Trade negotiators from the US and China resumed face-to-face talks in Washington, as the administration of US President Donald Trump said that a Chinese delegation is to visit farms next week.
Talks between a Chinese delegation led by Chinese Vice Minister of Finance Liao Min (廖岷) and US Deputy Trade Representative Jeffrey Gerrish began on Thursday and continued yesterday.
The negotiations are expected to lay the groundwork for top-level negotiations between US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, US Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He (劉鶴) in Washington next month. An exact date for that meeting has not been released.
Stock futures edged higher in Japan, Hong Kong and Australia, while the S&P 500 Index closed little changed, within 1 percent of a record.
The burst of diplomacy follows two months of ratcheting up of the trade dispute after senior officials previously met in Shanghai in late July.
Following that meeting, Trump announced an increase in planned tariffs on an additional batch of US$300 billion of Chinese goods to 15 percent from 10 percent, which he began imposing on Sept. 1. Tariffs on some goods was delayed to Dec. 15.
Trump later announced a two-week delay on increasing existing tariffs on US$250 billion of Chinese goods to 30 percent from 25 percent, which is now set for Oct. 15.
China has targeted US exports, including agriculture products, with retaliatory tariffs, hitting farmers who are also dealing with unpredictable weather and low commodity prices.
US Department of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said on Thursday that Chinese officials would visit farms in the US next week as part of efforts to “build goodwill.”
Perdue said that he did not have any further details about the trip and that he did not know whether Beijing plans to make an announcement about additional purchases of US farm goods during the visit.
US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross reiterated that the Trump administration is pressing for a deal that commits Beijing to a wide range of economic reforms.
“What we need is to correct the big imbalances, not just the current trade deficit, but also the structural imbalances, the impediments to market access, disrespect for intellectual property, forced technology transfers,” Ross said in an interview with Fox Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo. “So it’s more complicated than just buying a few more soybeans.”
Asian markets edged up yesterday as investors turn their attention to the trade talks, while keeping an eye on the Persian Gulf region after last week’s airstrikes on Saudi Arabian oil facilities fanned geopolitical tensions.
Stock markets have enjoyed a broadly positive month thanks to hopes for the talks, with both sides appearing to offer olive branches and sounding less confrontational than they did in July and last month.
A shift by central banks to easier monetary policies — or a desire to do so — is providing some much-needed support to equities, although there was some disappointment in the US Federal Reserve’s lack of forward guidance this week for further interest rate cuts.
Hong Kong was down 0.1 percent, marking a fifth straight loss, with investors on alert for further protests in the territory following clashes between pro-democracy demonstrators and police last weekend.
Shanghai ended up 0.2 percent and Tokyo closed 0.2 percent higher.
Sweeping policy changes under US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr are having a chilling effect on vaccine makers as anti-vaccine rhetoric has turned into concrete changes in inoculation schedules and recommendations, investors and executives said. The administration of US President Donald Trump has in the past year upended vaccine recommendations, with the country last month ending its longstanding guidance that all children receive inoculations against flu, hepatitis A and other diseases. The unprecedented changes have led to diminished vaccine usage, hurt the investment case for some biotechs, and created a drag that would likely dent revenues and
Global semiconductor stocks advanced yesterday, as comments by Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) at Davos, Switzerland, helped reinforce investor enthusiasm for artificial intelligence (AI). Samsung Electronics Co gained as much as 5 percent to an all-time high, helping drive South Korea’s benchmark KOSPI above 5,000 for the first time. That came after the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose more than 3 percent to a fresh record on Wednesday, with a boost from Nvidia. The gains came amid broad risk-on trade after US President Donald Trump withdrew his threat of tariffs on some European nations over backing for Greenland. Huang further
CULPRITS: Factors that affected the slip included falling global crude oil prices, wait-and-see consumer attitudes due to US tariffs and a different Lunar New Year holiday schedule Taiwan’s retail sales ended a nine-year growth streak last year, slipping 0.2 percent from a year earlier as uncertainty over US tariff policies affected demand for durable goods, data released on Friday by the Ministry of Economic Affairs showed. Last year’s retail sales totaled NT$4.84 trillion (US$153.27 billion), down about NT$9.5 billion, or 0.2 percent, from 2024. Despite the decline, the figure was still the second-highest annual sales total on record. Ministry statistics department deputy head Chen Yu-fang (陳玉芳) said sales of cars, motorcycles and related products, which accounted for 17.4 percent of total retail rales last year, fell NT$68.1 billion, or
MediaTek Inc (聯發科) shares yesterday notched their best two-day rally on record, as investors flock to the Taiwanese chip designer on excitement over its tie-up with Google. The Taipei-listed stock jumped 8.59 percent, capping a two-session surge of 19 percent and closing at a fresh all-time high of NT$1,770. That extended a two-month rally on growing awareness of MediaTek’s work on Google’s tensor processing units (TPUs), which are chips used in artificial intelligence (AI) applications. It also highlights how fund managers faced with single-stock limits on their holding of market titan Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) are diversifying into other AI-related firms.
RSS