The on-again, off-again tariffs between the United States and other countries are again under scrutiny, with the U.S. president not budging. VOA White House Correspondent Carolyn Presutti reports.
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NEW YORK — Wall Street’s sell-off hit a new low Thursday after U.S. President Donald Trump’s escalating trade war dragged the S&P 500 more than 10% below its record, which was set just last month.
A 10% drop is deemed a correction by professional investors, and the S&P 500’s 1.4% slide on Thursday sent the index to its first since 2023. The losses came after Trump upped the stakes in his trade war by threatening huge taxes on European wines and alcohol. Not even a double-shot of good news on the U.S. economy could stop the bleeding.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 537 points, or 1.3% Thursday, and the Nasdaq composite fell 2%.
The dizzying, battering swings for stocks have been coming not just day to day but also hour to hour, and the Dow hurtled between a slight gain and a drop of 689 points through Thursday’s trading.
The turbulence is a result of uncertainty about how much pain Trump will let the economy endure through tariffs and other policies to reshape the country and world as he wants. The president has said he wants manufacturing jobs back in the United States, along with a smaller U.S. government workforce and other fundamental changes.
Trump’s latest escalation came Thursday when he threatened 200% tariffs on Champagne and other European wines, unless the European Union rolls back a tariff it announced on U.S. whiskey. The European Union unveiled that move on Wednesday, in response to U.S. tariffs on European steel and aluminum.
U.S. households and businesses have reported drops in confidence because of all the uncertainty about which tariffs will stick from Trump’s barrage of on-again, off-again announcements. That’s raised fears about a pullback in spending that could sap energy from the economy. Some U.S. businesses say they’ve begun to see a change in their customers’ behavior because of the uncertainty.
A particularly feared scenario for the economy is one where its growth stagnates but inflation stays high because of tariffs. Few tools are available in Washington to fix what’s called stagflation.
There was good news Thursday, and it came on both those economic fronts.
One report showed inflation at the wholesale level last month was milder than economists expected. It followed a similarly encouraging report from the prior day on inflation that U.S. consumers are feeling.
A separate report, meanwhile, said fewer U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week than economists expected. It’s the latest signal that the job market remains relatively solid overall. If that can continue, it could allow U.S. consumers to keep spending, and that’s the main engine of the economy.
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U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened the European Union with 200% tariffs on wine, champagne and other spirits produced in the 27-nation bloc after the EU levied what he said was “a nasty 50% tariff” on American-distilled whiskey.
Trump contended in a post on his Truth Social media platform that the EU is “one of the most hostile and abusive taxing and tariffing authorities in the World.” He said it was formed in 1993 “for the sole purpose of taking advantage of the United States” economically.
Later, asked by a reporter at the White House whether he might back off his heightened tariff threats against America’s geopolitical allies, Trump said, “We’ve been ripped off for years, and we’re not going to be ripped off anymore. No, I’m not going to bend at all — aluminum or steel or cars.”
In the last month, Trump has been waging a tit-for-tat tariff fight with its biggest trading partners — Mexico, Canada, China and the EU — in what he says is an effort to staunch the flow of drugs, especially fentanyl, into the United States from Mexico and Canada, and also convince manufacturers to close their operations overseas and move them to the U.S. to create more American jobs.
On Wednesday, Trump levied 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum exports to the U.S. from 35 countries, including the EU bloc.
Europe quickly retaliated with its own tariffs on $28 billion worth of U.S. exports to countries that have long had close relations with the U.S., while Canada imposed new tariffs on $20.7 billion worth of U.S. exports to its northern neighbor.
The new EU measures will apply not only to steel and aluminum products but also textiles, home appliances and agricultural goods. Motorcycles, bourbon, peanut butter and jeans also will be hit, as they were during Trump’s first term that ran from 2017 to 2021.
The EU duties aimed for political pressure points in the U.S. while minimizing additional damage to Europe. EU officials have said its tariffs, which are paid by importing companies and the cost of which is then mostly passed on to consumers, are targeting products from states dominated by Republicans like Trump, such as beef and poultry from Kansas and Nebraska, wood products from Alabama and Georgia, and liquor from Kentucky and Tennessee.
Spirits producers have become collateral damage in the steel and aluminum dispute.
Chris Swonger, head of the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, called the EU move to tax U.S.-produced spirits “deeply disappointing and will severely undercut the successful efforts to rebuild U.S. spirits exports in EU countries.”
The EU is a major destination for U.S. whiskey, with exports surging 60% in the past three years after an earlier set of tariffs was suspended.
On Thursday, Swonger said in a statement, “The U.S.-EU spirits sector is the model for fair and reciprocal trade, having zero-for-zero tariffs since 1997.” He urged the end to a tariff fight over spirits between the U.S. and Europe, saying, “We want toasts not tariffs.”
Trump’s tariff wars have led to a broad Wall Street stock selloff, with the three major U.S. stock indexes plunging in recent days, with stocks falling again on Thursday in midday trading. But Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC he was not worried.
“We’re focused on the real economy,” he said. “I’m not concerned about a little bit of volatility over three weeks. I can’t tell you the market is going to go up today, tomorrow, next week.”
He dismissed concerns about Trump’s threat to impose bigger tariffs on European spirits.
“One or two items with one trading bloc — I’m not sure why that’s a big deal for the markets,” he said.
Trump said in his social media post that if Europe follows through on its 50% tariff on U.S.-distilled whiskey, he will impose the 200% tariff on “all wines, champagne & alcoholic products coming out of France and other E.U. represented countries. This will be great for the Wine and Champagne businesses in the U.S.”
Trump also attacked The Wall Street Journal newspaper, the country’s leading business publication, for refusing to support his tariff plans. A Journal editorial said this week that “most Americans understand that tariffs are a tax on consumers and businesses.”
The U.S. leader said the newspaper “has no idea what they are doing or saying. They are owned by the polluted thinking of the European Union.” He said the newspaper’s “thinking is antiquated and weak, and very bad for the USA.”
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WASHINGTON — The U.S. budget deficit for the first five months of fiscal 2025 hit a record $1.147 trillion, the Treasury Department said on Wednesday, including a $307 billion February deficit for President Donald Trump’s first full month in office that was up 4% from a year earlier.
The October-February deficit, which included nearly four months until Jan. 20 under former president Joe Biden, topped the previous record $1.047 trillion from October 2020 to February 2021, a period marked by high COVID-19 relief spending and pandemic-constrained revenues.
The Treasury said February’s deficit rose $11 billion from the same month in 2024, as outlays for debt interest, Social Security and health care benefits swamped growth in revenues.
The results showed little impact from Trump’s initial import tariffs on major trading partners and his administration’s efforts to slash government spending so far.
February receipts totaled $296 billion, a record for that month. That figure was up 9%, or $25 billion, compared with the year-earlier period. But outlays in February totaled $603 billion, also a record for that month, and up 6%, or $36 billion, from a year earlier.
After calendar adjustments for both receipts and outlays, the adjusted deficit would have been $311 billion, matching the record February reported budget deficit in 2021, which was driven by COVID-19.
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a fiscal watchdog group, said government borrowings so far this fiscal year work out to about $8 billion a day.
“What needs no confirmation is that we are almost halfway through the fiscal year and yet we have done nothing in the way of making progress toward getting our skyrocketing debt under control,” the group’s president, Maya MacGuineas, said in a statement.
Fiscal year-to-date receipts rose 2%, or $37 billion, to a record $1.893 trillion, but outlays grew 13%, or $355 billion, to a record $3.039 trillion.
Including calendar shifts of benefit payments, the adjusted year-to-date deficit would have been $1.063 trillion – still a record – up 17%, or $157 billion, from the prior-year period.
Effects of tariffs, DOGE
Trump imposed an additional 10% tariff on Chinese imports on Feb. 4, but that increase did not materially impact customs receipts last month and will likely start showing up in March data, a Treasury official said. Trump increased the extra duty on Chinese goods to 20% on March 4.
Net customs receipts totaled $7.25 billion in February, down from $7.34 billion in January but up from $6.21 billion in February 2024.
The budget results for February did not show an appreciable change in overall outlays as a result of Trump’s drive to slash the federal workforce and government spending through the informal Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE, led by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk.
The Department of Education, a major target of DOGE for cuts, saw its outlays fall to $8 billion last month from $14 billion in the year-earlier period. The Treasury official attributed the decline to reductions in outlays for elementary and secondary education programs.
The U.S. Agency for International Development, which the Trump administration is attempting to dismantle, still showed an outlay of $226 million for February, compared to $542 million in the year-earlier period.
Driving the spending growth in February and year-to-date periods were higher spending on Treasury’s interest on the public debt, outlays for Child Tax Credit payments and increased Social Security payments due in part to a 2.5% cost-of-living adjustment for 2025.
For the year-to-date period, Treasury’s interest costs for the public debt came to $478 billion, up about 10%, or $45 billion, from a year earlier and outstripping military outlays of about $380 billion. Social Security outlays grew 8% to about $663 billion.
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WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump met Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin on Wednesday for wide-ranging talks that reflected differences over trade and the conflict in Gaza, although both leaders pledged to expand cooperation between the two countries.
The annual White House meeting around the time of St. Patrick’s Day is usually a relatively straightforward affair for both the United States and Ireland.
Trump, sitting next to Martin in the Oval Office, said “of course” he would respond to retaliatory tariffs announced Wednesday by the European Union, of which Ireland is a member, and said April 2 would mark the start of reciprocal tariffs.
“Whatever they charge us, we’re charging them,” Trump said. “If they charge us 25% or 20% or 10% or 2% or 200%, then that’s what we’re charging them.” Trump underscored his belief that higher tariffs will encourage investment and increased manufacturing in the United States.
He said Ireland had lured away U.S. pharmaceutical companies and others with low tax rates, telling Martin that while he respected that decision, he felt U.S. leaders should have acted to prevent the offshoring moves.
He said he expected to work with Ireland, calling it a beautiful country, but said the “massive deficit” in trade had to be addressed.
Martin lauded Trump’s own investment in Ireland, a golf course in Doonbeg, and said he was the only president to have invested there.
Martin also noted that companies like pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly, which has extensive operations in Ireland, valued the skilled workforce and good productivity in his country but had also announced plans to invest more heavily in the U.S.
The Indianapolis-based drugmaker announced plans to plow money into four new U.S. production plants, more than doubling its investments announced since 2020 to $50 billion. It has been operating in Ireland since 1978 and currently employs more than 3,500 people across three sites there.
Irish companies were also investing more in the U.S., he said, citing investments by Ryanair and others. “It’s only fair … I think it’s a relationship that can develop.”
Trump said he expected the two countries to work together.
“There’s a massive deficit that we have with Ireland and with other countries, too, and we want to sort of even that out as nicely as we can, and we’ll work together,” he said.
While none of Trump’s trade measures has been aimed directly at Ireland, the nation of 5.4 million has a trade surplus with the United States and U.S.-owned foreign multinationals employ a significant portion of Irish workers. It will be subject to any EU tariffs, given that trade is governed by the bloc.
Trump has also threatened to place tariffs on pharmaceutical products, a major industry in Ireland.
Martin downplayed differences over Gaza, saying that both countries were pressing for the release of hostages held by Hamas, a U.S.-designated terror group, and enactment of a ceasefire.
Trump has resumed his close alliance with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu since taking office in January, and he has said that all Palestinians should be removed from Gaza, at least temporarily, following a peace deal.
In December, Israel announced it would close its embassy in Ireland, citing the country’s “anti-Israel policies.” Among the moves Ireland has made that have upset Israel was one in May to recognize an independent Palestinian state.
The Irish leader repeated his call for a surge of humanitarian aid into the Palestinian enclave and his support for a two-state solution, but did not directly address a question about Trump’s call for removing Palestinians from Gaza.
“Nobody is expelling any Palestinians from Gaza,” Trump shot back to a question on the issue.
The two leaders later traveled to the U.S. Capitol for a traditional lunch.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance, who joined Trump and Martin in the Oval Office, also hosted the Irish leader at his vice presidential residence for a breakfast.
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All three major U.S. stock indexes dropped sharply in Monday morning trading, with investors worried about the uncertainty of tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump on key trading partners and then his refusal to rule out the possibility of a U.S. recession in the coming months.  

The key Dow Jones average of 30 blue chip stocks dropped more than 1%, with the broader S&P 500 index falling 2 percentage points and the tech-heavy Nasdaq barometer off more than 3 percentage points.  

The S&P 500 finished Friday with a 3.1% weekly drop, its biggest such decline in six months, and the index is down 7.4% from its all-time high set on Feb. 19. 

Trump imposed new 25% tariffs on Mexican and Canadian exports to the U.S. last week and then days later paused the duties until April 2, leaving it uncertain what might happen then. 

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told NBC News over the weekend, “There’s going to be no recession in America,” but Trump hedged. 

“I hate to predict things like that,” the U.S. leader told Fox News. “There is a period of transition, because what we’re doing is very big. We’re bringing wealth back to America. That’s a big thing.” He then added, “It takes a little time. It takes a little time.” 

On Monday, the sell-off of big-tech stocks continued. The stock of electric carmaker Tesla, whose chief executive is billionaire Elon Musk, a key Trump adviser, slid more than 8%.  

Other key technology stocks such as Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Nvidia and Meta Platforms all dropped by more than 2%. 

The U.S. economy, the world’s largest, has already given some signals of weakening, mostly through surveys showing increased pessimism from consumers, whose purchases account for 70% of the country’s economic output. A widely followed collection of real-time indicators compiled by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta suggests the U.S. economy may already be shrinking. 

Analyst David Mericle at the Goldman Sachs investment company cut his 2025 year-over-year estimate for U.S. economic growth from 2.2% to 1.7%, largely because Trump’s tariffs look like they will be bigger than he was previously forecasting. He said he sees a one-in-five chance of a recession over the next year.
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Berlin — A one-day strike by workers at 13 German airports, including the Frankfurt and Munich hubs and all the country’s other main destinations, caused the cancelation of most flights on Monday.

The 24-hour walkout, which started at midnight on Sunday, involves public-sector employees at the airports as well as ground and security staff.

At Frankfurt Airport, 1,054 of the day’s 1,116 scheduled takeoffs and landings had been canceled, German news agency dpa reported, citing airport traffic management.

All of Berlin Airport’s regular departures and arrivals were canceled, while Hamburg Airport said no departures would be possible. Cologne/Bonn Airport said there was no regular passenger service and Munich Airport advised travelers to expect a “greatly reduced flight schedule.”

The ver.di service workers union’s strike also targeted the Bremen, Hannover, Duesseldorf, Dortmund, Leipzig/Halle and Stuttgart airports. At the smaller Weeze and Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden airports, only security workers were called out.

The German airports’ association, ADV, estimated that more than 3,500 flights in total would be canceled and about 560,000 passengers affected.

The union announced the strike last Friday. But at Hamburg Airport, it added a short-notice walkout on Sunday to the strike on Monday, arguing that it must ensure the measure was effective.

The so-called “warning strike,” a common tactic in German wage negotiations, relates to two separate pay disputes: negotiations on a new pay and conditions contract for airport security workers, and a wider dispute over pay for employees of federal and municipal governments.

The latter already has led to walkouts at Cologne/Bonn, Duesseldorf, Hamburg and Munich airports. Pay talks in that dispute are due to resume on Friday, while the next round of talks for airport security workers is expected to start on March 26.
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U.S. President Donald Trump is keeping new tariffs in place on Mexico, Canada and China to pressure them to block the flow of the deadly opioid fentanyl into the United States, top White House economic officials said Sunday.

“If fentanyl ends, I think these [tariffs] will come off,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told NBC’s “Meet the Press” show.

“But if fentanyl does not end, or he’s uncertain about it, he will stay this way until he is comfortable,” he said. “This is black and white. You got to save American lives.”

Trump last week issued a string of whip-sawing tariff decisions that plunged the three major U.S. stock market indexes and roiled relations with Canada and Mexico, which are long-time U.S. allies and its closest neighbors, as well as its two biggest trading partners.

Trump at first imposed 25% tariffs on Canadian and Mexican exports to the U.S., then exempted the duties on Mexican- and Canadian-made vehicles being transported into the U.S. and later by week’s end delayed the tariffs on almost all items for four weeks until April 2.

But Lutnick said 25% U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum imports will take effect Wednesday as scheduled. Canada and Mexico are both top exporters of the metals to U.S. markets, with Canada accounting for most aluminum imports.

The Commerce chief also rebuffed fears that Trump’s global tariffs would cause a recession in the United States.

“Absolutely not,” he said. “There’s going to be no recession in America.”

But Lutnick acknowledged that the tariffs would lead to higher prices for U.S. consumers on foreign-made goods.

“Some products that are made foreign might be more expensive, but American products will get cheaper, and that’s the point,” Lutnick said. It was not clear how U.S.-produced goods would become cheaper, except in comparison to foreign-manufactured products.

Trump, in a taped interview with Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” show, dodged a question about a possible recession because of his tariff boosts, but said, “There is a period of transition because what we’re doing is very big.”

“There could be a little disruption,” he said about stock market losses last week. “Look, what I have to do is build a strong country. You can’t really watch the stock market. If you look at China, they have a 100-year perspective. We go by quarters. And you can’t go by that.”

Trump has at various times said his new tariffs are aimed at raising government revenue, protecting U.S. jobs and pressuring foreign manufacturers to relocate their operations to the U.S., and to curb the flow of fentanyl.

Like Lutnick, Kevin Hassett, director of the White House National Economic Council, emphasized the fentanyl issue in an interview on ABC News’ “This Week” program. He said Trump’s tariffs targeting Canada and Mexico, along with doubling a previous 10% duty on Chinese exports to 20%, are aimed at cutting the tens thousands of fentanyl deaths that have occurred in recent years.

“We launched a drug war, not a trade war,” he said. “We hope we’ll round up the cartels” while there is a pause in the tariffs on Mexico and Canada.

“It is a big problem,” he said. “Get the drug cartels out of Canada and Mexico.”

Both Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and outgoing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told Trump in phone conversations last week they have made strides in curbing the flow of fentanyl into the U.S. Sheinbaum sent 10,000 troops to Mexico’s northern border with the U.S. to try to curb the flow of drugs and undocumented migrants while Trudeau also ramped up border enforcement.

But it is unclear whether Trump will be satisfied enough with the Mexican and Canadian efforts to drop the tariff increases next month.

Even with the White House effort targeting fentanyl, Hassett said Trump’s economic concerns remain as important.

“He’s trying to make it so when we produce something, we produce it at home,” not in another country, Hassett said. “Bring the jobs home, bring the wealth home. If you want to increase the welfare of Americans, then produce the jobs here.”
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NEW DELHI — India said Friday it is working to lower trade barriers with the United States as it tries to reach a bilateral trade deal with Washington this year.

The two countries said after a February White House meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi that they will try to reach a deal by fall, aiming to increase bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030.

External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told reporters Friday the objective of the bilateral trade agreement would be “to strengthen and deepen India-U.S. two-way trade in the goods and services sector, increase market access, reduce tariff and nontariff barriers, and deepen supply chain integration between the two countries.”

Trump has accused Delhi of imposing unfair trade barriers through high tariffs and has been putting pressure on India to cut duties on U.S. imports. India, for example, imposes tariffs of up to 110% on all car imports.

“India charges us massive tariffs. Massive. You cannot even sell anything in India,” Trump said Friday at the White House. “They have agreed. By the way, they want to cut their tariffs way down now because somebody is finally exposing them for what they have done.”

There was no immediate comment from Indian officials.

Conciliatory approach

Analysts say India has adopted a conciliatory approach on tariffs, opting to engage the U.S. in talks as it looks to avoid friction. India already has lowered duties on some imports that will benefit American companies, such as high-end motorcycles and bourbon.

“The U.S. is, first of all, India’s largest export market, so we do not want to upset that,” said New Delhi-based trade analyst Biswajit Dhar. “Then there are other considerations at play. There is a sense that the U.S. is a valued strategic partner, so we don’t want trade tensions to upset that equilibrium, also.”

While India has been spared tariffs so far from the Trump administration, reciprocal tariffs that Trump has said he will be announcing early next month could affect Indian exports to the U.S. in areas from pharmaceuticals and drugs to auto components. Two-way trade in goods between the countries was more than $129 billion last year, with Indian exports surpassing $87 billion.

Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal visited Washington this week to discuss trade issues with American officials, including Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

During remarks to an Indian television network, Lutnick called on India to reconsider its tariffs in light of the “special relationship” with the United States.

“It’s time to do something big, something grand, something that connects India and the United States together, but does it on a broad scale, not product-by-product, but rather the whole thing,” he said speaking Friday from Washington to India Today TV.

Defense purchases

He also said India must shift defense equipment purchases away from Russia and buy more from the U.S.

Analysts say purchasing more military hardware from the U.S. could help bridge India’s trade surplus with the U.S., which stood at more than $40 billion last year.

Lutnick also said he wanted India to open its market to U.S. farm exports, which New Delhi has long resisted for fear it will hurt tens of millions of India’s small farmers.

In New Delhi, trade analysts said there is room for India to lower tariffs in several areas outside of agriculture.

“I think we can lower tariffs to zero level on most industrial goods, but agriculture we don’t want to touch. It is very sensitive,” said Ajay Srivastava, founder of the Global Trade Research Initiative think tank in New Delhi. “For us, that is not a trade issue but a livelihood issue, with more than 700 million farmers depending on it for their incomes.”

Other analysts agree that tariffs on imports of farm products, a key area in which the U.S. wants access, could pose a hurdle for the two countries during negotiations.

“Agricultural products are a strict ‘no’ for India. This will cause unease here and could become a sticking point as they try to clinch a trade deal,” trade analyst Dhar said.
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WASHINGTON — Calls to revoke China’s Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) status have grown louder in recent months.

In a memo released on the first day of his second term, President Donald Trump asked his Cabinet members to “assess legislative proposals regarding PNTR.” Three days later, Republican Representative John Moolenaar, the chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, and Democratic lawmaker Tom Suozzi introduced the first bipartisan bill that would revoke China’s PNTR status.

China has held PNTR status since 2000, when Congress first passed legislation on the matter. Prior to that, Beijing’s trade status was reviewed annually.

VOA recently sat down with Republican Representative Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin, who also proposed legislation, along with Republican lawmaker Chris Smith, to revoke China’s PNTR status. He said China is stealing American technology, setting up police stations in various cities across the U.S. and engaging in unfair trade practices. “One of the most important things we can do is to revoke China’s PNTR and have it renewed on an annual basis,” he said.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

VOA: The relationship between the U.S. and China has gone through dramatic changes since China entered the WTO in 2001. How do you describe the current state of U.S.-China relations? How did we get here?

 

U.S. Representative Tom Tiffany: I think the goodwill of the American people has been abused. When you look at the theft of intellectual property — I just mentioned the police stations, something that is anathema to American society — I believe this goes back to when most favored nation status was given to Communist China and that’s why I’ve introduced legislation with Representative Chris Smith from New Jersey to revoke that permanent status and have it be renewed annually. I believe we will get much greater accountability by the Communist Chinese government. I think this is one of the most important things that we can do. We have the largest consumer base, and that has led to prosperity for China over the last few decades. I believe they should respect that, and they have not. One way in which we can deal with this is to have an annual renewal for most favored nation status.

VOA: You represent Wisconsin’s 7th congressional district. How have the actions taken by China affected people in your district, especially on the trade front?

Tiffany: I’ll give you one example. We grow almost all the ginseng in my district, in northern Wisconsin, and the Communist Chinese have used this as a weapon in trade negotiations. Because Wisconsin is such an important state, in terms of elections, they’ve tried to turn the ginseng growers against Republicans, against President Trump, by saying we’re not going to take your ginseng anymore. Because China took a lot of America’s ginseng — it’s the best that is produced in the world — they’ve used trade, specifically in regard to ginseng, as a political weapon and that should not be the case. I’m hoping that the Communist Chinese will relent on this now and allow ginseng to be imported into their country once again in the same volumes that they did a decade ago.

VOA: Do you support imposing tariffs on Chinese goods coming to the U.S., and what are the other urgent steps that the U.S. should be taking to deal with China’s unfair trade practices?

Tiffany: I do agree with tariffs, and I like the president’s idea of having reciprocal tariffs. If you’re going to tariff 25% on a particular product, then we’re going to tariff 25% on a particular product. We would prefer to just see free trade, but it has to be fair trade.

I think there’s a couple other things that we watch very closely here in America. We see the abuse of the Uyghur people in Western China. That is unacceptable in a free society. We do not want companies importing goods that are using slave labor. We haven’t had a full accounting of what happened in the Wuhan lab with the coronavirus … it appears almost certain that it came from that lab and caused incredible damage to not just America, but countries around the world. We need a full accounting in regard to those things and China needs to provide that.

VOA: Where do you see U.S.-China relations heading in the next decade?

Tiffany: If we continue with the policies of President Trump, I think we have the potential to have good relations. You know, maybe [Chinese President] Xi Jinping chooses not to give up communism, and that’s how he wants to rule his country, and that would be very unfortunate. But I think we’d end up with better relations when we have a strong America.
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President Donald Trump said Friday that he was committed to making the U.S. a world leader in cryptocurrencies as industry leaders heaped praise on him for reversing what they said had been unfair attacks on digital assets by the previous administration. 

“I thought it was very important that we stay in the front of this one,” Trump said at the first-ever White House “Crypto Summit.” 

A former crypto-skeptic, Trump has warmly embraced an industry that’s shown him significant love in return and spent heavily to help him win last year’s election. 

“It’s truly wonderful to see how things have changed and how the pendulum has swung back,” Cameron Winklevoss, the co-founder of the crypto exchange Gemini, told Trump. 

The summit included crypto company executives, Cabinet officials and lawmakers, many of whom took turns raving about Trump’s leadership on digital assets. The emboldened industry said it was unfairly treated by the Biden administration and helped Trump and other Republicans score wins in the last election. 

Trump reiterated his eagerness to help the crypto industry with friendly legislation and light-touch regulations. 

Friday’s summit was the latest in a series of actions the new Trump administration has taken to try to boost the crypto industry. Notably, that has included the Securities and Exchange Commission’s dropping of several enforcement actions against large crypto companies, including those whose leaders were at Friday’s summit. 

On Thursday, Trump signed an executive order establishing a “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve,” which essentially bars the U.S. government from selling bitcoin – currently valued at about $17 billion – it has acquired through criminal and civil asset forfeiture. 

The order also allows the Treasury and Commerce departments to come up with “budget-neutral” plans for the government to acquire additional bitcoin, though no details of what those plans might look like have been released. 

The order is a significant boost for bitcoin’s credibility and legitimacy. The oldest and most popular cryptocurrency, bitcoin has gone from an experiment by libertarian cryptography enthusiasts to an asset worth $1.7 trillion in less than two decades. 

“Bitcoin is special,” David Sacks, the Trump administration’s “crypto czar,” told reporters Friday. 

Trump’s order also creates a “Digital Asset Stockpile,” where the government will hold seized cryptocurrencies other than bitcoin. On Sunday, Trump sent crypto prices on a short-lived surge after a surprise announcement that he wanted the government to hold lesser-known cryptocurrencies XRP, solana and cardano. 

It’s unclear why Trump named those specific cryptocurrencies and not others. His announcement caused a stir in the crypto community about whether the government would pick winners and losers among various types of cryptocurrencies. 

Yesha Yadav, a professor at Vanderbilt Law School, said it’s clear the Trump administration wanted to avoid getting dragged into that kind of fight with the way the executive order was worded. 

“It’s unsurprising that the Trump [executive order] from yesterday has been quite neutral,” she said. 

Trump’s foray into crypto has included backing a personal meme coin and other ventures to enrich himself and his family. Those moves have drawn swift criticism from Democrats and even some crypto enthusiasts who support Trump. 

Sacks told reporters Friday that Trump’s personal crypto-related projects were “irrelevant” to the administration’s work related to the industry. That work, Sacks said, was focused on making the U.S. the world capital in crypto through fair and clear regulations that promote innovation while still protecting investors. 

Sacks added his role was not to try to persuade Americans to buy crypto. 

“You should do your homework because this is a very volatile industry,” Sacks said. “It’s not for everyone.”
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WASHINGTON — U.S. employers added a solid 151,000 jobs last month, but the outlook is cloudy as President Donald Trump threatens a trade war, trims the federal workforce and promises to deport millions of immigrants.

The Labor Department reported Friday that hiring was up from a revised 125,000 in January. Economists had expected 160,000 new jobs last month.

The unemployment rate rose slightly to 4.1% as the number jobless Americans rose by 203,000.

Employment rose in health care, finance, transportation and warehousing. The federal government shed 10,000 jobs, the most since June 2022, although economists don’t expect Trump’s federal layoffs to have much of an impact until the March jobs report. Restaurants and bars cut nearly 28,000 jobs last month on top of a loss of almost 30,000 in January.

“The labor market continues to hold up, but we’re still a far cry from where we were a year or two years ago,’” said Sarah House, senior economist at Wells Fargo.

House expects hiring to slow and unemployment to creep higher as Trump continues to cut spending on programs and slash the federal workforce, while imposing tariffs on America’s trading partners.

The spending cuts “are likely to spill over into the private sector, hitting contractors and nonprofits, and we still have a trade war that is picking up,” House said. “There are multiple battles for the labor market to fight off, multiple shocks it’s having to work through in the months ahead.”

The economy’s unexpectedly strong recovery from the pandemic recession of 2020 set loose an inflationary surge that peaked in June 2022, when prices came in 9.1% higher than they’d been a year earlier.

In response, the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate 11 times in 2022 and 2023, taking it to the highest level in more than two decades. The economy remained sturdy despite the higher borrowing costs, defying expectations of a recession, thanks to strong consumer spending, big productivity gains at businesses and an influx of immigrants who eased labor shortages.

The American job market has remained remarkably resilient, but it has cooled from the red-hot hiring of 2021-2023. Employers added a decent average of 168,000 jobs a month last year. But that was down from 216,000 in 2023, 380,000 in 2022 and a record 603,000 in 2021 as the economy rebounded from COVID-19 lockdowns.

Inflation came down — dropping to 2.4% in September — allowing the Fed to reverse course and cut rates three times in 2024. The rate-cutting was expected to continue this year, but progress on inflation has stalled since summer, and the Fed has held off.

Average hourly earnings rose 0.3% last month, down from a 0.4% increase in January.

Fed officials will likely see the figures as supporting their current wait-and-see approach toward interest-rate cuts. With inflation still modestly above the Fed’s 2% target, several have made clear in recent remarks that they would like to see more progress before cutting their benchmark rate any further.

Steady hiring and an expanding economy make it easier for the Fed to stay on the sidelines. Should companies start laying off workers and the unemployment rate rise, pressure could rise on the Fed to cut rates.

On Thursday, Fed governor Chris Waller suggested a cut was unlikely at the central bank’s March meeting, adding that Fed officials would like to see more data before making any further moves.
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Beijing’s next moves may be cautious, though, analysts say
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TAIPEI, TAIWAN — Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Friday criticized the United States for imposing tariffs on Chinese imports and vowed to “resolutely retaliate” if Washington continues to increase pressure on Beijing.

Speaking to local and foreign media outlets during the annual meeting of China’s parliament on Friday, Wang questioned the effectiveness of the U.S. government’s tariffs against China and called on Washington to avoid conflicts and confrontation.

“The U.S. should think about what they have gotten out of all the trade wars and tariff wars that they have initiated all these years,” Wang said, adding that the economic and trade relationship between the two countries should be “mutual and reciprocal.”

“No country can fantasize about developing good relations with China while suppressing and containing it,” he said, calling such behavior a “two-faced approach” that will be detrimental to the stability of bilateral relations and attempts to build trust.

Wang’s remarks come three days after the U.S. imposed an additional 10% tariff on all Chinese imports, bringing the total amount of tariff on Chinese products to 20% and prompting Beijing to slap tariffs of between 10% to 15% on a wide range of American agricultural products.

“[U.S. Treasury] Secretary [Scott] Bessent expressed serious concerns about the PRC’s counternarcotics efforts, economic imbalances, and unfair policies, and stressed the Administration’s commitment to pursue trade and economic policies that protect the American economy, the American worker, and our national security,” the Treasury said in a statement following a Feb. 28 telephone conversation with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, using the acronym for China’s official name, the People’s Republic of China.

Despite his criticism of the U.S. tariffs against China, Wang said Beijing remains committed to maintain a “stable, healthy and sustainable development of China-U.S. relations” based on “mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation.”

“I hope that the United States will listen to the voices of the two peoples, recognize the general trend of historical development, look at China’s development objectively and rationally, actively and pragmatically carry out exchanges with China,” he told a roomful of journalists.

In addition to bilateral relations with the U.S. Wang also criticized Washington’s Indo-Pacific strategy, saying the plan, which includes deploying mid-range capability missiles to countries like the Philippines, has only “stirred up trouble and create differences” in the region.

“Instead of being the battleground of big power competition, Asia should be the place to showcase international cooperation,” he said, adding that China advocates for open regionalism and sharing development opportunities in Asia based on mutual respect and benefit.

Analysts say Wang’s remarks suggest China is seeking to handle relations with the U.S. in a “firm yet not overly excited way.”

“China is telling the Trump administration that what they are doing is wrong, but they don’t seem to be putting proposals on the table, which may be their attempt to avoid escalation in bilateral relations,” said Ian Chong, a political scientist at the National University of Singapore.

China as the pro ‘status-quo’ power

In addition to weighing in on bilateral relations with Washington, Wang also reiterated China’s support for multilateralism and opposition to “unilateralism” and “hegemony,” a vague criticism of the U.S. decision to freeze foreign aid and pull out of some international organizations.

“We will safeguard the multilateral free trade system, create an open, inclusive and nondiscriminatory environment for international cooperation, and promote inclusive economic globalization,” he said during the news conference.

When asked about the current role of the United Nations, Wang said China opposes the monopolization of international affairs by a few countries and hopes the voices of countries in the Global South, which include developing nations in Africa, Latin America and Asia, could be “heard more often.”

“As a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, China is aware of its international responsibility and will firmly uphold the centrality of the United Nations, serve as the mainstay of the multilateral system and be the voice of justice for the Global South,” he said.

Some experts say Wang’s comments are part of Beijing’s efforts to present itself as a “steady” and “pro-status quo” power as the United States is dramatically changing its foreign policy approach.

“Beijing wants to reassure other countries that China is the safer pair of hands and at a time when the Trump administration is pursuing a more zero sum-oriented trade war against friends and foes alike, Wang is trying to signal that China is open for business,” Wen-ti Sung, a Taipei-based political scientist for the Australian National University, told VOA by phone.

Despite Wang’s statements, Chong in Singapore said China has yet to present concrete plans to fulfill their commitment to uphold the multilateral world system and support for developing countries.

“China has been saying they want a multipolar world order for decades, but none of Beijing’s concrete proposals are on the table right now,” he told VOA by phone.

Beijing remains cautious of the U.S.-Russia interaction

As the U.S. tries to increase engagement with Russia and facilitate a potential peace deal over the war in Ukraine, Wang said a “mature, resilient and stable” relationship between Beijing and Moscow won’t be interfered by any third party.

“Regardless of changes in the international environment, the historical logic of Sino-Russian friendship remains unchanged, and its endogenous dynamics will not diminish,” he said, adding that Beijing and Moscow will continue to “uphold the international system with the U.N. at its core and promote the development of the international order in a more just and rational direction.”

Chong said Wang’s remarks show Beijing is “cautious” about the recent interaction between Russia and the U.S.

“China understands if there is some sort of arrangement between the Americans and Russians, the U.S. gets to focus a lot more on competing with China in the Pacific, and Beijing could face a lot more pressure,” he told VOA.

Apart from elaborating on China’s foreign policy, Wang also reiterated Beijing’s claim over Taiwan.

“Advocating Taiwan independence is tantamount to secession, supporting Taiwan independence is tantamount to interference in China’s internal affairs, and condoning Taiwan independence is tantamount to destabilizing the Taiwan Strait,” he said, adding that the two sides of the Taiwan Strait will “eventually be reunified.” 
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Top diplomats from the United States and Canada held talks Wednesday that included discussion of trade, while U.S. President Donald Trump delayed a new 25% tariff on vehicle imports from Canada and Mexico for a month.

The U.S. State Department said Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly collaborated on “shared global challenges, secure borders, reciprocal trade, and economic prosperity.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Trump spoke with top officials at automakers Ford, General Motors and Stellantis before announcing the tariff delays. She said Trump urged the automakers to move their Mexican and Canadian production to the United States to avoid the tariffs altogether.

Trump’s new levies on the two biggest U.S. trading partners remain in place for other products, although Leavitt said the president is open to hearing the case for other possible exemptions.

Trump announced the vehicle tariff delay in a statement after speaking earlier in the day with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who, according to The Associated Press, is not willing to lift Canada’s retaliatory tariffs if Trump leaves any tariffs on Canada.

Doug Ford, the Ontario provincial premier, said that if the U.S. tariff on Canadian vehicle exports to the U.S. remained in place, production at Canadian auto plants would start to shut down in about 10 days.

“People are going to lose their jobs,” he said.

The heads of Canada’s provinces said they were taking action to bolster trade within Canada and with countries abroad, in order to reduce their dependence on a single market, in reference to the United States.

Trump imposed the duties on Mexico and Canada on Tuesday, along with doubling tariffs on Chinese imported goods, to 20%. His action caused stock markets to plunge and threatened to boost the price of U.S. consumer goods and products that businesses need to operate.

Mexico, Canada and China all said Tuesday they would retaliate against Trump’s tariffs by increasing their own against U.S. products sent to their countries.

Trump said on his Truth Social media platform that Trudeau called him Wednesday morning to ask what could be done about the new U.S. tax.

“I told him that many people have died from Fentanyl that came through the Borders of Canada and Mexico, and nothing has convinced me that it has stopped,” the president wrote. “He said that it’s gotten better, but I said, ‘That’s not good enough.’ The call ended in a ‘somewhat’ friendly manner!”

Earlier in the week, Trudeau said Canada has surged personnel and equipment to the border to stop the flow of fentanyl to the United States, as Trump had demanded as a possible path to averting the new tariff on Canadian imports.

“Because of this work — in partnership with the United States — fentanyl seizures from Canada have dropped 97% between December 2024 and January 2025 to a near-zero low of 0.03 pounds seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection,” Trudeau said.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told Bloomberg Television that Trump’s new tariffs will not be fully eliminated.

“There are going to be tariffs, let’s be clear,” Lutnick said. “But what [Trump is] thinking about is which sections of the market that can maybe — maybe — he’ll consider giving them relief until we get to, of course, April 2,” when Trump has said he will impose reciprocal tariffs on countries around the world that tax imports from the U.S.

The Canadian government said that nothing less than abandoning the new U.S. tariffs was acceptable.

“We’re not interested in meeting in the middle and having some reduced tariff. Canada wants the tariffs removed,” Canadian Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

In a speech Tuesday night to the U.S. Congress, Trump acknowledged the tariff turmoil, saying, “Tariffs are about making America rich again and making America great again. There will be a little disturbance, but we’re OK with that. It won’t be much.”

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said she would announce her country’s counter-tariff increase against U.S. goods on Sunday.

China placed tariffs of up to 15% on a wide array of U.S. farm exports. It also expanded the number of U.S. companies subject to export controls and other restrictions by about two dozen.

Some information for this story was provided by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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BEIJING — China’s finance minister on Thursday left the door open to more stimulus measures on top of those announced at the annual parliament meeting this week, in the event the tariff-hit economy veers off its track towards its roughly 5% growth target.

Lan Foan, speaking to the media alongside other officials a day after Premier Li Qiang’s annual address to lawmakers, said China had ample policy room to deal with any domestic and external threats to economic growth.

The government announced on Wednesday more fiscal resources will be deployed in 2025 compared with last year to keep the economy growing at the same pace, while fighting a trade war with Washington.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff increases on China are threatening China’s sprawling industrial complex, at a time when persistently sluggish household demand and the unraveling of the debt-laden property sector are leaving the economy increasingly vulnerable.

China’s state planner, Zheng Shanjie, said he was confident about reaching the annual growth target despite mounting external uncertainties and insufficient domestic demand.

The country will launch major projects in key sectors such as railways, nuclear power, water conservancy, and other key industries, aiming to attract private investment, Zheng said.
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WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that there was no chance for Mexico or Canada to prevent 25% tariffs from taking effect on Tuesday, sending financial markets reeling on the prospect of new economic barriers in North America.

“They’re going to have to have a tariff. So, what they have to do is build their car plants, frankly, and other things in the United States, in which case they no tariffs,” Trump said at the White House. He said there was “no room left” for a deal that would avert the tariffs by curbing fentanyl flows into the United States.

Trump also said reciprocal tariffs would take effect on April 2 on countries that impose duties on U.S. products.

U.S. stock indexes extended their losses after Trump’s comments. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1.58% for the day, the S&P 500 was down 1.78% and the Nasdaq Composite was down 2.47%.

CEOs and economists say the action, covering more than $900 billion worth of annual U.S. imports from its southern and northern neighbors would deal a serious setback to the highly integrated North American economy.

The tariffs are scheduled to take effect at 12:01 a.m. EST (0501 GMT) on Tuesday. At that point Canada and Mexico would face tariffs of 25%, with 10% for Canadian energy. Mexican officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly told reporters that Ottawa would be ready to respond.

“There’s a level of unpredictability and chaos that comes out of the Oval Office, and we will be dealing with it,” she said.

Speaking on CNN, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said both countries had made progress on border security but needed to do more to curb fentanyl flows into the U.S. to reduce deaths from the opioid drug.

Trump is also expected on Tuesday to raise fentanyl-related tariffs on Chinese imports to 20% from 10% currently, unless Beijing ends fentanyl trafficking into the U.S. Lutnick did not mention any potential changes to these duties, which would affect about $439 billion worth of annual imports.

Mexico’s response plans

Mexico, after avoiding the first round of Trump’s tariffs by striking a last-minute deal to send thousands of troops to its northern border, has stepped up anti-drug efforts and hinted at new measures on imported Chinese goods.

President Claudia Sheinbaum, in a press conference on Monday before Trump made his remarks, said her government was calm as it awaited Trump’s decision, but that Mexico but will respond if tariffs are imposed.

“We have a plan B, C, D,” Sheinbaum said, without giving any details. She added that coordination with the U.S. on trade and fentanyl trafficking has been “very good.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 72,776 people died from synthetic opioids in 2023 in the U.S., chiefly from fentanyl.

Navarro: Trump unwavering

White House trade adviser Peter Navarro told CNBC on Monday that the inflationary impact from any tariffs would be “second-order small, so I don’t see the president wavering on any of this, because he knows in order to get to a world in which America is strong and prosperous, with real wages going up and [more] factory jobs. This is the path that he’s chosen.”

Trump on Saturday added another trade action to a cascade of tariff announcements over the past month, opening a national security investigation into imports of lumber and wood products that could result in steep tariffs. Canada, already facing 14.5% U.S. tariffs on softwood lumber, would be hit particularly hard.

During the prior week Trump ordered the revival of a tariff probe on countries that levy digital services taxes, proposed fees of up to $1.5 million every time a Chinese-built ship enters a U.S. port, and launched a new tariff investigation into copper imports.

These come in addition to his plans to determine higher U.S. “reciprocal tariffs” to match the tariff rates of other countries and offset their other trade barriers, a move that could hit the European Union hard over the value added taxes charged by EU countries.

But Trump’s “tariffs on steroids” agenda may keep inflation higher and could tip the global economy into recession, warned Desmond Lachman, a senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.

Package orders

The White House late on Sunday issued technical orders from Trump related to tariffs on Mexico and Canada, declaring that low-value packages from the two countries cannot enter the U.S. duty-free under the “de minimis” exemption for shipments under $800. The ban will take effect once the Commerce Department determines that adequate screening measures take place, the order said.

Trump on Feb. 4 suspended the de minimis exclusion for low-value Chinese packages, but the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency had to pause the suspension because packages were piling up at U.S. airports without a way to screen them.

Fentanyl traffickers have exploited the de minimis package exemption to ship fentanyl and its precursor chemicals into the U.S., and officials say the packages often enter unscreened.
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U.S. President Donald Trump is planning to impose new tariffs Tuesday on Canadian and Mexican exports to the United States, but Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Sunday they may not be as high as the 25% figure Trump was planning.

“That is a fluid situation,” Lutnick told the Fox News show “Sunday Morning Futures.”

“There are going to be tariffs on Tuesday on Mexico and Canada. Exactly what they are, we’re going to leave that for the president and his team to negotiate,” he said.

Lutnick’s comments were the first indication that the Trump administration may not impose the full 25% tariffs he announced last week on all goods from Mexico and non-energy imports from Canada, contending that the two U.S. neighbors are still not doing enough to curb the flow of illicit drugs into the United States.

Lutnick said Mexico and Canada have “done a reasonable job” securing their borders with the United States, although the deadly drug fentanyl continues to flow into the country.

Trump first announced the tariffs a month ago but then delayed their effective date after Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced she would send 10,000 troops to Mexico’s northern border with the U.S. to curb the flow of narcotics, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he would name a “fentanyl czar” to deal with the issue.

Trump is also adding another 10% tariff on Chinese goods Tuesday, doubling 10% duties he imposed on Feb. 4. Trump has blamed China as the source of fentanyl trafficking into the U.S.

In announcing the new tariffs last week, Trump said, “Drugs are still pouring into our Country from Mexico and Canada at very high and unacceptable levels. A large percentage of these Drugs, much of them in the form of Fentanyl, are made in, and supplied by, China.” He made the comments on his Truth Social platform.

Sheinbaum, whose trade-dependent economy sends 80% of its exports to the U.S., said last week Mexico was “expecting to reach a deal with the United States” before the new levy took effect but that if not, could impose retaliatory tariffs on U.S. products exported to Mexico.

When Trump first announced the hefty U.S. tariff on Canadian imports in early February, Trudeau said it was “entirely unjustified” and promised to impose a 25% tax starting March 12 on U.S. steel and aluminum products exported to Canada. Canada is the top exporter of both metals to the U.S.

Economists say that the tariffs Trump is imposing are likely to boost retail prices for consumers and the cost of materials for businesses. Mexico, Canada and China, in that order, are the three biggest national trading partners with the U.S., although collectively, the 27-nation European Union is larger than all three individually.

Trump, at his first Cabinet meeting of his new presidential term last week, said he would “very soon” announce a 25% tariff on EU exports to the U.S.

He contended that the EU was “formed [in 1993] to screw the United States” economically.

With Trump signaling the new tariff on goods sent to the U.S., the EU vowed to respond “firmly and immediately” to “unjustified” trade barriers and suggested it would impose its own tariffs on U.S. imports if Trump proceeded with his.

Trump said reciprocal tariffs on nations that levy taxes on U.S. exports are still set to take effect on April 2. He has also hinted at putting tariffs on automobile imports, lumber, pharmaceutical products and other goods.

Many economists have repeatedly warned that tariffs could lead to higher prices, boosting troublesome inflation in the U.S. Trump has acknowledged there could be short-term pain for Americans but has contended that tariffs would ultimately be beneficial to the U.S. economy, the world’s largest.

Trump says the tariffs he is imposing would be an incentive for foreign companies to do more manufacturing in the United States to avoid the tariffs on overseas shipment of their products to the U.S.

More immediately, Trump has focused on the flow of drugs into the U.S.

“More than 100,000 people died last year due to the distribution of these dangerous and highly addictive POISONS,” he said in his social media post.

“Millions of people have died over the last two decades,” Trump declared. “The families of the victims are devastated and, in many instances, virtually destroyed. We cannot allow this scourge to continue to harm the USA, and therefore, until it stops, or is seriously limited, the proposed TARIFFS scheduled to go into effect on MARCH FOURTH will, indeed, go into effect, as scheduled.”
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WASHINGTON — On a recent cold day in February, Virginia resident Raymond Fong sat outside the Tysons Corner mall for nearly two hours on a stool he brought from home to wait in line for a taste of milk tea from a new China-based beverage business.

China’s popular fruit and milk tea chain, Heytea, is one of a number of Chinese businesses that are looking for better economic opportunities abroad amid a slowing economy at home.

While U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs are creating more uncertainties for Chinese businesses at home, a growing number of companies from China are expanding in the U.S.

Heytea made its debut in the Washington metropolitan area on Valentine’s Day, marking the opening of the company’s 27th store in the United States. Heytea has opened nearly 80 stories outside China.

Fong visited the store just days after it opened.

“There were so many people in line that the mall was full, and we had to line up outside,” Fong told VOA’s Mandarin Service.

Since opening in 2012, Heytea has mostly focused on serving China’s domestic market. But in 2023, the company made a rapid shift to expand its reach overseas to countries including the U.S., United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Malaysia and South Korea.

Other popular Chinese food and beverage brands have also made inroads into international markets.

Research company Rhodium Group reported a rebounding of overall Chinese investments abroad since the pandemic. Outbound investments by Chinese companies bottomed out at $47 billion in 2020 but then increased to $67 billion in 2022 and $103 billion in 2023, according to the Rhodium Group.

While food and beverage brands are just a small slice of these investments, these brands are what consumers see.

“Some people call 2023 ‘the first year of going overseas’ [for restaurants and beverage businesses]. I think there are several reasons. One is that the domestic market is no longer viable,” said a Beijing-based macroeconomic researcher who requested anonymity for fear of harassment from Chinese police.

The researcher added that the businesses “are all listed in Hong Kong and have raised funds. Hong Kong is an open market. They are listed there, raised money, and then they will not invest back to mainland China, so they want to test the waters in the United States.”

Success in Vietnam

As early as 2018, Mixue Ice City, a popular ice cream and tea chain founded in Henan province, China, began opening stores in Vietnam and then began picking up that expansion over the past few years with shops opening in South Korea, Australia, Malaysia and Singapore. The company now has over 7,000 stores in 11 countries, with more than 1,000 of those stores located in Vietnam.

Founded in Sichuan province, China, in 1994, hot pot chain Haidilao has restaurants in numerous countries and went public on the U.S. Nasdaq stock market in May 2024.

Eric Wong, a New York-based investor, said Chinese food companies’ decisions to expand overseas were made out of necessity, given the current state of China’s economy.

“Their profit margins within China are falling. The domestic market is very competitive, so they want to develop overseas,” Wong told VOA.

But operating overseas includes challenges, especially for businesses that have been accustomed to operating within China and using local supply chains.

“Take Haidilao as an example. They can succeed in China because they own the entire industrial chain. It hasn’t established this same advantage overseas, so it is more difficult to do business,” Wong said.

Still, Chinese companies can make high profits from international storefronts, despite the difficulties of taking the business abroad, the Beijing-based researcher said.

“Although the cost of opening a store in Europe and the United States is very high, it is still profitable. Because the cost is high, the threshold is high, and the profit margin is high. Of course, their market is not that big because the main market is Chinese,” the researcher said.

Food and beverage companies are just one part of a larger picture of Chinese producers seeking profits abroad. Expansionary efforts from brick-and-mortar companies such as Pop Mart and Miniso, which produce collectible toys and figurines, and online retailer Temu, display a cross-industry trend of desires to develop in Western markets.

Consumers within America have embraced the products and services from the three companies, with around 18% of American households having shopped on Temu, according to Earnest Analytics.

Despite their current successes, the future of these already complex operations with U.S. markets, given new tariffs levied on Chinese goods, is uncertain, said Wong.

According to Wong, the proportion of business conducted within the U.S. is already “getting smaller and smaller” as these companies look toward other markets without strict tariff policies.

VOA’s Katherine Michaelson contributed to this report.
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New Delhi  — India and the European Union agreed to wrap up a free trade deal by the end of this year, the two sides announced Friday following talks in the Indian capital between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen.

While negotiations between India and the EU have dragged on for years, analysts say there is a greater urgency to conclude a pact as the threat of tariffs by U.S. President Donald Trump prompts many countries to ramp up efforts to increase access to markets outside the U.S.

Von der Leyen came to New Delhi along with leaders of EU countries. Following talks with the Indian prime minister, she called India a “like-minded friend” and said that “we have tasked our teams to build on this momentum” to finalize a free trade pact.

Both sides also discussed elevating their defense and security partnership. Modi said they had prepared a “blueprint for collaboration” in areas such as trade, technology, investment and security.

Before her meeting with Modi, von der Leyen said the EU and India “have the potential to be one of the defining partnerships of this century” and it was time to take their strategic partnership to “the next level.”

A flux in geopolitics is pushing countries to diversify partnerships, analysts say.

“For India, which is scrambling to navigate the turbulence unleashed by Trump, Europe emerges as a valuable partner,” political analyst C. Raja Mohan wrote in The Indian Express newspaper. “While neither can afford to disengage from the U.S., both India and Europe must do more to strengthen their ties in response to Trump’s unpredictable policies.”

A free trade agreement between the EU and India “would be the largest deal of this kind anywhere in the world,” von der Leyen said. “It is time to be pragmatic and ambitious and to realign our priorities for today’s realities.”

Trump has said he will impose a 25 percent tariff on imports from the European Union. His plans for reciprocal tariffs also will hit Indian exports to the U.S.

The EU is India’s largest trading partner in goods — bilateral trade was more than $130 billion in 2023-24.

Negotiations between India and the EU began years ago but were stalled for eight years before resuming in 2021.

The main sticking points have been New Delhi’s reluctance to lower tariffs on key European imports to India, such as cars, whiskey and wine, while the EU has been reluctant to concede New Delhi’s demand to ease visa curbs on Indian professionals.

India also wants greater access to the EU for cheaper drugs and chemicals.

India, the world’s fifth largest economy with a large middle class, is seen as an attractive market but has high protectionist barriers.

Earlier this week, India and the UK also resumed trade talks during a visit by British business and trade secretary Jonathan Reynolds to New Delhi. India’s commerce minister, Piyush Goyal, said both countries aim to double bilateral trade in a decade. Reynolds said that securing a trade deal was a “top priority” for his government.

Trade analysts say there is a “sense of urgency” to seal trade pacts.

“It seems there is a real intent on part of India and other partner countries to do something this time. The timing is important – President Trump’s threat of tariffs can cause trade disruptions. So, I think countries want to conclude deals before the global mood changes from being relatively open to more protectionist,” according to trade analyst Biswajit Dhar in New Delhi.

While India has made slow progress in clinching free trade pacts in the past, it is now stepping up efforts to conclude deals amid fears that potential shifts in global trade could pose a challenge to meeting Prime Minister Modi’s goal of growing exports to $1 trillion by 2030.

“The trade uncertainties being unleashed by Trump’s tariffs will push the Indian government to look at the levels of protection in the country more closely. It can’t afford that any longer,” said Dhar.

“Every major country is interested in the large Indian market but complains about high tariffs.”
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