Oil producing countries are bracing for a bumpy ride this year, with a precipitous drop in prices to the lowest levels in four years seen as the initial, alarming sign of looming turmoil. A price drop benefits any country seeking to cut its fuel bill. But in oil producing nations, lower prices can feed economic…
The United States imposed 25 percent tariffs on imported auto parts on Saturday that could sharply raise prices for new and used vehicles as well as for repairs and insurance. The latest tariffs, which President Trump ordered in March as part of his plan to promote domestic manufacturing, come after the 25 percent levies on…
When the Covid pandemic hit, factories in China shut down and global shipping traffic slowed. Within a matter of a few weeks, products began disappearing from U.S. store shelves and American firms that depend on foreign materials were going out of business. A similar trend is beginning to play out, but this time the catalyst…
When Donald J. Trump was first in the White House trying to strike a trade deal with China, Beijing tried to curry favor with the American president by banning all variants of the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl. Now, as China and the United States are deadlocked in a bitter trade war that has roiled the…
We import a few raw materials for our manufactured products such as yttrium oxide, which is derived from a rare earth metal. We also import technical ceramic parts mainly produced by two exceptional suppliers from China. One immediate effect of the tariff is that we had a shipment of raw materials en route when the…
The latest message from the data on the U.S. economy is simple: So far, so good, until further notice. The labor market remained in a healthy state of balance as America entered a global trade war in April. U.S. employers added 177,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department reported on Friday. And the unemployment rate…
Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada said on Friday that he would travel next week to meet with President Trump for a high-stakes encounter between the two leaders of countries whose once-close friendship has collapsed amid a trade war and Mr. Trump’s threats to Canada’s sovereignty. Mr. Carney also announced that King Charles III would…
The two largest U.S. oil companies reported their lowest first-quarter profits in years on Friday as they braced for the economic fallout from President Trump’s trade war, which has weakened consumer confidence and pushed oil prices down. U.S. crude prices slipped below $60 a barrel this week, a threshold below which many companies cannot make…
When Congress raised the threshold for imported goods to enter the United States tax-free to $800 from $200 nearly a decade ago, it threw open the door to the American consumer market. Chinese companies rushed in. First on platforms like eBay and Amazon, and then on apps like Shein and Temu, exporters funneled the products…
In a potential softening of the bruising trade war between China and the United States, Beijing said on Friday that it was considering holding talks with the Trump administration after repeated attempts by senior U.S. officials to start negotiations. China’s Commerce Ministry said in a statement that China was “evaluating” the U.S. offer to talk,…