trade war

July 18, 2025 9:22 AM

Lula says he won’t take orders from foreigner Trump, calls tariffs blackmail

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Thursday said he would not take orders over tariffs from a foreigner, referring to U.S. President Donald Trump, and later called the United States' threatened duty "unacceptable blackmail." The comments, made during two separate events, mark a continuation of a spat between the two leaders that escalated when the U.S. announced a 50% tariff on Brazil last week. Trump attributed the tariff, set to start in August, to Brazil's treatment of former ...

July 17, 2025 4:42 PM

G20 finance chiefs meet under tariff cloud in South Africa

South Africa urged G20 countries to provide global and cooperative leadership to tackle challenges including rising trade barriers as the club's finance chiefs met on Thursday under the shadow of President Donald Trump's tariff threats. The G20, which emerged as a forum for cooperation to combat the 2008 global financial crisis, has for years been hobbled by disputes among key players that have been exacerbated by Russia's war in Ukraine and Western sanctions on Moscow. Host South Africa, unde...

July 11, 2025 9:31 AM

Rubio to meet China’s Wang Yi in Malaysia amid trade tension

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Kuala Lumpur on Friday, the State Department said, in what will be the first in-person meeting of the two counterparts. Washington's top diplomat arrived in Malaysia on Thursday in his first trip to Asia since taking office, where he joined foreign ministers of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Kuala Lumpur and met with senior Malaysian officials and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov. T...

July 9, 2025 9:17 AM

Trump says steep copper tariffs in store as he broadens his trade war

U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he would impose a 50% tariff on imported copper and soon introduce long-threatened levies on semiconductors and pharmaceuticals, broadening his trade war that has rattled markets worldwide. One day after he pressured 14 trading partners, including powerhouse U.S. suppliers like South Korea and Japan, with fresh tariff letters, Trump reiterated his threat of 10% tariffs on products from Brazil, India and other members of the BRICS group of countries. ...

June 26, 2025 2:49 PM

EU leaders meet to decide on whether to back quick US trade deal or seek better terms

European Union leaders are to tell the European Commission on Thursday whether they want to reach a quick trade agreement with the United States on terms that favour Washington or keep fighting for a better deal. A quick deal seems to be the preferred option for most, officials and diplomats said, as the EU can then seek to address the unfavourable bias with some rebalancing measures of its own. "I support the Commission, I support the President of the European Commission in her endeavours to ...

June 6, 2025 11:55 AM

Trump and Xi agree to more talks as trade disputes brew

U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping confronted weeks of brewing trade tensions and a battle over critical minerals in a rare leader-to-leader call on Thursday that left key issues to further talks. During the more than one-hour-long call, Xi told Trump to back down from trade measures that roiled the global economy and warned him against threatening steps on Taiwan, according to a Chinese government summary. But Trump said on social media that the talks focused primarily ...

April 25, 2025 5:09 PM

China exempts some goods from US tariffs to limit trade war pain

China has exempted some U.S. imports from its 125% tariffs and is asking firms to identify critical goods they need levy-free, according to businesses notified, in the clearest sign yet of Beijing's concerns about the trade war's economic fallout. The dispensation, which follows de escalatory statements from Washington, signals that the world's two largest economies were prepared to rein in their conflict, which had frozen much of the trade between them, raising fears of a glob...

April 24, 2025 11:58 AM

U.S. Treasury Secretary Bessent calls China tariffs unsustainable as Washington eyes de-escalation

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Wednesday that high tariffs between the United States and China are not sustainable, as President Donald Trump's administration signaled openness to de-escalating a trade war between the world's two largest economies that has raised fears of recession. U.S. stocks rallied on hopes that the two countries might lower the steep trade barriers they have erected over the past month, though there was no sign that negotiations might start anytime soon. Be...

April 11, 2025 9:54 AM

Global stocks, dollar sink, bonds pummelled again as trade war roils markets

Global stocks slumped and the dollar sank further on Friday, while a manic bond selloff took hold in a brutal end to the week of tit-for-tat worldwide tariffs that have fed fears of a deep recession and shaken investor confidence in U.S. assets. The anxiety has sparked a rush into safe havens, sending the Swiss franc soaring to a decade high against the dollar, and gold to a new peak after a brief but massive relief rally following U.S. President Donald Trump's move to temporarily lower tariffs...

April 8, 2025 9:13 AM

China criticises Trump tariff ‘blackmail’ as market turmoil settles

China said it would not bow to "blackmail" from the United States as a global trade war touched off by U.S. President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs showed little sign of abating on Tuesday even as battered stock markets steadied. The rebuke came after Trump said he would impose an additional 50% duty on U.S. imports from the world's No.2 economy on Wednesday in response to Beijing's decision to match the 34% 'reciprocal' duties Trump initially unveiled last week. "The U.S. side's threat to e...