The administration of US President Donald Trump has proposed new tariffs of up to 12.5 per cent on imports from China and dozens of other trading partners, using a forced-labour investigation to advance what analysts see as a bid to rebuild its tariff regime after recent court setbacks. The Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) said on Tuesday that China and 59 other economies failed to prohibit or adequately restrict US imports made with forced labour, subjecting them to punitive action...
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva thanked China for clearing the country’s beef of foot-and-mouth disease and fired a barb at US President Donald Trump, saying “I will sell to someone else”, after Washington announced new tariffs on Brazilian goods. Lula made the remarks on Tuesday, hours after Beijing announced wider access for Brazilian beef to the world’s biggest market for the product. “As God writes straight with crooked lines, nothing comes free for a Christian man like me....
It comes after the US Supreme Court struck down many of US President Donald Trump's previous duties in February.
Across the vast United States, soybean farmers caught in the crossfire of the US-China trade war hoped for a deal on the crop when US President Donald Trump met with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. There was optimism after the two presidents met in Busan, South Korea, in October, when China committed to increased soybean purchases. This time, however, Trump left Beijing without any concrete agricultural announcements, much less one about US farmers’ biggest export. Instead, a general...
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said on Tuesday that the government would seek public comment on which Chinese goods should be eligible for lower tariffs. Washington and Beijing have agreed to a joint “Board of Trade” to initially determine about US$30 billion of non-strategic goods on which the two countries can lower or eliminate tariffs. Greer said a public notice will be issued soon. Asked at a forum on what the US got out of President Donald Trump’s summit with Chinese President...
Washington would not raise future tariffs on Chinese goods above the level stipulated in a trade truce the two countries hammered out late last year, Beijing said, a commitment arising from talks in South Korea held hours before US President Donald Trump’s arrival in the Chinese capital last week. Analysts said the pledge signals a shift in relations between the world’s two largest economies – from unilateral trade shocks towards a phase of “managed competition”. “We hope the US side will honour...
China will buy 'at least' $17bn worth of US agricultural goods annually, the White House says.
China has agreed to buy at least US$17 billion in US agricultural products annually through 2028, the White House said on Sunday. The commitment resulted from the summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping last week and will be in addition to soybean purchase commitments that were made in October 2025, according to a fact sheet released by the White House. Trump concluded his highly-anticipated state visit to China on Friday, during which he discussed topics...
US President Donald Trump’s landmark visit to China comes as the US-Iran war disrupts global energy supplies, fuels economic uncertainty and adds fresh strain to Washington-Beijing ties. In the latest instalment of a series examining how rivalry, interdependence and geopolitical crises are reshaping the relationship between the two powers, we explore the massive upswing in capital expenditures across Asia that is driving a broad shift in economic power. When US President Donald Trump made his...
US President Donald Trump said China has agreed to purchase at least 200 commercial aircraft from Boeing, and up to 750 if certain conditions are met – a commitment which would end a nearly decade-long order drought – following a state visit to Beijing, where Trump said a purchase of up to 450 aircraft engines from General Electric was also agreed upon. “We made a lot of great trade deals, including over 200 planes for Boeing, with a promise of 750 planes, which would be by far the largest order...
US President Donald Trump’s landmark visit to China comes as the US-Iran war disrupts global energy supplies, fuels economic uncertainty and adds fresh strain to Washington-Beijing ties. In the latest instalment of a series examining how rivalry, interdependence and geopolitical crises are reshaping the relationship between the two powers, we explore the intensifying US-China legal arms race. For years, global businesses have been struggling to navigate rising trade tensions between the United...
Trump’s aggressive push for interest rate cuts shaped Powell’s Fed legacy during his tumultuous leadership.
“Large Boeing orders” appear to be coming, US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent told CNBC on Thursday, adding that China and the US will discuss establishing a new joint board of trade to manage commercial ties. “I think we’re going to see the large Boeing orders,” Bessent said. The agreement, if material, would mark the first such order after a nearly decade-long drought fuelled by geopolitical and regulatory stand-offs, serving as a high-profile “deliverable” from US President Donald...
The business executives accompanying US President Donald Trump on his state visit to Beijing this week are the wealthiest such delegation to visit China – holding a combined personal net worth of over US$1 trillion – an indication of continued interest in the country’s lucrative market despite strained bilateral ties. With Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s last-minute addition to the delegation, 17 executives from the technology, finance, aerospace and semiconductor sectors have joined Trump, who landed...
A coalition of 24 states have argued that Trump's latest tariffs do not meet the standards of 1974 Trade Act.
The next round of US-China trade talks appears to be a rushed precursor intended to set the stage for President Donald Trump’s state visit to Beijing, according to analysts who expect only modest deliverables from the negotiations. Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng will meet US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in South Korea this week, both sides have confirmed, marking the latest in a series of diplomatic sprints intended to stabilise the world’s most consequential economic relationship. The...
Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will meet for trade talks in Seoul on Wednesday, probably to iron out final details before a presidential summit in Beijing the following day. The discussions would focus on “economic and trade issues of mutual concern”, China’s Ministry of Commerce said on Sunday. The country also confirmed that US President Donald Trump will make a state visit from Wednesday to Friday, the first by a US president in almost nine years. Trump...
Chinese officials have signalled privately a growing willingness to retaliate against the United States, buoyed by confidence in their economic leverage as US President Donald Trump prepares to visit Beijing this week. Sources told the South China Morning Post that officials in Beijing had grown bolder since playing its rare earths card in October and were now less worried about tariffs. The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to comment publicly, said...
China’s trade with the United States has declined this year, official data shows, as US President Donald Trump heads to Beijing next week for a high-stakes visit that could determine the future of economic relations between the two superpowers. China’s merchandise exports to the US fell 10.2 per cent year on year to US$133.4 billion in the first four months of 2026, according to data released on Saturday by the General Administration of Customs. Imports from the US also declined 10.9 per cent to...
US President Donald Trump filed an appeal on Friday after the latest legal setback to his signature tariff policy, piling on more chaos and global uncertainty and setting up a new tussle over billions of US dollars in refunds. The appeal follows a decision on Thursday by the US Court of International Trade that invalidated his use of a Section 122 trade provision that saw him slap 10 per cent import taxes on nearly every country on earth. In its ruling, the court found that he failed to meet the...