Tariffs

India pulls out of world’s largest trade deal

India said Monday it would not join a sprawling Asian trade pact, dealing a blow to the China-backed deal at the end of a Bangkok summit held against a backdrop of global growth fears.The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) was meant to account for 30 percent of global GDP and loop in half of the world’s people.But India dug in over concerns about market access, fearing its domestic industries would be hit hard if the country was flooded by cheap Made-in-China goods.“We have co

5 November 2019
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Partial US-China trade deal 

A partial United States (US)-China deal may only offer a temporary tariff reprieve because it lacks specifics and leaves the thorny issues for later, analysts said, allowing both economic powers to claim success.Friday's initial agreement – which included increasing US farm product purchases, and also covers intellectual property, financial services and currencies – finally breaks an 18-month trade spat.Engulfed in an impeachment inquiry, US President Donald Trump heralded the deal as a

13 October 2019
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ASEAN Lacks Real Economic Integration

While European businesses are increasingly more confident about investing in ASEAN, the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) is creating uncertainty for some business prospects according to a recent survey by the EU-ASEAN Business Council.Released on Monday, the EU-ASEAN Business Sentiment Survey – which polls European firms in the region – found that 88 percent of respondents expect to increase trade and investment in ASEAN in the next five years, up from 75 percent in 2018. 73 percent ex

4 September 2019
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More than a trade war

The escalating trade war between the United States (US) and China has sometimes been characterised as what game theorists would call a prisoner’s dilemma. A prisoner might benefit by informing on another, but only if the second prisoner does not also betray the first. If both inform, both lose; the best outcome occurs when both remain silent.

1 September 2019
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The currency manipulation game

The trade war between the United States (US) and China is heating up again, with US President Donald Trump abruptly announcing plans to impose a 10 percent tariff on the US$300 billion worth of imports from China that he had so far left untouched. The Chinese authorities then allowed their currency, the renminbi, to fall below the symbolic threshold of CN¥7 per US dollar.

11 August 2019
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China's GDP growth slows to 6.2%

China's economy grew at its slowest rate in nearly three decades in the second quarter, according to a survey of analysts, hit by the United States (US)-China trade war and weakening global demand.The world's second largest economy expanded 6.2 percent in April-June, the poll of 10 economists predicted ahead of the official release of gross domestic product (GDP) figures Monday.The reading would mark the worst quarterly growth in almost three decades but stays within the government&

13 July 2019
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Trump’s trade war with China enters next phase

United States (US) President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping may have agreed at the Group of Twenty (G20) summit in Osaka to resume trade negotiations, but the path to ending the trade war remains far from clear.

8 July 2019
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Vietnam biggest winner from US-China trade war

Vietnam’s already strong economic outlook received another boost last week after Japanese investment bank Nomura named it the biggest winner from the United States (US) – China trade war, with its economy surging by 7.9 percent as a result of one year’s worth of trade diversions leading up to the first quarter of this year.The standoff has seen gross domestic product (GDP) gains in several other countries, though none of them are anywhere as close to Vietnam’s. Taiwan are the next bi

11 June 2019
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Trump’s big trade war mistake

Just when a trade agreement between the United States (US) and China appeared to be in sight, negotiators found themselves back at square one. The immediate reason for the disruption was China’s insistence on a substantially rewritten draft agreement, which, according to US President Donald Trump’s administration, reneges on previously agreed terms.

7 June 2019
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