ISLAMABAD — Pakistan confirmed on Wednesday that the World Bank has pledged to lend $20 billion over the next decade, commencing in 2026 under its Country Partnership Framework, to help address the impoverished country’s acute development challenges.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif applauded what he described as the lender’s “first-ever” pledge of its kind, saying the program is intended to develop child nutrition, education, clean energy and climate resilience to boost private sector growth.

The Country Partnership Framework “reflects the World Bank’s confidence in Pakistan’s economic resilience and potential,” Sharif said on the social media platform X. “We look forward to strengthening our partnership as we align our efforts for creating lasting opportunities for our people.”

The cash-strapped South Asian nation has been struggling to tackle serious economic challenges for several years and is currently relying on a $7 billion bailout loan program from the International Monetary Fund. Persistent political instability in Pakistan, rising militant attacks, and devastating flooding in 2022 have further strained the troubled economy.

“Our new decadelong partnership framework for Pakistan represents a long-term anchor for our joint commitment with the government to address some of the most acute development challenges facing the country,” said World Bank Country Director Najy Benhassine.

The U.S.-based lender stated that the country’s annual commitments under the partnership “are expected to remain in the $1.5 billion to $2 billion range” from 2026 onward. It added that the loans will depend on available funding and the fulfillment of project requirements.

“The pace of economic growth and structural transformation has been long stunted by distortive policies that benefit only a few, who have historically coalesced to oppose growth-oriented reforms as well as increases in progressive public spending in human capital and basic services for the poorest,” the World Bank partnership documented stated.

It added that Pakistan must change its current development model to reduce poverty and achieve shared prosperity on a livable planet.

“We are focused on prioritizing investment and advisory interventions that will help crowd in much-needed private investment in sectors critical for Pakistan’s sustainable growth and job creation,” said Zeeshan Sheikh, International Finance Corporation country manager for Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The ouster of Prime Minister Imran Khan from power in 2022 and his subsequent imprisonment over contested corruption charges have plunged Pakistan into a political crisis that experts say is hampering government attempts to attract domestic and foreign investments.

The World Bank’s document highlights that the South Asian nation, home to over 240 million people, ranks among the top 10 countries most affected by climate change and natural disasters worldwide.

It noted that climate change will increasingly strain livelihoods, food security, productivity, and growth caused by rising extreme heat, air pollution, and altered water availability and precipitation.

“These risks can significantly compromise development in an already fiscally constrained environment and make sustained progress in poverty reduction and human development even more challenging than it is today,” the World Bank stated.
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Washington — President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday announced plans to create a new agency called the External Revenue Service to collect tariffs and other revenues from foreign nations.

“We will begin charging those that make money off of us with Trade, and they will start paying,” Trump said Tuesday on his social media site, Truth Social. He compared his planned creation to the Internal Revenue Service, which is the nation’s domestic tax collector.

The creation of a new agency requires an act of Congress, and Republicans hold the majority of both the House and the Senate.

Trump, who has vowed to shrink the size of government, would be creating a new agency to perform functions already handled by existing agencies, including the Commerce Department and the Customs and Border Patrol, which collect duties and revenues from other nations.

The president-elect has tapped two business titans to lead his Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, a nongovernmental task force assigned to find ways to fire federal workers, cut programs and slash federal regulations, all part of what he calls his “Save America” agenda for a second term in the White House.

Billionaire Elon Musk and fellow entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy are leading the DOGE’s ambitious efforts to reduce the size and scope of the federal government.

Tariffs, with the threat of a potential 25% levy on all goods from allies like Canada and Mexico and 60% on goods from China, have become a benchmark of Trump’s economic agenda as he heads into his second term.

Economists have said the cost of the tariffs will be passed on to consumers, and are generally skeptical of them, considering them a mostly inefficient way for governments to raise money and promote prosperity.

Democratic lawmakers were quick to criticize the External Revenue Service plan.

“No amount of silly rebranding will hide the fact that Trump is planning a multi-trillion-dollar tax hike on American families and small businesses to pay for another round of tax handouts to the rich,” Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said in a statement.
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— U.S. President Joe Biden issued an executive order Tuesday directing the development of artificial intelligence data centers on six federal land sites, with a special focus on powering them with clean energy and upholding high labor standards. 

Biden said in a statement that the United States is the world leader in AI, but cannot take that lead for granted. 

“We will not let America be out-built when it comes to the technology that will define the future, nor should we sacrifice critical environmental standards and our shared efforts to protect clean air and clean water,” Biden said. 

The order calls for the Department of Defense and Department of Energy to each identify three suitable sites where private companies will lease the land, pay for the construction and operation of the data centers and ensure the supply of enough clean energy to fully power the sites. 

The developers will also have to buy “an appropriate share” of semiconductors produced in the United States to help ensure there is a “robust domestic semiconductor supply chain,” the White House said. 

In addition to identifying the sites, the federal government will also commit under the order to expedite the permitting process for the data center construction. 

Senior administration officials, in a phone call with journalists previewing the order, highlighted the national security need for the United States to have its own powerful AI infrastructure, both to protect it for its own use but also to prevent adversaries such as China from possessing those capabilities. 

“From the national security standpoint, it’s really critical to find a pathway for building the data centers and power infrastructure to support frontier AI operations here in the United States to ensure that the most powerful AI models continue to be trained and stored securely here in the United States,” an official said. 

A senior administration official cited the priority of making sure the AI industry had an anchor in the United States to avoid repeating the history of other technologies that moved offshore to areas with lower labor and environmental standards as well. 

AI chip restrictions 

Tuesday’s order comes a day after the Biden administration announced new restrictions on the export of the most advanced artificial intelligence chips and proprietary parameters used to govern the interactions of users with AI systems.    

The rule, which will undergo a 120-day period for public comments, comes in response to what administration officials described as a need to protect national security while also clarifying the rules under which companies in trusted partner countries could access the emerging technology in order to promote innovation.   

“Over the coming years, AI will become really ubiquitous in every business application in every industry around the world, with enormous potential for enhanced productivity and societal, health care and economic benefits,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told reporters. “That being said, as AI becomes more powerful, the risks to our national security become even more intense.”   

A senior administration official said the new rule will not include any restrictions on chip sales to Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, the United Kingdom or the United States.   

The rules build on 2023 curbs limiting the export of certain AI chips to China, a strategic competitor in the production of advanced semiconductors. Beijing attacked the new U.S. AI edict as a “flagrant violation” of international trade rules.  

China’s Ministry of Commerce said the Biden administration announcement “is another example of the generalization of the concept of national security and the abuse of export control, and a flagrant violation of international multilateral economic and trade rules.”  

Beijing said it would “take necessary measures to firmly safeguard its legitimate rights and interests.” 

Countries that are under U.S. arms embargoes are already subject to export restrictions on advanced AI chips, but a senior administration official said they will now be under restrictions for the transfer of the most powerful closed weight AI models.    

The weights in an AI model determine how it processes the inputs from a user and determines what to provide the user as a response, according to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. In a closed weight system, those parameters are secret, unlike with an open weight system in which users could see the settings the model is using to make its decisions.    

Most countries — those not included in the closed partner or arms embargo lists — will not face licensing requirements for obtaining the equivalent of 1,700 of the most advanced AI chips currently available, nor for any less advanced chips.   

Companies in the United States and allied countries will not face restrictions in using the most powerful closed weight AI systems, provided they are stored under adequate security, a senior administration official said. 

 
…

A new industry report released Monday shows China made big strides last year toward an EV-driven future, as domestic sales of all types of electric vehicles rose by 40% in 2024. Sales of gasoline powered cars tumbled, including foreign imports.

In 2024, a total of 31.4 million total vehicles were sold in the world’s largest automobile market by sales, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. That marked a 4.5% rise compared with the previous year.

Despite the uptick in sales, foreign automobile importers are increasingly finding it hard to compete with local brands in China who have been offering a wide variety of affordable EVs and intensified market competition.

One example is German luxury car maker Porsche, who closed several of its physical stores in China in 2024. Porsche sales in China were down 29% year on year which marked the third consecutive year of decline.

In addition to Porsche, luxury carmakers BMW, Mercedes, and Audi each saw a drop in their vehicle sales in China in 2024 with BMW sales falling 13.4%, Mercedes sales by 7%, and Audi sales by 11%. 

Tai Chih-yen, an associate researcher at the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research in Taipei told VOA’s Mandarin service that a sense of patriotism and support for national brands has created additional pressures that have contributed to the struggles international automakers are facing. 

“Higher-end consumers have started to abandon foreign brands and are turning to comparatively better priced high-end domestic cars,” Tai told VOA. “This is not a so-called consumption downgrade, but more a reflection of the current situation, where many are choosing to be more discreet [in the kinds of cars they drive] and show their patriotism by driving domestic luxury brands.”

The industry report also noted that sales of traditional gasoline and diesel-powered vehicles in China sank 17% in 2024, from 14 million to 11.6 million, a slide that coincides with Beijing’s focus on transitioning to electric vehicles.

At the same time, Chinese vehicle exports were up 19.3% in 2024, according to the report. However, export growth is expected to cool with the report estimating only a 5.8% increase in 2025.

China faced a backlash in 2024 as it moved to expand EV sales overseas, with the U.S., Canada and EU unveiling steep tariffs to stop a flood of cheap electric vehicles into their markets. The U.S., Canada and EU have raised concerns about subsidies that the Chinese government provides EV makers that allows them to sell their cars for lower prices.

They have also voiced concerned that China has too much production of EVs and that cars are being dumped into foreign markets, allegations that Beijing has repeatedly denied. 

China argues that its EV subsidies are similar to those of other countries and that sales of electric vehicles help with climate change. China has filed a complaint at the World Trade Organization over the EU’s tariff decision.

Michael Baturin and VOA Mandarin Service reporter Nai-chuan Lin contributed to this report. Some information came from Reuters. 
…

— The Biden administration announced Monday new restrictions on the export of the most advanced artificial intelligence chips and proprietary parameters used to govern the interactions of users with AI systems.

The rule, which will undergo a 120-day period for public comments, comes in response to what administration officials described as a need to protect national security while also clarifying the rules under which companies in trusted partner countries could access the emerging technology in order to promote innovation.

“Over the coming years, AI will become really ubiquitous in every business application in every industry around the world, with enormous potential for enhanced productivity and societal, healthcare and economic benefits,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told reporters. “That being said, as AI becomes more powerful, the risks to our national security become even more intense.”

A senior administration official said the new rule will not include any restrictions on chip sales to Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, United Kingdom or the United States.

Countries that are under U.S. arms embargoes are already subject to export restrictions on advanced AI chips, but a senior administration official said they will now be under restrictions for the transfer of the most powerful closed weight AI models.

The weights in an AI model determine how it processes the inputs from a user and determines what to provide the user as a response, according to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. In a closed weight system, those parameters are secret, unlike with an open weight system in which users could see the settings the model is using to make its decisions.

The majority of countries — those not included in the close partner or arms embargo lists — will not face licensing requirements for obtaining the equivalent of 1,700 of the most advanced AI chips currently available, nor for any less advanced chips.

Companies in the United States and allied countries will not face restrictions in using the most powerful closed weight AI systems, provided they are stored under adequate security, a senior administration official said.

“I think the key point I would underscore is that we identified really some of the closest security allies of the United States that have effectively implemented and have a well-documented record of upholding a robust AI technology protection regime, and generally have technology ecosystems that promote the use of AI and other advanced technologies consistent with our national security and foreign policy interests,” a senior administration official said.
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Ethiopia relaunched its stock exchange, the Ethiopian Securities Exchange, on Friday after a 50-year absence.

The operations of the Ethiopia Securities Exchange were stopped in 1974 following the takeover by a communist military government.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed described the relaunch as an “historic milestone” for Ethiopia’s economic and financial landscape.

“We have officially rung the bell to launch the Ethiopian Securities Exchange — the first stock exchange for our country. Invest in Ethiopia — a fast-growing economy with immense potential and a dynamic trajectory toward prosperity,” he posted on X.

The launch of the stock exchange means the government initiated a domestic stock market, starting with the state-owned Ethio Telecom, which is yet to commence an initial public offering of shares despite announcing the move in October.

Ethiopian officials announced Friday that Wegagen Bank, a private bank, was the first company to list on the exchange.

Ethiopian Insurance Corporation, Ethiopian Shipping and Logistics Services Enterprise, and Berhanena Selam Printing joined Ethiopia Telecom as founding members of the exchange, although they are not yet listed.

The list of investors also included foreign strategic investors, along with 16 domestic private commercial banks, 12 private insurance companies, and 17 other private domestic investors, according to a newsletter distributed during the event.

Based on the shareholding structure of the Ethiopian Securities Exchange, 75% of it is allocated to private investors and 25% is capped for public shareholding. This means the share company is a private-government partnership.

Abiy assured investors that all the necessary preparations had been made. Speaking in Amharic, Abiy said the government did extensive research, passed legislation and built more institutions and human capital over the past 2½ to “avoid failure.”

He also praised the country’s economy.

“Ethiopian economy means an economy that operates the biggest airline in Africa. Ethiopian economy means an economy that operates the largest telecom operator in Africa. Ethiopian economy means an economy that built the largest hydroelectric power plant in Africa,” he said touting Africa’s largest airline and the Grand Renaissance Dam, which is considered the biggest project of its type on the continent.

In July 2021, the Parliament established the Ethiopian Capital Market Authority and tasked it with ensuring the existence of an environment in which securities could be issued and traded in an “orderly, fair, efficient and transparent manner.”

Ethiopia’s economy heavily relies on agriculture, with coffee, oilseed, flowers and gold being the main export items. Last year, the government introduced financial reforms that included floating the Ethiopian currency, a move backed by international financial institutions.

But the market-based currency policy increased inflation and led to skyrocketing prices for imported food and fuel.

This week, the government announced an increase in the price of benzene from 73 cents to 82 cents per liter. Similarly, the price of white diesel jumped from 72 cents to 78 cents per liter, with corresponding increases applied to other fuel types, a move residents said will worsen the cost of living and transportation challenges.

Ethiopian economist and the executive director of Initiative Africa Kibur Gena said the Ethiopian stock exchange should align with the broader development goals of the country.

Ethiopia’s government “should approach the establishment of a stock exchange gradually and strategically,” he told VOA.

He argued that the government should also build strong institutions and a regulatory framework “so that it can attract foreign direct investment.”

The relaunch also comes at a time when the country is facing security challenges in the Amhara and Oromia regions.

Kibur said to attract foreign investors, there needs to be peace throughout the country.

“I suppose this government will sort of realize that if it wants to achieve its objectives, it will certainly address the peace issues,” he said.
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WASHINGTON — U.S. hiring picked up unexpectedly in December as employers added a strong 256,000 jobs, another sign of the economy’s resilience in the face of high interest rates. 

Job growth rose 212,000 last month from November, the Labor Department reported Friday. 

For all of 2024, the economy added 2.2 million jobs, a solid number but down from 3 million in 2023, 4.5 million in 2022 and a record 6.4 million in 2021 as the economy bounded back from massive pandemic layoffs. 

The monthly numbers beat forecasters’ expectations of around 155,000 new jobs and 4.2% unemployment. Health care companies added 46,000 jobs, retailers 43,000 and government agencies at the federal, state and local 33,000. But manufacturers cut 13,000 jobs. 

Labor Department revisions shaved 8,000 jobs from October and November payrolls. 

Average hourly wages rose 0.3% from November and 3.9% from a year earlier. The year-over-year wage gain was slightly less than economists had forecast. 

Stocks fell Friday morning on the expectations that the strong jobs report will make the Federal Reserve less likely to cut interest rates. The economy doesn’t seem to need help. “It seems pretty certain that the pace of Fed rate cuts is now going to slow down,” said Brian Coulton, chief economist at Fitch Ratings. 

Getting a clear view of the U.S. job market hasn’t been easy over the past few months. 

Hurricanes and a big strike at Boeing threw off the October jobs numbers, pushing them down and setting up a payback rebound in November that likely exaggerated the strength of hiring. 

Thomas Simons, chief U.S. economist at Jefferies, said that seasonal adjustments around the holidays may have affected the December numbers, but he added that nonetheless “it is hard to say anything negative about the details of this report.” 

Over the past few years, the economy and the job market have shown surprising resilience. Responding to inflation that hit a four-decade high two and a half years ago, the Fed raised its benchmark interest rate — the fed funds rate — 11 times in 2022 and 2023, taking it to the highest level in more than two decades. 

The higher borrowing costs were widely expected to cause a recession but didn’t. Companies kept hiring, consumers kept spending, and the economy kept rolling along. In fact, U.S. gross domestic product — the nation’s output of goods and services — has expanded at a robust annual pace of 3% or more in four of the last five quarters. 

Layoffs are running below the pre-pandemic trend. On Thursday, the Labor Department reported that 211,000 people applied for unemployment benefits last week, the fewest in nearly a year. 

Inflation has come down, too, from a peak of 9.1% in June 2022 to 2.7% in November. The drop in year-over-year price increases gave the Fed enough confidence to cut rates three times in the last four months of 2024. 

But Fed officials signaled at their December meeting that they planned to be more cautious about rate cuts this year. They now project just two rate reductions in 2025, down from the four they envisioned back in September. Progress against inflation has stalled in recent months, and it remains stuck above the Fed’s 2% target.
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London — Britain’s Treasury chief is travelling to China this weekend to discuss economic and financial cooperation between the countries, as the U.K.’s Labour government seeks to reset strained ties with Beijing.

The Treasury said Friday that Rachel Reeves will travel to Beijing and Shanghai and will meet with her Chinese government counterpart, Vice Premier He Lifeng.

Reeves’ trip is expected to revive the China-U.K. Economic and Financial Dialogue — annual bilateral talks that have been suspended since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and deteriorating relations in recent years.

A series of spying allegations from both sides, China’s support for Russia in the Ukraine war and a crackdown on civil liberties in Hong Kong, a former British colony, have soured ties.

Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey and the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority’s chief executive, Nikhil Rathi, are also in the delegation, according to the Treasury. Representatives from some of Britain’s biggest financial services firms will join the trip.

Officials did not provide details, but media reports have said senior executives from HSBC Holdings and Standard Chartered were included.

Reeves’ visit comes after Foreign Secretary David Lammy travelled to China in October and Prime Minister Keir Starmer met with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Brazil in November.

The meetings form part of a bid by Starmer, who was elected as leader in July, to strengthen political and economic ties with China, the U.K.’s fifth-largest trading partner.

Officials said Starmer wanted a “pragmatic” approach to working with Beijing on global stability, climate change and the transition to clean energy.

But some in the opposition Conservative Party have criticized his stance and said trade ties should not come at the expense of national security and human rights concerns.

British political leaders and intelligence chiefs have warned repeatedly of the security threats that China poses. Calls to tackle the challenge grew louder last month when it emerged that an alleged Chinese spy had cultivated close ties with Prince Andrew and carried out “covert and deceptive activity” for China’s ruling Communist Party, according to officials.

Nevertheless, Lammy told reporters in London on Thursday that “there are many areas of trade that don’t impact on national security.”

He said Reeves “will repeat many of the messages that I took to China.”

“What we’ve said is in this complex relationship with a global superpower, we are guided by three Cs”: challenge, compete and cooperate, for example in areas including health and climate challenges, Lammy added.
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Beijing — China said Thursday that an investigation had found the European Union imposed unfair “trade and investment barriers” on Beijing, marking the latest salvo in long-running commercial tensions between the two economic powers. 

Officials announced the probe in July after Brussels began looking into whether Chinese government subsidies were undermining European competition. 

Beijing has consistently denied its industrial policies are unfair and has threatened to take action against the EU to protect Chinese companies’ legal rights and interests. 

The commerce ministry said Thursday that the implementation of the EU’s Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR) discriminated against Chinese firms and “constitutes trade and investment barriers.” 

However, it did not mention whether Beijing planned to take action in response. 

The two are major trade partners but are locked in a wide-ranging standoff, notably over Beijing’s support for its renewables and electric-vehicle sectors. 

EU actions against Chinese firms have come as the 27-nation bloc seeks to expand renewable energy use to meet its target of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. 

But Brussels also wants to pivot away from what it views as an overreliance on Chinese technology at a time when many Western governments increasingly consider Beijing a potential national security threat. 

When announcing the probe, the ministry said its national chamber of commerce for importing and exporting machinery and electronics had filed a complaint over the FSR measures. 

The 20-page document detailing the ministry’s conclusions said their “selective enforcement” resulted in “Chinese products being treated more unfavorably during the process of export to the EU than products from third countries.” 

It added that the FSR had “vague” criteria for investigating foreign subsidies, placed a “severe burden” on the targeted companies and had opaque procedures that created “huge uncertainty.” 

EU measures such as surprise inspections “clearly exceeded the necessary limits,” while investigators were “subjective and arbitrary” on issues like market distortion, according to the ministry. 

Companies deemed not to have complied with probes also faced “severe penalties,” which placed “huge pressure” on Chinese firms, it said. 

The European Commission on Thursday defended the FSR, saying it was “fully compliant with all applicable EU and World Trade Organization rules.” 

“All companies, regardless of their seat or nationality, are subject to the rules,” a commission spokesperson said in a statement. 

“This is also the case when applying State aid or antitrust rules.”   

Projects curtailed 

The Chinese commerce ministry said FSR investigations had forced Chinese companies to abandon or curtail projects, causing losses of more than $2.05 billion. 

The measures had “damaged the competitiveness of Chinese enterprises and products in the EU market,” it said, adding that they also hindered the development of European national economies and undermined trade cooperation between Beijing and Brussels. 

The EU’s first probe under the FSR in February targeted a subsidiary of Chinese rail giant CRRC, but closed after the company withdrew from a tender in Bulgaria to supply electric trains. 

A second probe targets Chinese-owned solar panel manufacturers seeking to build and operate a photovoltaic park in Romania, partly financed by European funds. 

In October, Brussels imposed extra tariffs on Chinese-made electric cars after an anti-subsidy investigation under a different set of rules concluded Beijing’s state support was unfairly undercutting European automakers. 

Beijing in response announced provisional tariffs on brandy imported from the EU, and later imposed “temporary anti-dumping measures” on the liquor. 

Last month, China said it would extend the brandy investigation, citing the case’s “complexity.” 

Separately, a report by the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China warned that firms were being forced to drastically localize their operations to suit China’s regulations, driving up costs and reducing efficiency. 

Heightened trade tensions and Beijing’s “self-reliance policies” were causing many multinationals “to separate certain China-based functions, or even entire operations, from those in the rest of the world,” it said. 

It added that governance rules increasingly dominated by national security concerns had heightened uncertainties for local entities in engaging with European clients. 

Some customers are therefore choosing to “err on the side of caution and not take a risk by buying from a foreign service provider,” Chamber head Jens Eskelund said at a media event on Thursday.           
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WASHINGTON/TOKYO — U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision to block Nippon Steel’s $14.9 billion bid for U.S. Steel cast a shadow over Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to Japan on Tuesday for farewell meetings with Washington’s most important ally in Asia.

The rejection, announced on Friday, has jolted U.S. efforts to boost ties with Asian allies just as South Korea’s political crisis potentially complicates a revived relationship between Washington, Seoul and Tokyo. The trilateral alliance is a key plank in the countries’ efforts to counter China’s military buildup.

Investment into the U.S. could also be chilled, but analysts say any damage to the wider U.S.-Japan relationship will likely be limited given shared security concerns about China.

On Monday, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba described Biden’s decision to block the sale of U.S. Steel to Nippon Steel as “perplexing.”

Accompanied by White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, Blinken met Japan’s Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya in Tokyo and will hold talks later in the day with Ishiba and other senior Japanese officials

Numerous trips to Japan over the last four years “is evidence, not just of the importance, but of the centrality the United States attaches to our partnership. President Biden asked me to come on this last trip to underscore that,” Blinken told Iwaya.

“We have, between our two countries, a partnership that started out focusing on bilateral issues, that worked on regional issues and that now is genuinely global,” he added.

Ahead of his trip, the State Department said that Blinken wanted to build on the momentum of U.S.-Japan-South Korea trilateral cooperation.

In Seoul on Monday, Blinken reaffirmed confidence in South Korea’s handling of its political turmoil as investigators there sought an extension of a warrant to arrest impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol.

Allies of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump have also reassured Seoul and Tokyo that he will support continuing to improve ties and advance military, economic and diplomatic cooperation to counter China and North Korea, Reuters reported ahead of Trump’s Nov. 5 re-election.

Tension, limited damage from Nippon Steel decision

Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel filed a lawsuit on Monday charging that Biden violated the U.S. Constitution by blocking their $14.9 billion merger through what they termed a sham national security review. They called for the U.S. federal court to overturn the decision.

Nicholas Szechenyi, a Japan expert at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Biden’s decision would make Blinken’s Tokyo visit “awkward.”
…

Washington — Japan’s Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel are filing a federal lawsuit challenging the Biden administration’s decision to block a proposed nearly $15 billion deal for Nippon to acquire Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel.

The suit, filed Monday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, alleges that it was a political decision and violated the companies’ due process.

Nippon Steel had promised to invest $2.7 billion in U.S. Steel’s aging blast furnace operations in Gary, Indiana, and Pennsylvania’s Mon Valley. It also vowed not to reduce production capacity in the United States over the next decade without first getting U.S. government approval.

Biden on Friday decided to stop the Nippon takeover — after federal regulators deadlocked on whether to approve it — because “a strong domestically owned and operated steel industry represents an essential national security priority. … Without domestic steel production and domestic steel workers, our nation is less strong and less secure,” he said in a statement.

While administration officials have said the move is unrelated to Japan’s relationship with the U.S. — this is the first time a U.S. president has blocked a merger between a U.S. and Japanese firm.

Biden departs the White House in just a few weeks.

The president’s decision to block the deal comes after the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, known as CFIUS, failed to reach consensus on the possible national security risks of the deal last month, and sent a long-awaited report on the merger to Biden. He had 15 days to reach a final decision.
…

DETROIT — U.S. new car sales in 2024 continued to rise from their pandemic lows, bolstered by replenished inventories, higher incentives and surging demand for hybrid vehicles, automakers reported on Friday.

Sales of new vehicles finished at 15.9 million last year, according to Wards Intelligence, up 2.2% from the prior year, and the highest since 2019. Automakers are projecting strong sales will continue into 2025, although President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed automotive policies, such as removing tax credits for EVs, present a wild card.

“We’re carrying significant momentum into 2025,” Rory Harvey, GM’s head of global markets, said in a release. The Detroit automaker defended its 2023 crown as the biggest U.S. carmaker by sales, selling 2.7 million vehicles last year, the company said on Friday, up 4.3% from 2023.

Most automakers recorded solid sales results last year, as they adjusted to slowing demand for EVs and relied on their core business of gasoline-powered trucks and SUVs. Others capitalized on soaring consumer interest in hybrid vehicles.

Sales of traditional hybrids increased 36.7% in 2024 compared with the previous year, Wards reported.

‘Hybrids, we’re sold out’

Toyota notched a 3.7% sales gain year-over-year in the U.S., boosted by steady increases of reliable smaller vehicles such as the Camry and RAV4 SUV, as well as significant gains for hybrid vehicles. Reuters reported last year that the automaker is potentially converting all of its lineup into hybrid-only models.

“For hybrids, we’re sold out — customers want them. We can’t get enough of them,” said David Christ, head of sales and marketing for Toyota in North America. “Battery electric vehicles, even with the huge incentives we’re spending and the federal government’s incentives, are just not as in demand.”

Ford Motor also benefited from an increase in hybrid sales, which helped the automaker’s total vehicle sales rise 4.2% in 2024. The Dearborn, Michigan, company’s total hybrid sales roughly doubled that of its EVs, with 187,426 hybrids sold and 97,865 EVs.

Automakers have axed or changed lofty EV plans laid out when demand seemed much stronger than it turned out to be, but they are still aiming to attract new EV buyers.

Ford said on Friday that to support EV sales, which were up 34.8% for the automaker in 2024, it would extend a program where EV buyers receive free chargers and installation at home through the end of March.

U.S. sales of electric vehicles are expected to approach 1.3 million, or about 8% of all new vehicles purchased, Cox Automotive said. Buyers’ willingness to go electric crept up slightly from 2023, when U.S. drivers bought 1.2 million EVs, making up 7.6% of all sales, Cox said.

The Trump administration’s plans would likely affect auto sales in 2025 and beyond if the incoming president makes good on plans to roll back President Joe Biden’s EV policies, including a $7,500 consumer tax credit on some EVs, as well as increase tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada.

“If you take true demand for the car and you eliminate the $7,500 benefit … it’s really going to change who wants them and how they buy them. So we’re preparing for that,” Toyota’s Christ said.
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President Joe Biden said Friday that he was blocking the proposed $14.9 billion acquisition of American company U.S. Steel by Japan’s Nippon Steel. Analysts said rejection of the deal could hurt relations with Japan, a key ally and trade partner. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara reports.
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Washington — U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday followed through on his pledge to block Nippon Steel’s $14.9 billion bid for U.S. Steel, citing concerns the deal could hurt national security.

The move, long expected, cuts off a critical lifeline of capital for the beleaguered American icon, which has said it would have to idle key mills without the nearly $3 billion in promised investment from the Japanese firm.

It also represents the final chapter in a high-profile national security review, led by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, CFIUS, which vets investment for national security risks and had until December 23 to approve, extend the timeline or recommend Biden block the deal.

The proposed tie-up has faced high-level opposition within the United States since it was announced a year ago, with both Biden and his incoming successor Donald Trump taking aim at it as they sought to woo union voters in the swing state of Pennsylvania, where U.S. Steel is headquartered. Trump and Biden both asserted the company should remain American-owned.

The merger appeared to be on the fast-track to be blocked after the companies received an August 31 letter from CFIUS, seen by Reuters, arguing the deal could hurt the supply of steel needed for critical transportation, construction and agriculture projects.

But Nippon Steel countered that its investments, made by a company from an allied nation, would in fact shore up U.S. Steel’s output, and it won a 90-day review extension. That extension gave CFIUS until after the November election to make a decision, fueling hope among supporters that a calmer political climate could help the deal’s approval.

But hopes were shattered in December when CFIUS set the stage for Biden to block it in a 29-page letter by raising allegedly unresolved national security risks, Reuters exclusively reported.

 
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Tesla reported its first fall in yearly deliveries on Thursday as lucrative year-end incentives for the Elon Musk-led EV maker’s aging line up and the new Cybertruck pickup failed to lure customers wary of high borrowing costs. 

Shares of the company fell about 6%. Musk had earlier predicted “slight growth” in 2024 deliveries and offered a range of promotions, including interest-free financing and free fast-charging, to boost sales. 

But reduced European subsidies, a shift in the United States toward lower-priced hybrid vehicles and tougher competition, especially from China’s BYD, hurt Tesla. 

Analysts at Morgan Stanley said Tesla’s aging models and the higher availability of cheaper alternatives overshadowed the company’s increased promotional activities. 

Amid the slowdown in demand for EVs, Musk has pivoted his focus to building a self-driving taxi business that is expected to boost Tesla’s value.

He also backed President-elect Donald Trump with millions of dollars in campaign donations, and analysts expect easier regulations from the new administration to help Tesla in the long run. 

But with self-driving technology still under development and years away from commercialization, analysts have said Tesla would have to rely on its promised cheaper versions of current cars and the success of the Cybertruck to achieve Musk’s target of 20% to 30% sales growth in 2025.  

The truck, known for its futuristic design, has been showing signs of weakness in demand.  

Deliveries for 2024 totaled 1.79 million, 1.1% lower than a year ago and below estimates of 1.806 million units, according to 19 analysts polled by LSEG. 

Tesla’s 2024 deliveries were ahead of rival BYD, which reported a 12.1% rise in sales of battery-electric vehicles to 1.76 million in 2023, thanks to competitive prices and a stronger push into Asian and European markets. 

Tesla shares are coming off a strong 2024, in which they rose more than 60% after the election of Trump with strong support from Musk.  

Musk has said he plans to leverage his promised role as a government-efficiency czar under the Trump administration to advocate for a federal approval process for autonomous vehicles to replace the current state-specific laws, which he described as “incredibly painful” to navigate. 

Tesla’s Autopilot and “Full Self-Driving” technologies, which are not yet fully autonomous, have been under scrutiny due to lawsuits, a U.S. traffic safety regulator probe and a Department of Justice criminal investigation. 

The key concern is whether Tesla may have overstated the self-driving abilities of its vehicles. 

Tesla is also under pressure from legacy automakers. Its October registrations in Europe fell 24% because of a tight race with Volkswagen Group, whose Skoda Enyaq SUV dethroned Tesla’s Model Y as the best-selling EV in the region, according to data research firm JATO Dynamics. 

Trump’s team is considering ending the $7,500 tax credit for consumer EV purchases, a move that could worsen the slowing shift to EVs in the U.S., Reuters reported in November. 
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NEW YORK — U.S. oil production rose 260,000 barrels per day month-over-month to a record 13.46 million bpd in October as demand surged to the highest levels since the pandemic, data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed on Tuesday.

U.S. oil output has grown rapidly this year as drilling operations became more efficient, even as concerns of oversupply have weighed heavily on prices for the commodity amid weaker-than-expected demand growth, especially in China, the top oil-importing nation.

Year-over-year, U.S. oil production rose 2.3% in October, while West Texas Intermediate crude futures prices CLc1 averaged 16% lower during the month, according to Reuters calculations.

Still, the pace of growth of U.S. oil output is moderating, analysts said. Annual oil production growth in the U.S. is tracking around 300,000 to 400,000 bpd in 2024, versus nearly a million bpd in 2023, said Alex Hodes, energy analyst at brokerage StoneX.

“There have been a few infrastructure constraints that have kept production somewhat muted, but I would expect that we will see a lot of the same in 2025,” Hodes said.

Strong U.S. oil demand in October was the biggest surprise in the EIA’s Petroleum Supply Monthly report, UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo said.

Total U.S. oil demand rose by about 700,000 bpd from September to 21.01 million bpd in October, the highest since August 2019, EIA data showed. Demand for distillate fuels, which include diesel and heating oil, rose to 4.06 million bpd in October, the highest in a year.
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new york — Global stock markets mostly fell Monday in jittery holiday trading ahead of a potentially tumultuous 2025 that will see Donald Trump return to the White House. 

Wall Street’s three main indices slumped to end the day, adding to losses Friday that ended Wall Street’s usual holiday-period “Santa Claus rally.” 

“We can’t drive major conclusions in a holiday-shortened and thin-trading-volume week, but last week’s price action looked pretty close to the narrative of rotation from tech to non-tech stocks that many investors expect to be the theme of next year,” said Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank. 

U.S. tech stocks had led the losses Friday, with Elon Musk’s electric car giant Tesla shedding around 5% and AI chipmaker Nvidia off around 2%. 

Shares in Tesla fell 3.3% Monday, although Nvidia shares nudged higher. 

Briefing.com analyst Patrick O’Hare said there was no news catalyst for the weakness. 

“The selling interest, then, has profit-taking activity written on it with a P.S. presumably of rebalancing interest,” he said.  

But “there isn’t a rebalancing push in the stock market this morning. The weakness is broad-based,” he said.

Weighing on sentiment were worries about slower-than-hoped-for U.S. interest rate cuts and possible higher import tariffs once Trump is inaugurated on January 20. 

Yields on U.S. government debt dipped Monday but have pushed higher at the longer-dated maturities on worries about higher inflation and interest rates, with the yield on 10-year bonds hitting 4.63% recently. 

“If yields continue to hold at these levels, or push higher toward 5.0%, then this will be a strong headwind for equity prices,” said Trade Nation analyst David Morrison. 

This comes as investors choose the relative safety of a near-guaranteed 5% return on funds in U.S. Treasuries, compared with the uncertainty of stocks, he noted. 

In Europe, the main indices in Frankfurt, London and Paris all finished lower. Trading wrapped up for the year in Frankfurt, with the DAX rising 18.8% for the year, including breaching the 20,000 level for the first time. 

In Asia, Tokyo closed down almost 1% Monday, its last day of trading until January 6. 

Nissan dropped as much as 6.7% on worries about its possible merger with fellow Japanese automaker Honda. 

Overall, the Nikkei 225 index gained almost 20% in 2024, finally surpassing the high seen before Japan’s asset bubble burst in the 1990s. 

In Seoul, Jeju Air shares fell as much as 15% after one of its planes crashed in South Korea on Sunday, killing 179 people. 

Another Jeju Air flight had to return after encountering a landing gear problem Monday, the airline said. 

Korean authorities ordered an inspection of all Boeing 737-800 aircraft operated by the country’s carriers. 

Shares in Boeing fell 5.3% as trading got under way in New York — but recovered slightly afterward. 

South Korea was also hit with further political turmoil, with authorities issuing an arrest warrant for suspended President Yoon Suk Yeol after his declaration of martial law.
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PARIS — Pastry chef Arnaud Delmontel rolls out dough for croissants and pains au chocolat that later emerge golden and fragrant from the oven in his Paris patisserie.

The price for the butter so essential to the pastries has shot up in recent months, by 25% since September alone, Delmontel says. But he is refusing to follow some competitors who have started making their croissants with margarine.

“It’s a distortion of what a croissant is,” Delmontel said. “A croissant is made with butter.”

One of life’s little pleasures — butter spread onto warm bread or imbuing cakes and seared meats with its flavor — has gotten more expensive across Europe in the last year. After a stretch of post-pandemic inflation that the war in Ukraine worsened, the booming cost of butter is another blow for consumers with holiday treats to bake.

Across the 27-member European Union, the price of butter rose 19% on average from October 2023 to October 2024, including by 49% in Slovakia, and 40% in Germany and the Czech Republic, according to figures provided to The Associated Press by the EU’s executive arm. Reports from individual countries indicate the cost has continued to go up in the months since.

In Germany, a 250-gram block of butter now generally costs between 2.40 and 4 euros ($2.49-$4.15), depending on the brand and quality.

The increase is the result of a global shortage of milk caused by declining production, including in the United States and New Zealand, one of the world’s largest butter exporters, according to economist Mariusz Dziwulski, a food and agricultural market analyst at PKO Bank Polski in Warsaw.

European butter typically has a higher fat content than the butter sold in the United States. It also is sold by weight in standard sizes, so food producers can’t hide price hikes by reducing package sizes, something known as “shrinkflation.”

A butter shortage in France in the 19th century led to the invention of margarine, but the French remain some of the continent’s heaviest consumers of butter, using the ingredient with abandon in baked goods and sauces.

Butter is so important in Poland that the government keeps a stockpile of it in the country’s strategic reserves, as it does national gas and COVID-19 vaccines. The government announced Tuesday that it was releasing some 1,000 tons of frozen butter to stabilize prices.

The price of butter rose 11.4% between early November and early December in Poland, and 49.2% over the past year to nearly 37 Polish zlotys, or $9 per kilo for the week ending Dec. 8, according to the National Support Center for Agriculture, a government agency.

“Every month butter gets more expensive,” Danuta Osinska, 77, said while shopping recently at a discount grocery chain in Warsaw.

She and her husband love butter — on bread, in scrambled eggs, in creamy desserts. But they also struggle to pay for medications on their meager pensions. So the couple is eating less butter and more margarine, even though they find the taste of the substitute spread inferior.

“There is no comparison,” Osinska said. “Things are getting harder and harder.”

The cost of butter in Poland has become a political issue. With a presidential election scheduled next year, opponents of centrist Prime Minister Donald Tusk are trying to blame him and his Civic Platform party. The party’s presidential candidate is seeking to blame the national bank’s governor, who hails from an opposing political camp, for the inflation.

Some consumers decide where to shop based on the price of butter, which has led to price wars between grocery chains that in some cases kept prices artificially low in the past to the detriment of dairy farmers, according to Agnieszka Maliszewska, the director of the Polish Chamber of Milk.

Maliszewska thinks domestic, EU-specific and global issues explain butter inflation. She argues that the primary cause is a shortage of milk fat due to dairy farmers shutting down their enterprises across Europe because of slim profit markets and hard work.

She and others also cite higher energy costs from Russia’s war in Ukraine as impacting milk production. There is some debate about the potential effect of climate change. Maliszewska doesn’t see a link.

Economist Dziwulski, however, thinks droughts may be a factor in reducing production. Falling milk prices last year also discouraged investments and pushed dairy producers in the EU to make more cheese, which offered better profitability, he said.

An outbreak of bluetongue disease, an insect-borne viral disease that is harmless to humans but can be fatal for sheep, cows and goats, may also play a role, Dziwulski said.

The U.S. saw a butter price spike in 2022, when the average price jumped 33% to about $9 per kilo over the course of the year, according to government data. Dairy farmers struggled with feed costs and hot temperatures.

U.S. butter prices fell in 2023 before rising again this year, hitting a peak of about $10 per kilo in September. Higher grocery prices in general weighed on U.S. voters during the presidential election in November.

Southern European countries, which rely far more heavily on olive oil, are less affected by the butter inflation — or they just don’t consider it as important since they consume so much less.

Since last year the cost of butter shot up 44% on average in Italy, according to dairy market analysis firm CLAL. Italy is Europe’s seventh-largest butter producer, but olive oil is the preferred fat, even for some desserts. The price of butter therefore is not causing the same alarm there as it is in butter-addicted parts of Europe.

Delmontel, the Paris pastry chef, said the rising costs put business owners like him under pressure. Along with refusing to switch out butter for margarine, he has not reduced the size of his croissants. But some other French bakers are making smaller pastries to control costs, he said.

“Or else you squeeze it out of your profit margin,” Delmontel said. 
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Amazon.com workers at seven U.S. facilities walked off the job early on Thursday during the holiday shopping rush, aiming to pressure the retailer into contract talks with their union. 

Warehouse workers in cities including New York, Atlanta and San Francisco are taking part in the “largest” strike against Amazon, said the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which represents about 10,000 workers at 10 of the firm’s facilities. 

The company, however, said it does not expect any effect on its operations during one of the busiest times of the year. 

Unions represent only about 1% of the hourly workforce of Amazon, the world’s second-largest private employer after Walmart, and it has multiple locations in many metro areas. 

The Teamsters had given Amazon a Dec. 15 deadline to begin negotiations and warehouse workers had recently voted to authorize a strike. 

“If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed,” Teamsters’ General President Sean O’Brien said late on Wednesday. 

“We gave Amazon a clear deadline to come to the table and do right by our members. They ignored it. This strike is on them.” 

The retailer’s shares were trading 1.5% higher in premarket hours, a sign that investors do not expect a big disruption from the strike.  

The Teamsters have “intentionally misled the public” and “threatened, intimidated and attempted to coerce” employees and third-party drivers to join them, an Amazon spokesperson said on Thursday. 

Observers said Amazon was unlikely to come to the table to bargain as that could open the door to more union actions.  

It employs more than 800,000 people at its U.S. warehouses and has more than 600 fulfillment centers, delivery stations and same-day facilities in the country. 

Amazon has responded to recent organization efforts with legal challenges. Amazon has filed objections with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) over a 2022 union vote in Staten Island, alleging bias among agency officials.  

It also challenged the constitutionality of the NLRB in a September federal lawsuit. 

Earlier this year, the company announced a $2.1 billion investment to raise pay for fulfillment and transportation employees in the U.S., increasing base wages for employees by at least $1.50 to around $22 per hour, a roughly 7% increase. 
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Bangkok — For many countries in Southeast Asia, Chinese investment and tourism are key to their economies. However, cheap low-quality Chinese products that are flooding markets across the region are also raising concerns about how they are undercutting local businesses, experts say.

That is forcing countries like Thailand to find ways to combat onslaught of low-priced goods.

Last year, bilateral trade between Thailand and China was more than $126 billion, with direct Chinese foreign investment heavily contributing to the Thai economy.

Three of Thailand’s main economic industries are manufacturing, agriculture and services. But manufacturing has seen a decline, with 2,000 factories closing in 2023, leading to thousands of jobs lost, according to data from the Department of Industrial Works.

Business owners have long bemoaned the fact that low-quality Chinese goods are undercutting local Thai businesses.

Bobae Shopping Mall – a retail and wholesale market in Bangkok – is one of the places where that impact is showing. With seven floors dedicated to shopping units, many have their shutters down, even though Thailand is in its peak season and Christmas is next week.

Banchob Pianphanitporn is the owner of Ben’s Socks, which is located on the fifth floor. He has owned the business for 26 years and manages four units. He has one factory in Thailand that employs 24 staff in total.

He said that over the last decade, his sales have dropped by half because of Chinese imports.

“I would say [sales are] 50% down since 10 years ago,” he told VOA.

“I sell socks for 150 baht ($4.38) per a dozen, but if this was a Chinese product, they would sell at 85 baht ($2.48). If [customers] have low budget they will say [my socks] are expensive. They don’t consider the materials, [my socks] are much better material and more flexible,” he added.

Thailand’s slow manufacturing industry has contributed to a sluggish year for the economy. Forecasts project that Thailand’s economic will grow by 2.3% – 2.8% percent in 2024, which is less than its regional neighbors. Although the Bank of Thailand forecasts a 3% growth in 2025, concerns from business owners remain.

Banchob points to several closures of units in his mall, blaming Thailand’s economy. But in an effort to remain open, he promotes his business on social media to attract more customers.

“Social media is a must. I’m on TikTok; I make much content. I have to work harder to tell people I’m still alive; Ben Sock’s made in Thailand is here,” he added.

According to Thai government spokesperson Sasikarn Wattanachan, there has been a 20 percent decrease in low-quality imports in Thailand since July. Authorities have introduced tighter inspections of cheap imports, focusing on agricultural, consumer and industrial items. Thailand has also added a 7% value added tax on goods imported that are under 1,500 baht or $43.77, the Bangkok Post has reported.

But for other sellers and store owners, they don’t see any difference.

Pam, a seller at Pretty Baby, a baby clothes store in the Bangkok mall, says the seemingly unlimited stock from Chinese manufacturers has affected sales. Pam did not want to disclose her full name fearing retaliation for speaking with the press.

“[Chinese products] are selling a lot, but we don’t have that much stock. The government still allows the products from overseas. Our sales have dropped down a little bit,” she told VOA.

For some customers, retaining regular customers is key to beating cheaper alternatives.

Prang is part-owner of V.C. shop, a clothing store which specializes in loose-fitting clothing known as elephant pants.

“The hard advertising from Chinese people [on social media] has had a big effect,” she told VOA. Prang too did not want to give her full name.

“Pants can sell here for 70 baht ($2.04) but Chinese sell for 50 baht ($1.46). In the past we can tell [the difference] between Thai and China products, now China copies look 99 percent the same. We cannot fight with the costs, but we are confident on our material and quality, and we can keep our customers,” she added.

It’s not just Thailand that is trying to reduce low-quality imports. A growing number of countries across Asia are looking for ways to protect local manufacturers and trade.

In India, a proposed temporary tax of 25% on steel imports is likely to be imposed to curb cheaper alternatives from China and boost production from Indian manufacturers, the Reuters news agency reported on December 17.

And in Indonesia, protests against Chinese imports have prompted Jakarta to propose a 200% tariff on certain imported clothing and ceramic goods, to protect small and medium enterprises.

Vietnam also relies heavily on China in trade. Beijing is Hanoi’s largest trading partner, with bilateral trade amounting to more than $171 billion in 2023. Although both governments share communist ideologies and a 1,287-kilometer land border, Vietnam is also acting to combat China’s cheap imports.

In late November, Hanoi banned Chinese online retailers Shein and Temu after the two companies failed to meet a business registration deadline with the Vietnamese government. But local businesses in Vietnam have long voiced concern over discounted products and the sale of counterfeit items from the retailer.

“Cheap Chinese imports from platforms like Shein and Temu are flooding Vietnam’s markets, squeezing local producers and sparking outrage over unfair competition,” Nguyen Khac Giang, Visiting Fellow at ISEAS, told VOA.

“In response the government is cracking down by scrapping VAT exemptions, tightening oversight, and banning platforms which do not register in Vietnam. It’s a bold move to rein in Chinese e-commerce giants and defend local businesses, but I think the fight is far from over,” he added.

Zachary Abuza, a professor at the National War College in Washington who focuses on Southeast Asia politics, says both Thailand and Vietnam may also have another motive.

“China produces on an economy of scale that no one in Southeast Asia can, their productions costs are lower for most products. I think what you see Thailand and Vietnam doing now is trying to court Chinese investment for local production, to create local product ecosystems. But neither is willing to take China head on and accuse them of unfair trading practices,” he told VOA.
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