries about Donald Trump’s tariff blitz and his bubbling row with the Federal Reserve.With several markets still closed for the Easter holiday, business was limited ahead of a week that will see the release of key data that should give an insight into the impact of the US president’s trade war.Several nations have moved to cut a deal with Washington to stem the worst of the White House’s levies, with Japan the highest-profile economy, while US Vice President JD Vance arrived in India on Monday for talks.South Korea’s finance and trade ministers will hold high-level trade talks in Washington this week, Seoul said.However, China warned governments on Monday not to seek an agreement that compromised Beijing’s interests.While the rest of the world has been slapped with a blanket 10 percent tariff, China faces levies of up to 145 percent on many products. Beijing has responded with duties of 125 percent on US goods.”Appeasement will not bring peace, and compromise will not be respected,” a commerce ministry spokesperson said in a statement.”To seek one’s own temporary selfish interests at the expense of others’ interests is to seek the skin of a tiger,” Beijing said.That approach, it warned, “will ultimately fail on both ends and harm others”.Top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi also called on Monday for “openness, inclusiveness, mutual benefit and win-win” and condemned “any form of unilateralism and trade protectionism”.The remarks come after Trump said on Thursday the United States was in talks with China on tariffs, adding that he was confident the world’s largest economies could make a deal to end the bitter trade war.”Yeah, we’re talking to China,” he said. “I would say they have reached out a number of times.””I think we’re going to make a very good deal with China.”Still, Washington this month closed a duty-free exemption for small parcels from China, a move that appeared to be designed to target low-cost online retailers such as Temu and Shein.Global shipping giant DHL said it will “temporarily” suspend from Monday the delivery of parcels worth more than $800 from businesses to individuals in the United States.Concerns about the global economic outlook pushed safe haven assets higher, with gold hitting a record high above $3,393.The precious metal was also helped by a weaker dollar, which has also been hit by worries about Trump’s standoff with Fed boss Jerome Powell.The president raised worries about the bank’s independence when he lashed Powell last week for warning that the tariffs were “highly likely to generate at least a temporary rise in inflation” and suggested interest rate cuts were unlikely.Trump later called on him to slash borrowing costs and added: “If I want him out, he’ll be out of there real fast, believe me.”Powell has said he had no plans to step down early, adding that he considered the bank’s independence over monetary policy to be a “matter of law”.The dollar fell against its main peers, with the yen and euro among the best performers.French Finance Minister Eric Lombard said: “Donald Trump has hurt the credibility of the dollar with his aggressive moves on tariffs — for a long time.”If Powell is pushed out “this credibility will be harmed even more, with developments in the bond market”, he told La Tribune Dimanche newspaper.Chicago Fed boss Austan Goolsbee told CBS’s Face The Nation on Sunday: “There’s virtual unanimity among economists that monetary independence from political interference — that the Fed or any central bank be able to do the job that it needs to do — is really important.”Stocks had a mixed start to the week, with Tokyo weighed by the stronger yen while Taipei, Jakarta and Bangkok were also in negative territory. Shanghai, Seoul, Singapore, Mumbai and Manila rose.Oil prices dropped on demand fears as worries about the global economy swirl. Traders are keeping tabs on the release of key April manufacturing data around the world this week, hoping for an idea about the early impact of Trump’s tariffs.”One thing that’s absolutely clear — and no longer debatable — is that the reputational hit to the US brand is real, and it’s not fading quietly into the next news cycle,” said Stephen Innes at SPI Asset Management.”It’s sticking. Investors, allies, and even central banks are starting to bake in the idea that American policymaking, both fiscal and monetary, is now a geopolitical variable — not a given,” he added.- Key figures at 0715 GMT -Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 1.3 percent at 34,279.92 (close)Shanghai – Composite: UP 0.5 percent at 3,291.43 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: Closed for a holidayEuro/dollar: UP at $1.1516 from $1.1371 on ThursdayPound/dollar: UP $1.3387 at $1.3270Dollar/yen: DOWN at 140.85 yen from 142.33 yen Euro/pound: UP at 86.04 pence from 85.68 penceWest Texas Intermediate: DOWN 1.4 percent at $63.13 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: DOWN 1.3 percent at $67.06 per barrelLondon – FTSE 100: Closed for a holidayNew York – Dow: Closed for a holiday

US Vice President JD Vance began a four-day visit to India on Monday as New Delhi looks to seal an early trade deal and stave off punishing US tariffs.Vance’s visit comes two months after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks with US President Donald Trump at the White House.A red carpet welcome with an honour guard and troupes of folk dancers greeted Vance after he stepped out into the sweltering sunshine of New Delhi, where he is set to meet with Modi.Vance, 40, a devout Catholic convert who arrived in New Delhi a day after meeting Pope Francis in the Vatican, toured a vast Hindu temple with his family on one of his first stops.The US vice president is accompanied by his wife Usha, the daughter of Indian immigrants, and his three children, who visited the Akshardham Temple dressed in traditional flowing Indian attire.Vance’s tour will include a trip on Tuesday to Jaipur in Rajasthan — site of the medieval Amber fort — and to Agra a day after, for a visit to the white marble mausoleum of the Taj Mahal.More important will be the meeting later on Monday between Modi and Vance.They are expected to “review the progress” in relations” and “exchange views on regional and global developments of mutual interest”, according to India’s foreign ministry.India and the United States are negotiating the first tranche of a trade deal, which New Delhi hopes to secure within the 90-day pause on tariffs announced by Trump this month. “We are very positive that the visit will give a further boost to our bilateral ties,” India’s foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told reporters last week.- ‘Special bond’ -Vance’s visit comes during an escalating trade war between the United States and China. India’s neighbour and rival faces US levies of up to 145 percent on many products.Beijing has responded with duties of 125 percent on US goods.India, hit with tariffs of 26 percent before Trump’s pause, has reacted cautiously so far.India’s Department of Commerce said after the tariffs were announced it was “carefully examining the implications”, adding it was “also studying the opportunities that may arise”.Modi, who visited the White House in February, has an acknowledged rapport with Trump, who said he shares a “special bond” with the Indian leader. Trump, speaking while unveiling the tariffs, said Modi was a “great friend” but that he had not been “treating us right”.Modi said during his visit to Washington that the world’s largest and fifth-largest economies would work on a “mutually beneficial trade agreement”.The United States is a crucial market for India’s information technology and services sectors but Washington in turn has made billions of dollars in new military hardware sales to New Delhi in recent years.Trump could visit India later this year for a summit of heads of state from the “Quad” — a four-way grouping of Australia, India, Japan and the United States.

Josh Staph fears the fun-packed shelves of his toy warehouse might start looking joyless in the months ahead, with made-in-China flying discs and model gliders grounded -– like much of his product line –- by Donald Trump’s tariffs.”Things have ground to a halt,” said Staph, chief executive of Duncan Toys Company, which has a warehouse in Indiana. With his products now facing a steep 145 percent levy, “we stopped shipping goods into the US,” he added.Nearly 100 days into President Donald Trump’s White House return, US businesses are scrambling to adjust to fast-changing trade policies.The $40 billion toy industry, which heavily relies on production in China, is hard hit, companies tell AFP.Of over $17 billion worth of toys imported to the US last year, more than $13 billion came from China.Duncan’s entire product range is designed and developed in the United States, Staph said, but Chinese factories make almost all the toys.Firms there have developed specialized abilities to produce intricate parts for items like its best-selling yo-yos.Most American toy companies have halted shipments since Trump imposed new tariffs on many products from China this year, Staph said.The move raised the duty that US firms pay when they import any Chinese-made toys — from plushies to action figures — from zero to 145 percent, more than doubling import costs.”It’s pretty debilitating,” Staph added. “As a business leader, after 100 days of the administration, I’d say that the most challenging part is the uncertainty.” “It’s tough to build any sort of strategy and go for a plan when we know that things are changing almost on a daily basis.”- ‘Tariff surcharges’ -Rita Pin Ahrens, who runs three toy stores including one in Washington, started receiving “tariff surcharges” of 15 percent to 25 percent in March. She expects them to mount to 145 percent.Many of the thousands of toys she sells are either imported from places like China, or are partially made in the world’s second biggest economy.Still, she said: “We’re trying to minimize the cost to our consumers.”This has meant holding off purchases that become too pricey or stocking up before tariffs kicked in. And shipment delays have already begun.”It has been a complete nightmare,” she said. “I am really, truly worried about whether we can actually sustain the store.”Many US brands are small businesses with limited cashflow, said Greg Ahearn, chief executive of industry group The Toy Association.They struggle to pay sudden tariffs on containers of toys that may have already been manufactured.Meanwhile, “production of toys has all but stopped in China,” he said.- ‘Difficult Christmas’ -Staph of Duncan Toys said inventory to supply US retailers like Target and Walmart through year-end holidays has not entered the country yet.Typically, toys produced in spring arrive over the summer for shipping in the fall as stores prepare for the holiday shopping boom, with around 90 percent of stock coming from overseas.”If this isn’t cleared up in 30 to 60 days, it’s going to be a really difficult Christmas season with empty shelves in a lot of major retailers,” Staph warned.And if tariffs remain in force, “the pricing of those toys that are even available will probably be twice, if not more, the price they were last year,” said Ahearn of The Toy Association.While the United States makes some toys, many products require hand labor and it will take years to grow the US manufacturing base, Ahearn believes.The injection molding process used to produce many items requires extremely large, heavy tools that cannot be moved and must be installed from scratch.Companies were ready to work around Trump’s 10 percent additional tariff on Chinese imports, imposed in February over China’s alleged role in the fentanyl supply chain.But in March, Trump raised the level to 20 percent. In April, the figure exploded to 145 percent.Staph hopes the toy industry can gain exemptions, noting that Trump has begun targeting specific industries.”Toys are important for children’s development,” Ahrens said, noting that toys were excluded from tariffs during Trump’s first administration.”I really urge the president to do that again.”

China on Monday hit out at other countries making trade deals with the United States at Beijing’s expense, promising countermeasures against those who “appease” Washington in the blistering tariff war.While the rest of the world has been slapped with a blanket 10 percent tariff, China faces levies of up to 145 percent on many products. Beijing has responded with duties of 125 percent on US goods.A number of countries are now engaged in negotiations with the United States to lower tariffs, parallel to Washington’s full trade war against top US economic rival China.But Beijing warned nations on Monday not to seek a deal with the United States that compromised its interests.”Appeasement will not bring peace, and compromise will not be respected,” a spokesperson for Beijing’s commerce ministry said in a statement.”To seek one’s own temporary selfish interests at the expense of others’ interests is to seek the skin of a tiger,” Beijing said.That approach, it warned, “will ultimately fail on both ends and harm others”.”China firmly opposes any party reaching a deal at the expense of China’s interests,” the spokesperson said.”If such a situation occurs, China will never accept it and will resolutely take reciprocal countermeasures,” they added.US President Donald Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin.Trump said Thursday that the United States was in talks with China on tariffs, adding that he was confident the world’s largest economies could make a deal to end the bitter trade war.”Yeah, we’re talking to China,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “I would say they have reached out a number of times.””I think we’re going to make a very good deal with China,” he said at the White House.China has vowed to fight a trade war “to the end” and has not confirmed that it is in talks with Washington, though it has called for dialogue.It has slammed what it calls “unilateralism and protectionism” by the United States — and warned about an international order reverting to the “law of the jungle”.”Where the strong prey on the weak, all countries will become victims,” Beijing said Monday.

Thai authorities said they have arrested a Chinese executive at a company that was building a Bangkok skyscraper which collapsed in a major earthquake, leaving dozens dead.The 30-storey tower was reduced to an immense pile of rubble when a 7.7-magnitude quake struck neighbouring Myanmar last month, killing 47 people at the construction site and leaving another 47 missing.Justice Minister Tawee Sodsong told a news conference Saturday that a Thai court had issued arrest warrants for four individuals, including three Thai nationals, at China Railway No.10 for breaching the Foreign Business Act.The Department of Special Investigation, which is under the justice ministry, said in a statement Saturday that one of the four had been arrested — a Chinese “company representative” who they named as Zhang. China Railway No.10 was part of a joint venture with an Italian-Thai firm to build the State Audit Office tower before its collapse.Zhang is listed as a 49-percent shareholder in the firm, while the three Thai citizens have a 51-percent stake in the company. But Tawee told journalists that “we have evidence… that the three Thais were holding shares for other foreign independents”.The Foreign Business Act says that foreigners may hold no more than 49 percent of shares in a company.Separately, Tawee said several investigations related to the collapse were ongoing, including over the possibility of bid rigging and the use of fake signatures of engineers in construction supervisor contracts.Earlier this month Thai safety officials said testing of steel rebars — struts used to reinforce concrete — from the site has found that some of the metal used was substandard.The skyscraper was the only major building in the capital to fall in the catastrophic March 28 earthquake that has killed more than 3,700 people in Thailand and neighbouring Myanmar.

As the Trump administration attempts to choke off exports of strategically important computer chips to China, experts say the effort might well backfire, fueling innovation at Chinese firms that could help them seize the world semiconductor market.”What’s actually happening is that the US government right now is handing China a big win as it tries to get their own chip business going,” said Jack Gold, principal analyst at J.Gold associates.”Once they’re competitive,” he told AFP, “they’ll start selling around the world and people will buy their chips.”When that happens, he added, it will be difficult for US chip makers to reclaim lost market share.Silicon Valley semiconductor star Nvidia and its US rival Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) expect big financial hits from new US licensing requirements for semiconductors exported to China, they notified regulators this week.Nvidia expects the new rules to cost it $5.5 billion, while AMD forecast it could sap as much as $800 million from the company’s bottom line, according to filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).Administration officials told Nvidia it must obtain licenses to export its H20 chips to China because of concerns they may be used in supercomputers there, the company said.The United States had already restricted exports to China, the world’s biggest buyer of chips, of Nvidia’s most sophisticated graphics processing units (GPUs), designed to power top-end artificial intelligence models.Nvidia essentially developed the H20 chip for the Chinese market, aiming to maximize performance while meeting previous US export rules, but the new licensing requirements pose a roadblock, according to Gold.For AMD, the new US export control measure applies to its MI308 GPUs, which are designed for high-performance applications like gaming and artificial intelligence, it said in a filing. It noted that there is no guarantee licenses for sales to China will be granted.- Opportunity for China? -Independent tech analyst Rob Enderle predicted Chinese chip makers — likely led by the huge Huawei corporation — will ramp up efforts to snatch the lead in the market.”It’s going to be a godsend for China as they spin up their own microprocessor business,” Enderle said of the tightened US export rules.”This will be a really quick way to hand over US leadership in microprocessors and GPUs.”The Chinese government has ample resources and motivation to bolster its chip industry, according to Gold.He said while US President Donald Trump might think he can “bully people” to achieve his objectives, “the worldwide economy is not like that.”Instead, Trump’s tariffs have alienated allies, increasing their incentive to turn to China for chips, the analyst said.”Across the board, this is going to create real problems for US companies competitively,” Enderle said.”Companies located overseas are suddenly going to be in much better shape to compete.”Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang has said publicly that the AI chip powerhouse can comply with the new US requirements without sacrificing technological progress, adding that nothing will stop the global advancement of artificial intelligence.”Nvidia is one of the most important pieces in this (US) chess game with China,” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said in a note to investors.”The Trump administration knows there is one chip and company fueling the AI Revolution and it’s Nvidia,” he said, and so it placed “a ‘Do Not Enter’ sign in front of China” to slow its progress.Ives warned, however, that the chip wars are not over. He expects “more punches to be thrown by both sides.”

The United States unveiled new port fees on Chinese built and operated ships Thursday, in a bid to boost the domestic shipbuilding industry and curb China’s dominance in the sector.The move — which stems from a probe launched under the prior administration — comes as the United States and China are locked in a major trade war over President Donald Trump’s tariffs and could further ratchet up tensions.”Ships and shipping are vital to American economic security and the free flow of commerce,” US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in a statement announcing the new fees, most of which will begin in mid-October.Under the new rule, per tonnage or per container fees will apply to each Chinese-linked ship’s US voyage, and not at each port as some in the industry had worried.The fee will be assessed only up to five times per year, and can be waived if the owner places an order for a US built vessel.Dominant after the Second World War, the US shipbuilding industry has gradually declined and now accounts for just 0.1 percent of global output.The sector is now dominated by Asia, with China building nearly half of all ships launched, ahead of South Korea and Japan.The three Asian countries account for more than 95 percent of civil shipbuilding, according to UN figures.There will be separate fees for Chinese operated ships and Chinese built ships, and both will gradually increase over subsequent years.For Chinese built ships, the fee starts at $18 per NT or $120 per container — meaning a ship with 15,000 containers could see a whopping fee of $1.8 million.Beijing warned on Friday the new fees would be “detrimental to all parties.””They drive up global shipping costs, disrupt the stability of global production and supply chains, increase inflationary pressure within the United States, and harm the interests of American consumers and businesses,” foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said.”Ultimately, they will not succeed in revitalizing the US shipbuilding industry,” he said.US groups representing some thirty industries had voiced their concerns in March about the risks such fees could have on the prices of imported products.One business surveyed by the groups expressed worry that proposed fees, alongside tariffs on China and other countries, as well as duties on steel and aluminum imports, would put “extraordinary pressure on US retailers.”All non-US built car carrier vessels will also be hit with a fee beginning in 180 days.Washington is also introducing new fees for liquified natural gas (LNG) carriers, though those do not take effect for three years.A fact sheet accompanying the announcement said fees will not cover “Great Lakes or Caribbean shipping, shipping to and from US territories, or bulk commodity exports on ships that arrive in the United States empty.”In addition to the fees, Greer announced proposed tariffs on some ship-to-shore cranes and on Chinese cargo handling equipment.”The Trump administration’s actions will begin to reverse Chinese dominance, address threats to the US supply chain, and send a demand signal for US-built ships,” Greer said.

Tokyo led most Asian markets higher Friday on optimism about a Japan-US trade deal as investors keep tabs on countries’ tariff talks with the White House.US President Donald Trump’s remarks that he was reluctant to further hike levies on Beijing also provided a little support amid hope for an easing of tensions between the economic titans.Governments around the world are lining up to visit the US president’s team in an effort to pare back eye-watering levies Trump imposed for what he calls years of being “ripped off” and to reshore manufacturing.While several officials have been in touch, Japanese negotiator Ryosei Akazawa’s trip this week was seen as a canary in the mine owing to the countries’ long-running relationship.Akazawa met Trump, Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday without making any immediate progress, though a second round of talks is scheduled for the end of April.On Friday, US Ambassador to Japan George Glass said he was “extremely optimistic that a deal will get done”.The day before, Trump hailed “big progress” in the negotiations.Hopes most of the measures against US trading partners can be rowed back have soothed some market anxiety after the white-knuckle ride at the start of the month, though uncertainty caused by the president’s tendency to flip-flop is keeping investors on edge.Trump on Thursday offered a little optimism when he said he was reluctant to keep hiking rates on China as that could halt trade between the two economic superpowers, adding that Beijing had been reaching out to him.”I have a very good relationship with President Xi (Jinping), and I think it’s going to continue,” he said. “And I would say they have reached out a number of times.”His remarks came after Bloomberg reported that China could be open to dialogue but wanted to see some measures beforehand, including reining in some cabinet members’ anti-Beijing comments.Still, Washington unveiled new port fees on Chinese built and operated ships Thursday as it looks to boost its domestic shipbuilding industry and curb China’s dominance in the sector.The move stems from a probe launched under Joe Biden’s administration but could further ratchet up tensions.After a mixed lead from Wall Street, Asia mostly rose.Tokyo led the gains even as data showed Japanese inflation accelerated last month as rice prices more than doubled.Seoul, Bangkok and Taipei also rose, though Shanghai edged down.Hong Kong, Sydney, New York, London, Paris, Frankfurt, Singapore, Mumbai, Jakarta, Wellington and Manila were closed for holidays. Investors are also eyeing developments at the Federal Reserve as Trump hit out at boss Jerome Powell, who warned the sweeping tariffs were “highly likely to generate at least a temporary rise in inflation”.The president slammed Powell for not lowering interest rates, as the ECB has done, and said his “termination cannot come fast enough”.Speaking to reporters at the White House, he said Powell would “leave if I ask him to”, adding “I’m not happy with him. I let him know it and if I want him out, he’ll be out of there real fast, believe me”.Michael Hewson at MCH Market Insights pointed out that US inflation was far higher than the Fed’s two percent target and the tariff policy had created “significant ripples in the US economy, prompting a collapse in consumer confidence in the process”.”Trump is amping up the pressure on the Fed to cut rates quickly,” he wrote in a note. “Sadly, for Trump his very policies are the ones causing the Fed to pause, with Powell warning that the sheer size of the tariffs is complicating the central bank’s job.”The chaos being unleashed by the US administration is also giving business cause for concern.”In company news, Shenzhen-listed shares in Chinese battery maker CATL dropped 0.2 percent after US lawmakers asked Wall Street titans JP Morgan and Bank of America not to work on its planned initial public offering in Hong Kong.In letters to the banks’ CEOs, John Moolenaar, chair of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, said the underwriting of the IPO exposed themselves and investors to “significant regulatory, financial and reputational risks”.- Key figures at 0715 GMT -Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 1.0 percent at 34,730.28 (close) Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.1 percent at 3,276.73 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: Closed for a holidayEuro/dollar: UP at $1.1371 from $1.1370 on ThursdayPound/dollar: UP $1.3270 at $1.3268Dollar/yen: DOWN at 142.33 yen from 142.39 yen Euro/pound: UP at 85.68 pence from 85.67 penceWest Texas Intermediate: UP 3.5 percent at $64.68 per barrel on ThursdayBrent North Sea Crude: UP 3.2 percent at $67.96 per barrelLondon – FTSE 100: Closed for a holidayNew York – Dow: Closed for a holiday

Sky-high tariffs imposed on China by US President Donald Trump have triggered a slump in factory orders, manufacturers told AFP this week — with some fearing business may never return.China’s vast southern province of Guangdong, crisscrossed with factories making everything from clothing to electronics, has long been the country’s biggest manufacturing hub.For decades, it has churned out products for the insatiable American consumer base, offering low prices few can compete with and serving as a key driver in China’s meteoric rise to global economic superpower status.But Trump’s drive to bring manufacturing back to the United States and launch of a brutal trade war with China now threatens to upend that — adding to the country’s already grim economic outlook.Xiao Junyi, a clothing factory owner in the province’s largest city of Guangzhou, told AFP that the US market had accounted for between 20 to 30 percent of orders.But after the tariffs were announced, “we were genuinely affected,” he said.”Our sales and orders clearly declined.”Many of his factory’s products are sold to consumers in the United States via Temu, the low-cost overseas e-commerce platform operated by Chinese retail giant PDD Holdings.In response to the US tariffs — now 145 percent for most products and as much as 245 percent on others — Temu issued a notice saying there will be reduced advertising in the US market going forward, Xiao said.The 24-year-old factory owner said he was hoping to find other markets for his clothes.”Aside from the United States, we can do business with the whole world,” he said.But he admitted it was “really unlikely” that other countries would replace the US market.”The United States is a truly developed country, and the order volume is bigger.”- ‘Boundless competition’ -Nearby, businesspeople from across the globe convened for the opening phase of the Canton Fair — a colossal trade show held every spring and autumn.The event serves as an opportunity for merchants from around the world to meet face-to-face with Chinese manufacturers and assess their products up close, establishing new supply arrangements or shoring up old contacts.But buyers from the United States this year were few and far between.Those that were there declined to comment when asked by AFP which products they were interested in — or if the tariff war would complicate business.One Chinese firm keen to make contacts was Wosen Lighting Technology, a supplier to US e-commerce juggernaut Amazon.”It’s a new round in the trade war,” Andy Lin, the firm’s business development manager, told AFP at one of its factories in nearby Zhongshan.”It becomes a case where you add tariffs and I also add tariffs — then it turns into a boundless competition,” said Lin.”This situation won’t be able to last long, because after all, it has very real impacts on all countries,” she added.”I think it will especially affect the lives of the American people.”- ‘Manufacturing powerhouse’ -The downturn in shipments to the United States could also affect the local manufacturing industry, for which Wosen provides several hundred jobs.Nevertheless, factories visited by AFP this week in Guangdong were buzzing with activity as workers sat at production lines, the air filled with the clanging and whirring of conveyor belts.Many manufacturers admitted the heightened trade war with the United States will cause turbulence for businesses.But they hoped that would encourage them to find new customers in other countries.The tariffs are also likely to cause pain among American consumers, with US Federal Reserve boss Jerome Powell warning this week that they may increase inflation in the country.As for China’s reciprocal tariffs on US goods, Lin said she was not concerned about it affecting her lifestyle — she is used to buying things on local e-commerce platforms from Chinese manufacturers.”They can all basically be produced domestically,” said Lin.”After all, China is a manufacturing powerhouse. If you are not looking for certain special products, the impact will be small.”