All posts tagged: exports

Trump team clashes with Berlin over AfD designation as right-wing extremist – POLITICO

Trump team clashes with Berlin over AfD designation as right-wing extremist – POLITICO

Published by Sam

“The West tore down the Berlin Wall together. And it has been rebuilt — not by the Soviets or the Russians, but by the German establishment,” Vance said in his post. The heavy criticism from top members of the U.S. administration comes days before a new coalition government, consisting of the center-right conservatives and the center-left Social Democratic Party, is set to take power in Berlin. One of the main challenges of incoming conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz will be to negotiate solutions to various challenges with U.S. President Donald Trump, including tariffs on the European Union — which threaten to hit the export-oriented German economy particularly hard — and the weakening of the transatlantic alliance on which Germany and Europe have long relied for their defense. But the latest rift seems to highlight a growing estrangement between the two governments. “You should reverse your course by hollowing out AND exploiting the rules based international order for the disadvantage of Ukraine and NATO,” Roderich Kiesewetter, a prominent lawmaker of Merz’s conservatives, wrote in a reaction to …

Russia Targets Major Surge In Natural Gas Exports By 2050

Russia Targets Major Surge In Natural Gas Exports By 2050

Published by skeptic

Authored by Charles Kennedy via ilPrice.com, Russia plans to double its natural gas exports by 2030 and triple them by 2050. The strategy focuses on expanding exports to “friendly countries” and developing Arctic energy resources. Russia faces economic risks due to global market volatility and Western sanctions. Russia expects its natural gas exports, including via pipeline and LNG, to jump twofold by 2030 and threefold to 2050 under its new long-term energy strategy approved by the government on Monday. Russia sees its pipeline and LNG overseas deliveries surge from 146 billion cubic meters (bcm) in 2023 to 293 bcm in 2030, and further up to 438 bcm by 2050. Crude oil and condensate production is targeted to increase from 531 million metric tons per year, or 10.66 million barrels per day (bpd), in 2023 to 540 million tons, or 10.8 million bpd, by 2050. However, oil exports are expected to remain flat throughout 2050, at around 235 million tons per year, or about 4.7 million bpd. The new strategy, whose update was ordered by Vladimir Putin, includes measures to …

What Are Rare Earth Metals, the Exports Halted by China?

What Are Rare Earth Metals, the Exports Halted by China?

Published by skeptic

For years, the Chinese government has worked to control the export of rare earths, a group of metals used in an array of products, as common as semiconductors and lights. Now, in its trade war with the United States, China is moving to limit the market for these metals even further, which could have disastrous consequences for American manufacturing and military power. So, what exactly are these metals, and why are they so important? What are rare earths? There are 17 types of metals known as rare earths, which span the periodic table and are crucial to industries like technology, energy and transportation. With names like terbium, praseodymium and dysprosium, the metals are important ingredients for some of the most advanced technologies. Rare earths can be sorted into two kinds: heavy and light. Heavy rare earths have a greater atomic weight and are typically more rare, meaning they sell in smaller quantities and are prone to shortages. Light metals, by contrast, have a lesser atomic weight. The two most important are neodymium and praseodymium, which …

Polish PM Tusk makes last-ditch plea to avoid Trump’s tariffs – POLITICO

Polish PM Tusk makes last-ditch plea to avoid Trump’s tariffs – POLITICO

Published by Sam

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk is urging Donald Trump not to impose sweeping tariffs on the EU this week. “You have friends and trusted allies from Portugal to Poland, from Denmark to Greece. In our common European-American interest are strong U.S., strong EU, and a strong NATO, not weaker,” Tusk told the United States president in a video posted on X on Monday. “Think about it, Mr. President and dear American friends, before you decide to impose tariffs against your closest allies. Cooperation is always better than confrontation,” he added. Source link

Canada’s trade chief warns oil and gas exports could be in play

Canada’s trade chief warns oil and gas exports could be in play

Published by Sam

If President-elect Donald Trump follows through with his threat to impose tariffs on Canadian goods, Ottawa is prepared to retaliate with levies that could take aim at the energy sector, Canada’s minister of international trade, Mary Ng, said Thursday. “Everything is on the table,” Ng told global markets reporter Seema Mody on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street.” This includes dollar-to-dollar retaliation. Canada’s trade chief also refused to rule out an export tax on Canadian oil and gas bound for the United States. “I don’t actually think Americans want us to not be selling electricity, oil and gas to America, because you know, I’m here in New York, the lights on Broadway, lots of it is Canadian electricity,” said Ng. “If you’re going to put tariffs on Canada, what it actually will do is make things more expensive for Americans,” she added. Trump has threatened a 25% blanket tariff on all Canadian exports when he takes office Monday. The threat is similar to one made towards Mexico, the three parties to the USMCA trade agreement. Trump …

China has banned US exports of key minerals for computer chips – leaving Washington with limited options

China has banned US exports of key minerals for computer chips – leaving Washington with limited options

Published by skeptic

China recently banned the export of the minerals gallium and germanium to the US amid growing tensions between the two countries on trade. The minerals are of critical economic value because they are used in computer chips, in military technology such as night vision goggles, and in the renewable energy industry, where they are important for manufacturing electric vehicles and solar cells. All of these areas are very sensitive sectors for the US and EU. China has overwhelming market power over supply, because it is the source of 98% of primary gallium and 91% of primary germanium. Primary refers to “raw” sources such as mineral ore. In several sectors where the minerals are used, there are no substitutes for them. Gallium and germanium are present in very low concentration as byproducts of major minerals – they’re known as trace minerals. Germanium’s primary source is the residue from zinc refineries and coal fly ash (a powdered residue produced when coal is burnt in power plants). Gallium is mainly produced as a byproduct of bauxite ore (which …

China’s car exports hit record high in April, as domestic sales fall

China’s car exports hit record high in April, as domestic sales fall

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BEIJING: China’s car exports surged to a record high in April, data showed on Friday (May 10), as domestic sales slipped 5.8 per cent from a year earlier amid intensifying price competition and consumers’ caution about spending on big items during a shaky economic recovery. Car exports jumped 38 per cent year-on-year to 417,000 units in April, continuing strong momentum from the previous month which posted a 39 per cent growth in exports, the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) said. An ongoing anti-subsidy investigation by the EU into Chinese automakers has disrupted and put pressure on vehicle exports to the bloc, but China has been actively exploring South America, Australia and ASEAN markets for exports, said Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the association. He said local automakers would have to make a choice between going overseas and losing out, as competition in the domestic market intensifies. Passenger vehicle sales in the world’s biggest auto market fell 5.8 per cent in April from a year earlier to 1.55 million units and slipped 9.6 per cent from …

Commentary: A surprise South Korean boom is going unnoticed

Commentary: A surprise South Korean boom is going unnoticed

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PROSPECTS OF A DOWNTURN HAVE DIMINISHED It didn’t look that way a year ago; economists confidently predicted multiple cuts beginning in late 2023. There was even a chance of recession. Prospects of such a downturn have greatly diminished. Inflation is proving a little stubborn and a rampaging greenback has weakened Korea’s currency, the won, to a degree that worries the central bank. This is an unfortunate byproduct of robust conditions in America and diminished hopes for early reductions from the Fed, a shift that has reverberated through global markets. “I wouldn’t call it starting from scratch,” Bank of Korea Governor Rhee Chang-yong told reporters recently. “But the situation has changed.” Nor is President Yoon Suk Yeol getting any kind of dividend from this economic buoyancy. His party received a drubbing in parliamentary elections last month when voters rebelled against Yoon’s hard-right policies. So great was the bloc’s defeat that political scientists declared his rule over with several years left in his term. Investor-friendly policies championed by Yoon, like deep cuts in capital-gains tax and union …

Two emperors on the edge of two wars  – POLITICO

Two emperors on the edge of two wars  – POLITICO

Published by skeptic

Xi has repeatedly called Putin his best friend. He has also repeatedly refused to do anything to stop Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and supplied dual-use military technologies, weapon-building components and satellite imagery, warns the U.S., to Russia.  In a recent interview with POLITICO, U.S. Ambassador to NATO Julianne Smith highlighted Beijing’s support for Moscow, saying that China could not proclaim to be neutral in the conflict any more. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg also described Chinese assistance as “[helping] Moscow to inflict more death and destruction on Ukraine.” Talking, not talking In Paris, Macron will provide Xi with his “analysis of developments in the conflict, and [will] convey Ukrainian positions,” the same Elysée official said. The French president “will also raise concerns about the activities of certain Chinese companies that could be directly involved in or contribute significantly to the Russian war effort.” There’s plenty of room for the two leaders to talk past each other.  “It’s going to be a mismatch of expectations,” said Abigaël Vasselier, head of foreign relations at MERICS, a …

Why French music exports are still going strong

Why French music exports are still going strong

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Rapper Ninho in concert at Les Vieilles Charrues festival, in Carhaix-Plouguer, France, in July 2022. FRED TANNEAU/AFP French music continues to sell well abroad. This is the main finding of the latest study by the National Center for Music (CNM) released on Monday, April 29. In 2023, the public institution recorded 424 export certifications – single or album produced in France – an increase of 30 % compared to 2022. Ninho (12 tracks), Aya Nakamura (nine tracks), PNL (nine tracks) and Indila (nine titles) are the artists with the most certified tracks. The United States, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and China are the countries where French productions are most successfully exported. The vitality of French music abroad can be explained first and foremost by the phenomenon of synchronization, which refers to the placement of a musical production within an audiovisual work. Thus, listeners to Charles Aznazour’s 1964 song “Hier encore” were buoyed by its appearance on the soundtrack of the Netflix series Lupin, starring Omar Sy. Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny, who sampled it on …