The European Union agreed Monday to impose targeted sanctions against Russian officials and entities allegedly involved in the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny but officials insisted the move should not undercut Europe’s continued high-level contacts with President Vladimir Putin. Foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg backed a Franco-German proposal to impose a travel ban … Read more
The Trump administration is launching an investigation into the trade practices of Vietnam, faulting the country for currency practices and invoking the same trade law the U.S. used in imposing sweeping tariffs on Chinese imports. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative Friday evening said it would pursue an investigation into Vietnam’s “acts, policies, and practices that … Read more
YIWU, China—Chinese makers of goods for export are seeking to turn inwards and sell domestically, a pivot considered key to making the world’s second-largest economy more self-sufficient. In recent weeks, Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for the country to embrace what he calls domestic circulation—a policy designed to bolster local supply chains and encourage … Read more
The Trump administration threatened Wednesday to impose an array of fresh sanctions to deter China and Russia from selling weapons to Iran after an arms embargo on Washington’s Middle East foe expires next month. Elliott Abrams, the administration’s special envoy for Iran and Venezuela, told reporters that the sanctions “will have a very significant impact” … Read more
The World Trade Organization ruled Tuesday that some U.S. tariffs against China broke international trading rules, a conclusion that exacerbates U.S.-WTO tensions but likely will have no consequence for American tariff policy because the organization’s appellate system currently doesn’t function. The WTO sided with a complaint filed by China in 2018, which said the Trump … Read more
TOKYO—Yoshiyuki Kasai, longtime boss of Japan’s biggest bullet-train line, says he thinks Tokyo’s alliance with the U.S. comes first and China needs to hear that message. If Beijing doesn’t like it, he says, tough luck. Hiroaki Nakanishi, head of Japan’s most powerful business federation, says he thinks that attitude is self-defeating. After all its work … Read more
Whoever wins the presidential election, one thing is clear: The U.S. has turned a corner in its relations with China and is likely to maintain a harder line. In the past four years, President Trump, a longtime trade hawk, broke with decades of policy that broadly fostered closer ties between the two giants. Seeing China … Read more
For decades, Britain’s Conservative Party politicians decried the European Union for its supposed aversion to free markets. Now trade negotiations that will define the future relationship between the U.K. and the EU from next year have stalled, in large part because Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government wants the freedom to ignore EU rules limiting state … Read more
BEIJING—China’s export machine gained steam in August as countries gradually recovering from coronavirus lockdowns, including the U.S., snapped up more Chinese-made goods. Outbound shipments from China rose 9.5% in August from a year earlier, beating July’s 7.2% increase and economists’ median forecast for 7.3% growth, data released by the General Administration of Customs showed Monday. … Read more
ABU DHABI—Israel and the United Arab Emirates agreed to promote bilateral trade and business activity as they move to normalize ties, but pushed discussion over the thorny issue of the sale of advanced U.S. military hardware to the Emiratis to a later stage. A delegation of top Israeli and American officials were in the U.A.E. … Read more