Trump Tariffs

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The European Union said it agreed to accelerate negotiations with the US to avoid a transatlantic trade war, signaling a more amicable approach just days after President Donald Trump criticized the bloc for taking advantage of the US and slow-walking talks.

“There’s now a new impetus for the negotiations,” Paula Pinho, a spokeswoman for the European Commission, told reporters on Monday, a day after Commission President Ursula von der Leyen spoke with Trump by phone. “They agreed both to fast track the trade negotiations and to stay in close contact.”

Following the call, Trump extended the deadline to hit the EU with 50% tariffs by more than a month to July 9 to allow for more negotiations. “We had a very nice call and I agreed to move it,” Trump told reporters Sunday.

Talks so far have been beset with a multitude of problems, with no clear path to finding a middle ground that will appease them both. The Europeans have complained that it’s not clear what the US wants or even who speaks for the American president, and the US has said the EU unfairly targets US companies with lawsuits and regulations.

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At least two members of Trump’s cabinet sold substantial stock holdings just before and on the day of the president’s surprise April 2 tariff announcement that shook global markets and triggered a $2.4 trillion sell-off. Attorney General Pam Bondi divested millions in assets on the day Trump announced the “Liberation Day” tariffs, while Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sold stocks on the days leading up to it, according to recently filed disclosures with the Office of Government Ethics.

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WASHINGTON: The US trade deficit widened to a record high in March as businesses boosted imports of goods ahead of tariffs, which dragged gross domestic product into negative terrain in the first quarter for the first time in three years.

The trade gap jumped 14 per cent to a record US$140.5 billion from a revised US$123.2 billion in February, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) said on Tuesday (May 6).

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the trade deficit rising to US$137.0 billion from the previously reported US$122.7 billion in February.

President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs, including raising duties on Chinese imports to a staggering 145 per cent, fueled a rush by businesses to bring in merchandise to avoid higher costs.

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If you think a 25% tariff is bad, what about a tariff that goes past 3,500%?

On Monday, the U.S. Department of Commerce slapped high tariffs on solar panels and their related products coming from four Southeast Asia countries, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Cambodia, accusing manufacturers there of dumping products on the U.S. market. The announcement ends a yearlong trade probe initiated under the Biden administration.

Tariff levels varied wildly between different countries and manufacturers. Solar cells made in Malaysia by Korean company Hanwha only got a tariff of 14.64%, the lowest imposed.

In contrast, four manufacturers in Cambodia—Hounen Solar, Jinktek Photovoltaic, ISC Cambodia and Solar Long PV Tech—got tariffs of 3521.14%. The Southeast Asian country stopped cooperating with the U.S. probe, leading to such high penalties.

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