President Donald Trump will sign an executive order Tuesday to relax some of his 25% tariffs on autos and auto parts, the White House said, a significant reversal as the import taxes threatened to hurt domestic manufacturers, the Associated Press reported. Automakers and independent analyses have indicated that the tariffs could raise prices, reduce sales and make U.S. production less competitive worldwide. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a Tuesday briefing that Trump would sign the order later in the day but declined to provide details on the order.
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India's Adani Green on Monday said that its independent review of the U.S. indictment of founder Gautam Adani and top Adani Green executives, who were accused of paying $265 million in bribes for power contracts, did not identify any non-compliance or irregularities, Reuters reported. In November, U.S. authorities indicted Gautam Adani, his nephew and Executive Director Sagar Adani and Managing Director Vneet S. Jaain, alleging that they paid bribes to secure Indian power supply contracts and misled U.S. investors during fund raises.
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Japanese and U.S. finance chiefs meet on Thursday for high-stakes talks on exchange rates that have drawn market attention as a venue where Washington could pressure Tokyo to prop up the yen and help it reduce the huge U.S. trade deficit, Reuters reported. As the two countries proceed with separate bilateral talks on tariffs, the thorny currency rate topic has been set aside for Japanese Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato and U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to discuss in Washington - the first face-to-face talks between the two. U.S.
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The U.S. is moving forward with a plan to charge fees on Chinese ships calling at American ports, part of the Trump administration’s effort to counter China’s dominance in ocean shipping and revive the domestic maritime industry, the Wall Street Journal reported. The U.S. Trade Representative’s office on Thursday released the plan to charge steep fees on Chinese-owned and operated ships, and lower fees on Chinese-built vessels operated by non-Chinese carriers. Ships will be charged for each voyage to the U.S. and not for each call at a U.S.
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A U.S. federal judge on Monday confirmed a $3.7 billion offer by Contrarian Funds' affiliate Red Tree Investments as the starting bid in an auction of shares in the parent of Venezuela-owned refiner Citgo Petroleum to pay creditors and bondholders, according to a court filing, Reuters reported. The offer had been recommended by a court officer overseeing the auction due to its certainty of closure. Read more.
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The U.S. set new duties as high as 3,521% on solar imports from four Southeast Asian countries, delivering a win for domestic manufacturers while intensifying headwinds already threatening the country’s renewable power development, Bloomberg News reported. The duties announced Monday are the culmination of a yearlong trade probe that found solar manufacturers in Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand were unfairly benefiting from government subsidies and selling exports to the US at rates lower than the cost of production.
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The United States sells more soybeans to China, by value, than any other single product. Last year, that amounted to more than 27 million metric tons, worth $12.8 billion, or about 9 cents of every dollar of goods the United States sold to China, the New York Times reported. But with the enormous tariffs erected between the two countries over the past two weeks, those sales are likely to suffer soon. That is bad news for the American farmers who grow soybeans and the Chinese chicken and hog farmers who buy them — and potentially very good news for the nation ready to step in: Brazil.
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China has warned countries against making trade deals with the U.S. that could hurt Beijing’s interests, the Wall Street Journal reported. “China firmly opposes any party reaching a deal at the expense of China’s interests,” the Ministry of Commerce said Monday, adding that it would respond “resolutely” with reciprocal countermeasures should such a situation arise. The ministry also said China is willing to strengthen solidarity and coordination with all parties, work together to respond to challenges, and oppose unilateral bullying.
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China's state-backed funds are pulling back from investing in the funds of U.S.-headquartered private capital firms amid an escalating trade war between the world's two biggest economies, the Financial Times reported. Some of the Chinese funds are also seeking to be excluded from investments in U.S. companies made by private equity firms based elsewhere, the report, which cited seven private equity executives with knowledge of the matter, said.
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U.S. Vice President JD Vance is holding talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Monday as the South Asian nation looks to strike an early trade deal with Washington that spares it from President Donald Trump’s additional tariff hikes, Bloomberg News reported. Vance arrived at Modi’s private residence in the capital just before 7 p.m. local time for bilateral talks with the prime minister, followed by another discussion that will include members of their respective delegations. Modi is then expected to host Vance, his wife Usha and their three children for dinner.
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