Headlines

Switzerland soon hopes to finalise a new business offer for Washington to ease its tariff burden, which will likely include more defence spending and greater access for U.S. energy interests, Reuters reported. Switzerland was stunned when U.S. President Donald Trump this month hit it with one of the highest tariff rates worldwide - 39% - after complaining about the U.S. trade deficit with the country on a call with Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter.

India’s embassy in Washington has hired a lobbying firm with close ties to the Trump administration and a history of advocating for foreign entities targeted by the U.S., just before 50% tariffs take effect on exports from the South Asian country, Bloomberg News reported. The embassy is paying $75,000 per month to Mercury Public Affairs LLC to provide government relations, media relations and other services, according to an Aug. 18 filing detailing the agreement. White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles is a former co-chair of Mercury.

International postal services are suspending shipments to the United States after an exemption on tariff duties for small packages is set to expire, CNN.com reported. Beginning Friday, the de minimis exemption, which allowed shipments of goods worth $800 or less to enter the United States duty free, will be eliminated. European and Asian postal services have taken matters into their own hands by announcing plans to halt shipments as early as Monday. Singapore’s SingPost and India’s Department of Posts said they will also temporarily suspend some shipments to the United States.

Embattled Chinese property developer Country Garden on Friday warned of a bigger loss for the first half of fiscal 2025, after deliveries of housing projects halved from 2024 and asset impairments rose, Reuters reported. The company delivered about 74,000 housing units in the first half, compared with over 150,000 in the same period last year. The primary concern remains resolving issues around debt, Country Garden said.

Shares in the embattled Bitcoin miner, Argo Blockchain, tumbled more than 20% on Friday, after the company announced that it had failed to negotiate terms for a bailout loan, CCN.com reported. Argo remains locked in talks with Growler Mining, a potential white knight investor, but has warned that without fresh capital or a refinancing deal, it may soon have to enter insolvency proceedings. In a market update on Friday, Aug. 22, Argo said that while the parties are working diligently toward finalizing the terms of the Plan, there can be no assurance of reaching a deal.

Germany’s economic output shrank by more than initially estimated in the second quarter, with industry faring worse than expected as U.S. tariffs hurt exports, the Wall Street Journal reported. Gross domestic product in Europe’s largest economy fell 0.3% on quarter in the three months to the end of June, according to fresh estimates, a sharper rate than the 0.1% decline initially estimated made last month, statistics agency Destatis said. That performance offset much of the 0.3% increase in GDP in the first quarter. Exports of goods fell 0.6% in the quarter as U.S.

The pace of Japan’s consumer inflation stayed well above the Bank of Japan’s target in July even as price growth moderated, supporting market speculation that the central bank will hike its benchmark interest rate again this year, Bloomberg News reported. Consumer prices excluding fresh food rose 3.1% from a year earlier last month, slowing from a 3.3% gain in June, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications reported Friday. The median estimate of economists was for a gain of 3%, with expectations there would be a drag from energy prices after they spiked a year earlier.

Canada will remove many retaliatory import tariffs on U.S. goods and intensify talks with the United States on striking a new trade and security relationship, Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Friday, Reuters reported. Canadian tariffs on U.S. autos, steel and aluminum will remain for now, he said. Carney noted that the United States had recently made clear that it would not impose tariffs on Canadian goods that were compliant with the three-nation U.S.-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement, something he called a positive development.

U.K. consumers felt a little better about their finances this month as the Bank of England lowered borrowing costs, though sentiment remains weak amid wider economic turmoil, the Wall Street Journal reported. Consumer confidence rose two points to minus 17 in August from minus 19 in July, according to research group GfK’s monthly index, published with the Nuremberg Institute for Market Decisions. The increase suggests sentiment is at its sunniest so far this year, but still well below the prepandemic trend.

Binance is under the microscope in Australia, DLNews reported. Austrac, the country’s financial crimes regulator, has ordered the crypto exchange to appoint an external auditor after allegedly finding shortcomings in its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing systems. “Big global operators may appear well resourced … but if they don’t understand local money laundering and terrorism financing risks, they are failing to meet their AML/CTF obligations in Australia,” the country’s top regulator Brendan Thomas said.