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US President Donald Trump warned Sunday that no country would be “getting off the hook” on tariffs, as his administration suggested exemptions seen as favoring China would be short-lived.The world’s two largest economies have been locked in a fast-moving, high-stakes game of brinkmanship since Trump launched a global tariff assault that particularly targeted Chinese imports.Tit-for-tat exchanges have seen US levies imposed on China rise to 145 percent, and Beijing setting a retaliatory 125 percent band on US imports.The US side had appeared to dial down the pressure slightly on Friday, listing tariff exemptions for smartphones, laptops, semiconductors and other electronic products for which China is a major source.Trump and some of his top aides said Sunday that the exemptions had been misconstrued and would only be temporary as his team pursued fresh tariffs against many items on the list. “NOBODY is getting ‘off the hook’… especially not China which, by far, treats us the worst!” he posted on his Truth Social platform.Earlier, Beijing’s Commerce Ministry had said Friday’s move only “represents a small step” and insisted that the Trump administration should “completely cancel” the whole tariff strategy.Chinese President Xi Jinping warned Monday — as he kicked off a tour of Southeast Asia with a visit to manufacturing powerhouse Vietnam — that protectionism “will lead nowhere”.Writing in an article published in a Vietnamese newspaper, Xi urged the two countries to “resolutely safeguard the multilateral trading system, stable global industrial and supply chains, and open and cooperative international environment.”He also reiterated Beijing’s line that a “trade war and tariff war will produce no winner.”Asian stock markets rose Monday after Trump’s announcement of the tariff exemptions.- Short-lived relief? -Washington’s new exemptions will benefit US tech companies such as Nvidia and Dell as well as Apple, which makes iPhones and other premium products in China.The relief could, however, be short-lived with some of the exempted consumer electronics targeted for upcoming sector-specific tariffs on goods deemed key to US national defense networks.On Air Force One Sunday, Trump said tariffs on the semiconductors — which powers any major technology from e-vehicles and iPhones to missile systems — “will be in place in the not distant future.””Like we did with steel, like we did with automobiles, like we did with aluminum… we’ll be doing that with semiconductors, with chips and numerous other things,” he said. “We want to make our chips and semiconductors and other things in our country,” Trump reiterated, adding that he would do the same with “drugs and pharmaceuticals.”The US president said he would announce tariffs rates for semiconductors “over the next week,” while his commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, said they would likely be in place “in a month or two.”The US president sent financial markets into a tailspin earlier this month by announcing sweeping import taxes on dozens of trade partners, only to abruptly announce a 90-day pause for most of them.China was excluded from the reprieve.The White House says Trump remains optimistic about securing a deal with China, although administration officials have made it clear they expect Beijing to reach out first.Trump’s trade representative Jamieson Greer told CBS “Face the Nation” on Sunday that “we don’t have any plans” for talks between the US president and his Chinese counterpart Xi.- China looks elsewhere -China has sought to present itself as a stable alternative to an erratic Washington, courting countries spooked by the global economic storm.Besides Vietnam, Xi will also visit Malaysia and Cambodia, seeking to tighten regional trade ties and with plans to meet his three Southeast Asian counterparts.The fallout from Trump’s tariffs — and subsequent whiplash policy reversals — has sent particular shockwaves through the US economy, with investors dumping government bonds, the dollar tumbling and consumer confidence plunging.Adding to the pressure on Trump, Wall Street billionaires — including a number of his own supporters — have openly criticized the tariff strategy as damaging and counterproductive.The White House insists the aggressive policy is bearing fruit, saying dozens of countries have already opened trade negotiations to secure a deal before the 90-day pause ends.”We’re working around the clock, day and night, sharing paper, receiving offers and giving feedback to these countries,” Greer told CBS.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping warned Monday that protectionism “leads nowhere” and that a trade war would have “no winners”, state media said, as he was due to kick off a tour of Southeast Asia with a visit to Vietnam.Xi’s first overseas trip of the year will see him visit Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia as Beijing seeks to tighten regional trade ties and offset the impact of huge tariffs unleashed by his US counterpart Donald Trump.He will meet his three Southeast Asian counterparts on a tour that “bears major importance” for the broader region, Beijing has said.Writing in an article published Monday in Vietnam’s major Nhan Dan newspaper, Xi urged the two countries to “resolutely safeguard the multilateral trading system, stable global industrial and supply chains, and open and cooperative international environment,” Beijing’s Xinhua News Agency said.He also reiterated Beijing’s line that a “trade war and tariff war will produce no winner, and protectionism will lead nowhere”, the agency added.Beijing is trying to present itself as a stable alternative to an erratic Trump, who announced — and then mostly reversed — sweeping tariffs this month that sent global markets into a tailspin.- ‘Bamboo diplomacy’ -Vietnam was Southeast Asia’s biggest buyer of Chinese goods, with a bill of $161.9 billion, followed by Malaysia, which imported $101.5 billion worth in 2024.And firming up ties with Southeast Asian neighbours could also help offset the impact from a closed United States, the largest single recipient of Chinese goods last year.Xi will be in Vietnam on Monday and Tuesday, his first trip there since December 2023Vietnam and China, both ruled by communist parties, already share a “comprehensive strategic partnership”, Hanoi’s highest diplomatic status.Vietnam has long pursued a “bamboo diplomacy” approach — striving to stay on good terms with both China and the United States.The two countries have close economic ties, but Hanoi shares US concerns about Beijing’s increasing assertiveness in the contested South China Sea.China claims almost all of the South China Sea as its own, but this is disputed by the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia and Brunei.The Chinese leader in his Monday article insisted Beijing and Hanoi could resolve those disputes through dialogue.”We should properly manage differences and safeguard peace and stability in our region,” Xi wrote, according to Xinhua.”With vision, we are fully capable of properly settling maritime issues through consultation and negotiation,” he said.After Vietnam, Xi will visit Malaysia from Tuesday to Thursday.Malaysian Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil said Xi’s visit was “part of the government’s efforts… to see better trade relations with various countries including China”.Xi will then travel on Thursday to Cambodia, one of China’s staunchest allies in Southeast Asia and where Beijing has extended its influence in recent years.

Recent exemptions to sweeping US import tariffs may be short-lived, top officials said Sunday, with Donald Trump warning that no one was “getting off the hook,” and China urging the US to simply abandon its aggressive trade levies policy altogether.The world’s two largest economies have been locked in a fast-moving, high-stakes game of brinkmanship since US President Trump launched a global tariff assault that particularly targeted Chinese imports.Tit-for-tat exchanges have seen US levies imposed on China rise to 145 percent, and Beijing setting a retaliatory 125 percent band on US imports.The US side had appeared to dial down the pressure slightly on Friday, listing tariff exemptions for smartphones, laptops, semiconductors and other electronic products for which China is a major source.But Trump asserted Sunday that there was “no Tariff ‘exception'” on those products, saying they remained subject to a 20 percent rate in “a different Tariff ‘bucket.'”In a post on his Truth Social platform, he said “Nobody is getting off the hook,” adding: “We will not be held hostage by other Countries, especially hostile trading Nations like China.”Earlier, Beijing’s Commerce Ministry had said Friday’s move only “represents a small step” and insisted that the Trump administration should “completely cancel” the whole tariff strategy.The new exemptions will benefit US tech companies like Nvidia and Dell as well as Apple, which makes iPhones and other premium products in China.- Short-lived relief? -The relief could, however, be short-lived with some of the exempted consumer electronics targeted for upcoming sector-specific tariffs on goods deemed key to US national defense networks.Trump has said he will give “very specific” details on Monday, and his commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, said semiconductor tariffs would likely be in place “in a month or two.”He said pharmaceutical products would “also be outside the reciprocal tariffs,” using an administration term for tariffs aimed at bringing all US trade imbalances to zero.The US president sent financial markets into a tailspin earlier this month by announcing sweeping import taxes on dozens of trade partners, only to abruptly announce a 90-day pause for most of them.China was excluded from the reprieve.The White House says Trump remains optimistic about securing a deal with China, although administration officials have made it clear they expect Beijing to reach out first.Trump’s trade representative Jamieson Greer told CBS “Face the Nation” on Sunday that “we don’t have any plans” for talks between the US president and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.- China looks elsewhere -China has sought to present itself as a stable alternative to an erratic Washington, courting countries spooked by the global economic storm.Xi on Monday kicks off a five-day Southeast Asia tour for talks with the leaders of Vietnam, a manufacturing powerhouse, as well as Malaysia and Cambodia.The fallout from Trump’s tariffs — and subsequent whiplash policy reversals — has sent particular shockwaves through the US economy, with investors dumping government bonds, the dollar tumbling and consumer confidence plunging.Adding to the pressure on Trump, Wall Street billionaires — including a number of his own supporters — have openly criticized the tariff strategy as damaging and counterproductive.The White House insists the aggressive policy is bearing fruit, saying dozens of countries have already opened trade negotiations to secure a deal before the 90-day pause ends.”We’re working around the clock, day and night, sharing paper, receiving offers and giving feedback to these countries,” Greer told CBS.

Chinese President Xi Jinping will kick off a five-day, three-nation Southeast Asia tour on Monday as Beijing seeks to tighten regional trade ties and offset the impact of huge tariffs unleashed by his US counterpart Donald Trump.Xi will visit Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia in his first overseas trip of the year, China’s foreign ministry said.He will meet his three Southeast Asian counterparts on a tour that “bears major importance” for the broader region, ministry spokesman Lin Jian said.Beijing is trying to present itself as a stable alternative to an erratic Trump, who announced — and then mostly reversed — sweeping tariffs this month that sent global markets into a tailspin.Trump’s tariffs “inflict serious harm on developing countries”, Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao told World Trade Organization chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala in a call on Friday.The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was the biggest recipient of Chinese exports last year, data from China’s customs authority shows, importing $586.5 billion in Chinese goods.Vietnam was the biggest ASEAN buyer with a bill of $161.9 billion, followed by Malaysia, which imported $101.5 billion in Chinese goods in 2024.The manufacturing powerhouse rushed to seek a delay on the 46 percent tariff Trump initially imposed before the US leader granted most countries a 90-day pause.Trump, however, also hiked a blanket China tariff to 145 percent.Despite temporary reprieves — which now include an exemption for consumer electronics — Trump’s tariffs “instilled major anxiety” in developing Asian nations, said Huong Le Thu, deputy director of the International Crisis Group’s Asia Program.”The tariffs, if really implemented beyond China, will leave economies no choice but drifting away further from the US,” she said.- ‘Bamboo diplomacy’ -Xi will be in Vietnam on Monday and Tuesday, his first trip there since December 2023.Vietnam has long pursued a “bamboo diplomacy” approach, striving to stay on good terms with both China and the United States.It shares US concerns about Beijing’s increasing assertiveness in the contested South China Sea but it also has close economic ties with China.Xi will then visit Malaysia from Tuesday to Thursday.Malaysian Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil said Xi’s visit was “part of the government’s efforts… to see better trade relations with various countries including China”.Xi will then travel on Thursday to Cambodia, one of China’s staunchest allies in Southeast Asia and where Beijing has extended its influence in recent years.”The Cambodian-Chinese ties have not changed… and we will continue to make it robust,” Prime Minister Hun Manet said at the recent inauguration of a Chinese-funded road.He said Xi’s visit would confirm their close relationship and called China “a key partner” in the development of Cambodian infrastructure.Firming up ties with Southeast Asian neighbours could also help offset the impact from a closed United States, the largest single recipient of Chinese goods last year.Beijing “wants to use this time to show it’s the opposite to the coercive and self-interested US,” the ICG’s Le Thu said.”China has been a dominant and resident power centre in the region, and there will only be stronger pull,” she said.burs-mya/pbt

Indonesian palm oil companies are seeking new markets in Europe, Africa and the Middle East as they try to protect themselves from the impact of Donald Trump’s trade war, a top industry executive told AFP.Indonesia is the world’s biggest producer of the edible oil — used in making foods such as cakes, chocolate, and margarine as well as cosmetics, soap and shampoo — and accounts for more than half the global supply.But the 32 percent tariffs imposed on the country make it one of Asia’s hardest hit by the US president’s sweeping measures that have sent shockwaves around the world.Palm oil is one of Indonesia’s biggest exports to the United States, and while Trump has announced a 90-day pause on implementing the levies, producers say the uncertainty is forcing them to look elsewhere to earn their keep.”It actually gives time for us to negotiate… so products can still enter there. I think this is very good,” said Eddy Martono, chairman of the Indonesian Palm Oil Association (GAPKI) on Thursday.However, he warned that market diversification “must still be done” to avoid the impact of the tariffs if they come into force later in the year, adding that firms would look to Africa — specifically top importer Egypt — the Middle East, Central Asia and Eastern Europe.”We should not just depend on traditional markets. We will continue to do it. We have to do that,” he said.Exports of palm oil products to the United States have steadily grown in recent years, with Indonesia shipping 2.5 million tons in 2023, compared with 1.5 million tons in 2020, according to GAPKI data.Eddy called on Jakarta to keep its dominance in that market through talks, particularly as rival palm oil producer Malaysia was hit with lower tariffs.”Indonesian palm oil market share in the United States is 89 percent, very high. This is what we must maintain,” he said.According to Indonesian government data, the United States was the fourth-largest importer of palm oil in 2023, behind China, India and Pakistan. – Smallholder pain -But Eddy remained confident the US would still need Indonesian palm oil if no deal was sealed when the 90 days are up.”It is still a necessity for the food industry. I believe our exports to the US will slightly decline or at least stagnate,” he said. “Those who are harmed first are consumers in America because their main food industry products need palm oil.”Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani said at an economic meeting Tuesday that she would lower a crude palm oil export tax, alleviating some of the pain. While Eddy welcomed the move, saying it would make Indonesia’s palm oil exports more competitive, for the country’s 2.5 million palm oil smallholder farmers, the threatened tariffs were worrying.Mansuetus Darto, the national council chairman of the Palm Oil Farmers Union (SPKS) said the measures would have had a far-reaching impact if a deal wasn’t struck.”The raw material of the palm oil will pile up and then farmers cannot harvest anymore because of overcapacity in existing plants,” he said before the pause was announced. President Prabowo Subianto opted for a path of negotiation with Washington instead of retaliation and will send a high-level delegation later this month.While Trump took aim at Indonesia’s billion-dollar trade surplus with the United States, Prabowo said his threatened levies may have done Indonesia a favour by “forcing” it to be more efficient.Chief economic minister Airlangga Hartarto also said Jakarta would buy more products such as liquefied natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas to close the gap with the world’s biggest economy.That has given hope to the industry that a deal with Trump can be done, otherwise they will be forced to turn elsewhere.”There is still time,” said Mansuetus after the pause was announced. “The government should prepare to negotiate as best as possible with the US government.”

The Trump administration has exempted a raft of consumer electronics from its punishing import tariffs — offering relief to US tech firms and partially dialling down a trade war with China.A notice late Friday by the US Customs and Border Protection office said smartphones, laptops, memory chips and other products would be excluded from the global levies President Donald Trump rolled out a week ago.The move came as retaliatory Chinese import tariffs of 125 percent on US goods took effect Saturday, with Beijing standing defiant against its biggest trade partner.The exemptions will benefit US tech companies like Nvidia and Dell, as well as Apple, which makes iPhones and other premium products in China.And they will generally narrow the impact of the staggering 145 percent tariffs Trump has imposed this year on Chinese goods entering the United States.US Customs data suggests the exempted items account for more than 20 percent of those Chinese imports, according to senior RAND researcher Gerard DiPippo.Although listed among the exempted goods, semiconductors could still become a target of industry-specific tariffs Trump has suggested placing on imports from all countries.Trump said Saturday that he would give a “very specific” answer to the question of any future semiconductor levies on Monday.Washington and Beijing’s escalating tariff battle has raised fears of an enduring trade war between the world’s two largest economies and sent global markets into a tailspin.The fallout has sent particular shockwaves through the US economy, with investors dumping government bonds, the dollar tumbling and consumer confidence plunging.Adding to the pressure on Trump, Wall Street billionaires — including a number of his own supporters — have openly criticized the whole tariff strategy as damaging and counter-productive. – Tech relief -Daniel Ives, senior equity analyst at Wedbush Securities, called the US exemptions the “best news possible” for tech investors.The exclusions remove “a huge black cloud” that had threatened to take the US tech sector “back a decade” and significantly slow AI development, Ives said in a note.Many of the exempted products, including hard drives and computer processors, are not generally made in the United States, with Trump arguing tariffs are a way to bring domestic manufacturing back.Commenting on the exemptions announcement, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt insisted that the likes of Apple and Nvidia were still “hustling to onshore their manufacturing in the United States” as soon as possible.Many analysts, however, say it will likely take years to ramp up domestic production.With tariffs still in force on less complex products, Trump’s “exemptions will not reshore iPhones or tech goods and they will not reshore either cheap goods we can’t and won’t produce at home,” New York University economist Nouriel Roubini posted Saturday on X.The president’s policy was “contradictory, dissonant, inconsistent and incoherent… taken by the seat of the pants,” he added.- China ‘not afraid’ -Even with Washington and Beijing going toe to toe and financial markets in turmoil, Trump has remained adamant that his tariff policy is on the right track.Beijing has vowed not to give in to what it sees as bullying tactics, and — in his first comments on the tensions — President Xi Jinping stressed Friday that China was “not afraid.”Economists warn the disruption in trade between the tightly integrated US and Chinese economies will increase prices for consumers and could spark a global recession.The US alone buys up 16.4 percent of Chinese exports, according to Beijing’s trade data, making for total exchanges between the two countries worth $500 billion — with the US sending significantly less the other way.China’s Commerce Minister Wang Wentao told the head of the World Trade Organization (WTO) that US tariffs will “inflict serious harm” on poor nations.”The United States has continuously introduced tariff measures, bringing enormous uncertainty and instability to the world, causing chaos both internationally and domestically within the US,” Wang told WTO chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala in a call.The White House says Trump remains “optimistic” about securing a deal with China, although administration officials have made it clear they expect Beijing to reach out first.

The UK government said it was taking control of Chinese-owned British Steel on Saturday after rushing an emergency law through parliament to avert the shutdown of the country’s last factory that can make steel from scratch.The struggling plant in northern England had faced imminent closure and Prime Minister Keir Starmer said his government “stepped in to save British Steel” with legislation to prevent its blast furnaces going out.At a rare weekend session, parliament approved the law without opposition to take over the running of the Scunthorpe site, which employs several thousand people and produces steel crucial for UK industries including construction and rail transport.The government saw its possible closure as a risk to Britain’s long-term economic security, given the decline of the UK’s once robust steel industry.Officials were poised to take over the site after the emergency bill passed into law on Saturday evening, according to UK media reports.Following its approval Starmer said his administration was “turning the page on a decade of decline” and “acting to protect the jobs of thousands of workers.”He insisted “all options are on the table to secure the future of the industry,” after a government minister indicated nationalisation could be a likely next step.Earlier, as MPs debated in parliament, the prime minister made a dash to the region where he told steelworkers gathered in a nearby village hall that the measure was “in the national interest”.He said the “pretty unprecedented” move meant the government could secure “a future for steel” in Britain. “The most important thing is we’ve got control of the site, we can make the decisions about what happens, and that means that those blast furnaces will stay on,” he said. It came after protests at the plant and reports that workers had stopped executives from the company’s Chinese owners Jingye accessing key areas of the steelworks on Saturday morning.The Times newspaper said British Steel workers had seen off a “delegation of Chinese executives” trying to enter critical parts of the works. Police said officers attended the scene “following a suspected breach of the peace”, but no arrests were made.- Nationalisation ‘likely option’ – Facing questions about nationalisation in parliament, business and trade secretary Jonathan Reynolds said state ownership “remains on the table” and may be the “likely option”.But he said the scope of Saturday’s legislation was more limited — it “does not transfer ownership to the government”, he explained, saying this would have to be dealt with at a later stage.Ministers have said no private company has been willing to invest in the plant.The Chinese owners have said it is no longer financially viable to run the two furnaces at the site, where up to 2,700 jobs have been at risk.Jingye bought British Steel in 2020 and says it has invested more than £1.2 billion ($1.5 billion) to maintain operations but is losing around £700,000 a day.Reynolds said “the effective market value of this company is zero,” and that Jingye had wanted to maintain the operation in the UK but supply it with slab steel from China to keep it going.The Labour government came under fire from the opposition Conservative party for its handling of the negotiations and faced calls from some left-wing politicians to fully nationalise the plant, while unions also urged the government to go further.Reynolds explained the government had sought to buy raw materials to keep the furnaces running with “no losses whatsoever for Jingye”, but met with resistance.Instead Jingye demanded the UK “transfer hundreds of millions of pounds to them, without any conditions to stop that money and potentially other assets being immediately transferred to China”, he said. “They also refused a condition to keep the blast furnaces maintained.”Saturday’s legislation allowed for criminal sanctions and gave the government powers to take over assets if executives fail to comply with instructions to keep the blast furnaces open. – Trump tariffs -MPs had left for their Easter holidays on Tuesday and had not been due to return to parliament until April 22 when the rare session was called.MPs last sat on a Saturday recall of parliament at the start of the Falklands War between Britain and Argentina in 1982.Scunthorpe in northern England hosts Britain’s last virgin steel plant — which produces steel from raw rather than recycled materials — after Indian firm Tata’s Port Talbot site shuttered its blast furnace last year.British Steel has said US President Donald Trump’s recent tariffs on the sector were partly to blame for the Scunthorpe plant’s difficulties. However, fierce competition from cheaper Asian steel has heaped pressure on Europe’s beleaguered industry in recent years.British Steel has its roots as far back as the Industrial Revolution but took shape in 1967 when the Labour government nationalised the industry, which at the time employed nearly 270,000 people.

The UK passed an emergency law on Saturday to stop the last British factory that can make steel from scratch shutting down, allowing the government to take control of the struggling Chinese-owned British Steel plant.The site in northern England had faced imminent closure and Prime Minister Keir Starmer said urgent action was needed to prevent its blast furnaces going out and save what is left of the UK’s steel industry.At a rare weekend session, parliament approved the legislation without opposition to take over the running of the Scunthorpe site, which employs several thousand people and produces steel crucial for UK industries including construction and rail transport.The government saw its possible closure as a risk to Britain’s long-term economic security, given the decline of the UK’s once robust steel industry.As MPs debated in parliament, Starmer made a dash to the region where he told steelworkers gathered in a nearby village hall that the measure was “in the national interest.”He said the “pretty unprecedented” move meant the government could secure “a future for steel” in Britain. “The most important thing is we’ve got control of the site, we can make the decisions about what happens, and that means that those blast furnaces will stay on,” he said. It came after protests at the plant and reports that workers had stopped executives from the company’s Chinese owners Jingye accessing key areas of the steelworks on Saturday morning.The Times newspaper said British Steel workers had seen off a “delegation of Chinese executives” trying to enter critical parts of the works. Police said officers attended the scene “following a suspected breach of the peace,” but no arrests were made.- Nationalisation ‘likely option’ – Facing questions about nationalisation, business and trade secretary Jonathan Reynolds told parliament that state ownership “remains on the table” and may well be the “likely option”.But he said the scope of Saturday’s legislation was more limited — it “does not transfer ownership to the government,” he explained, saying this would have to be dealt with at a later stage.Ministers have said no private company has been willing to invest in the plant.The Chinese owners have said it is no longer financially viable to run the two furnaces at the site, where up to 2,700 jobs have been at risk.Jingye bought British Steel in 2020 and says it has invested more than £1.2 billion ($1.5 billion) to maintain operations but is losing around £700,000 a day.Reynolds said “the effective market value of this company is zero,” and that Jingye had wanted to maintain the operation in the UK but supply it with slab steel from China to keep it going.The Labour government came under fire from the opposition Conservative party for its handling of the negotiations and faced calls from some left-wing politicians to fully nationalise the plant.Reynolds said the government had sought to buy raw materials to keep the furnaces running with “no losses whatsoever for Jingye,” but met with resistance.Instead Jingye demanded the UK “transfer hundreds of millions of pounds to them, without any conditions to stop that money and potentially other assets being immediately transferred to China,” he said. “They also refused a condition to keep the blast furnaces maintained.”Saturday’s legislation allowed for criminal sanctions and gave the government powers to take over assets if executives fail to comply with instructions to keep blast furnaces open. – Trump tariffs -MPs left for their Easter holidays on Tuesday and were not due to return to parliament until April 22.MPs last sat on a Saturday recall of parliament at the start of the Falklands War between Britain and Argentina in 1982.Scunthorpe in northern England is Britain’s last virgin steel plant — which produces steel from raw rather than recycled materials — after Tata’s Port Talbot shuttered its blast furnace last year.British Steel has said US President Donald Trump’s tariffs on the sector were partly to blame for the Scunthorpe plant’s difficulties. However, fierce competition from cheaper Asian steel has heaped pressure on Europe’s beleaguered industry in recent years.British Steel has its roots as far back as the Industrial Revolution but took shape in 1967 when the Labour government nationalised the industry, which at the time employed nearly 270,000 people.

UK lawmakers held a rare Saturday parliamentary debate as the government seeks to pass emergency legislation to stop the last British factory that can make steel from scratch shutting down.Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said his administration plans to “take control” of the struggling Chinese-owned British Steel plant to prevent its blast furnaces going out and save what is left of the country’s steel industry.In a vote later Saturday, MPs were expected to pass the bill to take over the running of the Scunthorpe plant, which employs around 2,700 people and produces steel crucial for UK industries including construction and rail transport. The government views the possible closure of the plant as a risk to Britain’s long-term economic security, given the decline of the UK’s once robust steel industry.”Steel is fundamental to Britain’s industrial strength, to our security and to our identity as a primary global power,” business and trade secretary Jonathan Reynolds told parliament.”Today’s legislation will help ensure that we can retain that steel making capability here in the UK, both now and for years to come,” he said.Amid speculation the move could pave the way to nationalisation, Reynolds said state ownership “remains on the table” and may well be the “likely option”.But he said the scope of Saturday’s bill was more limited — it “does not transfer ownership to the government,” he explained, adding that this would have to be dealt with at a later stage.Ministers have said no private company has been willing to invest in the plant. – ‘Act decisively’ -British Steel’s Chinese owners Jingye have said it is no longer financially viable to run the furnaces at the unit in northern England.Jingye bought British Steel in 2020 and says it has invested more than £1.2 billion ($1.5 billion) to maintain operations but is losing around £700,000 a day.Reynolds said “the effective market value of this company is zero,” and that Jingye had wanted to maintain the operation in the UK but supply it with slab steel from China to keep it going.Labour MP and leader of the House of Commons Lucy Powell said members of parliament were meeting “in these special circumstances because the government needs to act decisively.”But the government came under fire from the opposition Conservative party for its handling of the negotiations, and faced calls from some Labour MPs to fully nationalise the plant.Reynolds said the government had sought to buy raw materials to keep the furnaces running with “no losses whatsoever for Jingye,” but met with resistance. “A counter offer was instead made by Jingye to transfer hundreds of millions of pounds to them, without any conditions to stop that money and potentially other assets being immediately transferred to China,” he said. “They also refused a condition to keep the blast furnaces maintained and in good working order.”Saturday’s emergency legislation is set to provide for criminal sanctions if executives fail to comply with instructions to keep the blast furnaces open.The 10-page bill allows the government to instruct steel companies to keep assets running, and to take over assets if firms fail to comply. It also provides for a compensation scheme for costs incurred.- Trump tariffs -MPs left for their Easter holidays on Tuesday and were not due to return to parliament until April 22.In an indication of how seriously the government is taking the plight of British Steel, the last Saturday sitting of parliament was in October 2019 to vote on former prime minister Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal.Before that MPs last sat on a Saturday recall at the start of the Falklands War between Britain and Argentina in 1982.Scunthorpe in northern England is British Steel’s primary site, and Britain’s last virgin steel plant — which produces steel from raw rather than recycled materials — after Tata’s Port Talbot shuttered its blast furnace last year.British Steel has said US President Donald Trump’s tariffs on the sector were partly to blame for the Scunthorpe plant’s difficulties. However, fierce competition from cheaper Asian steel has heaped pressure on Europe’s beleaguered steel industry in recent years.British Steel has its roots as far back as the Industrial Revolution but took shape in 1967 when the Labour government nationalised the industry, which at the time employed nearly 270,000 people.After privatisation and a massive decline in Britain’s steel sector, India’s Tata Steel bought the group in 2007 before selling it on in 2016 to investment fund Greybull Capital for a token £1. It was renamed British Steel.After more instability, British Steel was taken over by the government’s insolvency service in 2019 and then acquired by Jingye the following year.

On a sweltering spring day, workers at a Christmas tree factory in eastern China rhythmically assembled piles of branches, wiping away sweat as they daubed white-paint snow onto plastic pine needles.Like countless other companies in the manufacturing powerhouse of Zhejiang province, its products are geared largely towards export — a sector freshly menaced by Donald Trump’s roiling of the global economy and increasingly brutal China tariffs.On Tuesday, the US president raised levies on Chinese goods to 104 percent, before increasing them to 125 percent the next day, later clarifying the cumulative figure at 145 percent.”At the beginning, there was some pessimism in the industry,” Jessica Guo, the factory head, told AFP.”But in the last two days, we are more united, that is, we feel we cannot be bullied like this. We are willing to get through this difficult phase with the country.”The Chinese government is in fighting mode too, on Friday increasing its own retaliatory duties to 125 percent.The tit-for-tat could reduce US-China trade in goods by 80 percent, the World Trade Organization said this week.The effects are already being seen on Guo’s unseasonal winter wonderland of a factory floor.There are no US orders currently on the production line — they have been suspended or remain unconfirmed.Other local Christmas tree makers have also been hit, she said, but not as badly as in southern Guangdong province, where some factories’ production can be completely taken up by one large US client.Zhejiang factory owners tend to have a broader, more recently developed client base, according to Guo.”Really, over the past few years… we have hardly come across any American customers,” she said as she strode past walls of stacked boxes stamped with addresses in Guatemala and Chile.”We have already slowly broken away from our dependence on the US market, and started to develop other markets.”- ‘Wait and see’ -Fifty minutes away, at a smaller factory specialising in solar powered plastic gadgets, saleswoman Cassie said only 20 percent of her customers were American — down from 80 percent pre-pandemic.Recently she too has had suspensions or cancellations, citing the tariffs.”At the start… some of our US customers said we could take (the rise) on together… But later it rose ridiculously — and no one could take on that,” said Cassie.Behind her on a display shelf, a bobbing Trump statue stood alongside a “Dancing Queen” Elizabeth II and a jiggling “Surfer Dude”.”Now we are in a wait-and-see state to see what decisions Trump will make next,” she said, adding they might redirect some US products elsewhere abroad or domestically.In the meantime, work continues.Whirrs and clicks filled the air as workers passed multi-coloured plastic parts through machines, each process carried out methodically, in mere seconds, over and over again. Cassie showed AFP boxes full of Trump figurines bound for Europe, one hand pointing, the other with fingers crossed behind his back.”I think he shouldn’t be so crazy,” she said. “Him adding tariffs on us doesn’t really have any benefits for them.”- ‘Steady attitude’ -The apex of Zhejiang’s light industry prowess is the city of Yiwu’s wholesale market, one of the world’s largest.A warren of tens of thousands of stalls sells millions of items, from a panoply of electronics to body glitter, toy guns and astroturf.Most vendors AFP approached said they had diverse client bases, straddling South America, the Middle East and Southeast Asia.”If the trade war escalates… We should look at it with a steady attitude,” veteran trader Wang Xuxue told AFP at her booth decked out with capybara plushies and Barbie purses.Many will just develop new products for other countries, she said.Nearby, a costume shop had arranged a display of silicon masks — a wall of popular villains that included Freddy Kruger, Pennywise the Clown, various werewolves and demons — and Donald Trump.”The Chinese people are pretty united,” said Wang. “(We) are more hardworking, more thrifty… We’re not afraid of him fighting a price war — we’re all very confident.”