AFP - Squid Business

Major garment producer Bangladesh says US buyers halting orders

US buyers have begun halting orders from Bangladesh, the world’s second-biggest garment manufacturer, after punishing US tariffs that pushed the government in Dhaka to plead on Monday for a three-month pause to the levies.Textile and garment production accounts for about 80 percent of exports in Bangladesh and the industry has been rebuilding after it was hit hard in a student-led revolution that toppled the government last year.US President Donald Trump hit Bangladesh with biting new tariffs of 37 percent on Wednesday, hiking duties from the previous 16 percent on cotton products.Reports of the swift biting impact come as interim leader Muhammad Yunus pleaded with Trump to “postpone the application of US reciprocal tariff measures”, the government said in a statement.Yunus wrote to Trump to ask for “three months to allow the interim government to smoothly implement its initiative to substantially increase US exports to Bangladesh”, the statement added.Those products include “cotton, wheat, corn and soybean which will offer benefits to US farmers”, it read.”Bangladesh will take all necessary actions to fully support your trade agenda,” Yunus told Trump, according to the statement.- ‘In limbo’ -Manufacturers said the impact had been near immediate.Mohammad Mushfiqur Rahman, managing director of Essensor Footwear and Leather Products, said he received a letter from one of his buyers requesting a shipment halt.”My buyer asked me to stop a shipment of leather goods — including bags, belts, and wallets — worth $300,000 on Sunday,” Rahman told AFP.”He’s a long-time buyer and now both of us are in limbo over the issue.”Rahman, who has been operating since 2008, usually sends goods averaging about $100,000 to the United States every month.Bangladesh exported approximately $8.4 billion worth of goods to the United States last year, of which $7.34 billion came from the ready-made garments sector.Bengali newspaper Prothom Alo also quoted AKM Saifur Rahman, CEO of ready-made garments producer Wikitex-BD, saying that his US buyer had requested a halt to a shipment worth $150,000.”My US buyer said it is not possible to pass the extra cost on to their clients, so we need to lower the price,” Rahman told the daily.- ‘Request your patience’ -Md Anwar Hossain, government-appointed administrator of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), sent a letter to US-based buyers pleading for understanding.”We are aware that several brands and retailers have already reached out to their Bangladeshi suppliers, expressing concern and, in some cases, discussing possible measures to mitigate the impact,” Hossain wrote.”We understand the urgency, but transferring the burden downstream to suppliers at this early stage will only exacerbate the stress,” he added.”We humbly request your patience and support during this period as Bangladesh pursues a meaningful resolution.”But former BGMEA director Mohiuddin Rubel said some buyers have already asked for shipments to be put on hold until further notice.”In particular, smaller buyers are pressuring suppliers to either absorb the full tariff, or share the cost,” Rubel told AFP.

Major garment producer Bangladesh says US buyers halting orders

Au Caire, Macron rejette tout “déplacement” des habitants de Gaza et tout rôle futur du Hamas

Emmanuel Macron a apporté lundi au Caire son soutien au plan arabe pour Gaza, s’opposant “fermement aux déplacements de populations” face aux ambitions de Donald Trump, mais a aussi donné des gages aux Etats-Unis en rejetant tout rôle futur du Hamas dans le territoire palestinien.Au côté de son homologue égyptien Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, le président français a déroulé le volet politique de cette visite en Egypte essentiellement consacrée à la guerre à Gaza, avant un volet humanitaire mardi.”L’Égypte et la France partagent une convergence de vues”, a-t-il dit. “Nous condamnons la reprise des frappes israéliennes à Gaza” depuis le 18 mars après deux mois de trêve, a-t-il ajouté, évoquant “un recul dramatique” de la situation.Tour à tour, les deux dirigeants ont appelé à un “retour immédiat au cessez-le-feu” et à une reprise de l’aide humanitaire pour les 2,4 millions de Gazaouis, dont la quasi-totalité ont été déplacés au moins une fois par les combats dans le territoire assiégé.Emmanuel Macron a “salué les efforts inlassables déployés par l’Égypte” en tant que co-médiateur pour la trêve et la libération des otages encore retenus par le Hamas depuis l’attaque du 7 octobre 2023 contre Israël, qui a déclenché la guerre.Les présidents français et égyptien, qui s’étaient retrouvés la veille pour une promenade et un dîner dans le célèbre souk Khan al-Khalili de la capitale égyptienne, ont été rejoints lundi par le roi Abdallah II de Jordanie pour un sommet à trois.Pour la diplomatie française, c’est une manière d’afficher sa solidarité avec deux pays voisins de la bande de Gaza ébranlés par le projet du président américain. D’autant plus que le Premier ministre israélien, Benjamin Netanyahu, partisan de ce plan, devait être reçu lundi à la Maison Blanche.Début février, Donald Trump a suscité un tollé international en évoquant une prise de contrôle de la bande de Gaza par les Etats-Unis pour la reconstruire et en faire la “Riviera du Moyen-Orient”. Pour cela, ses habitants pourraient être déplacés vers l’Egypte et la Jordanie, qui ont vivement rejeté cette option mais doivent composer avec la pression américaine.- Etape symbolique -“Nous nous opposons fermement aux déplacements de populations et à toute annexion de Gaza comme de la Cisjordanie”, occupée par Israël depuis 1967, a martelé Emmanuel Macron. “Il s’agirait d’une violation du droit international, d’une menace grave pour la sécurité de toute la région, y compris celle d’Israël”, a-t-il ajouté.Il a aussi exprimé le soutien de la France au plan arabe, qualifié de “voie réaliste à la reconstruction de Gaza”, conçu comme une réponse au plan Trump. Cette initiative, préparée par l’Egypte, prévoit de ne pas déplacer les Gazaouis. Paris estime toutefois qu’il faut “encore renforcer” ce plan, notamment sur “la sécurité” et la “gouvernance” du territoire palestinien, pour rassurer des Américains réticents. Les pays arabes prévoient un retour progressif de l’Autorité palestinienne, au détriment du Hamas qui dirige Gaza depuis 2007.”Le Hamas ne doit avoir aucune part à cette gouvernance, ne doit plus constituer une menace pour Israël”, a insisté Emmanuel Macron, assurant que cette question était à l’ordre du jour de ses entretiens.Abdel Fattah al-Sissi a pour sa part prévenu que “la paix durable et la stabilité permanente au Moyen-Orient seront loin d’être réalisés tant que la cause palestinienne restera sans solution équitable”.Le président français organise en juin à l’ONU, avec le prince héritier saoudien Mohammed ben Salmane, une conférence sur la solution à deux Etats, israélien et palestinien. Ce rendez-vous pourrait, selon des sources diplomatiques, constituer le “moment opportun” que la France attend pour éventuellement reconnaître un Etat palestinien.Mardi, M. Macron se rendra, accompagné de son homologue égyptien, dans la ville d’al-Arich, dans le nord de la péninsule du Sinaï, à 50 kilomètres du point de passage de Rafah par lequel est censée transiter l’aide humanitaire vers Gaza, à nouveau stoppée depuis un mois.Lors de cette étape hautement symbolique, il appellera à “la réouverture des points de passage pour l’acheminement de fret humanitaire à Gaza”, selon la présidence française.Dans ce port méditerranéen qui sert de base arrière pour l’aide, il va rencontrer des personnels d’ONG françaises, des Nations unies, du Croissant-Rouge égyptien, mais aussi probablement des “bénéficiaires” palestiniens de l’action humanitaire, selon la même source.Sur le plan bilatéral franco-égyptien, plusieurs accords économiques doivent être signés lundi dans les transports, la santé, les énergies renouvelables ou le domaine universitaire.

Au Caire, Macron rejette tout “déplacement” des habitants de Gaza et tout rôle futur du Hamas

Stocks, oil prices sink further as Trump stands firm over tariffs

Stock markets and oil prices collapsed further on a black Monday for markets as US President Donald Trump stood firm over his tariffs despite recession fears.Trading floors across Asia and Europe were overcome by waves of further selling after last week’s sharp losses.Hong Kong’s drop of 13.2 percent Monday was its worst in nearly three decades.Trillions of dollars have been wiped off combined stock market valuations in recent sessions. Taipei stocks suffered their worst fall on record Monday, tanking 9.7 percent, while Frankfurt dived as much as 10 percent and Tokyo closed down by almost eight percent.Hong Kong’s loss was exaggerated as the index had been closed Friday for a public holiday.Wall Street futures suffered another drubbing, while bitcoin tumbled. The dollar was steadier after sharp losses last week.”The carnage in global equity markets has continued,” noted Thomas Mathews, Asia Pacific head of markets at Capital Economics.He said Trump could still pare back his tariffs. “But, if he doesn’t, equities could get a lot sicker yet.”A 10-percent “baseline” tariff on imports from around the world took effect Saturday.However, a slew of countries will be hit by higher duties from Wednesday, with levies of 34 percent for Chinese goods and 20 percent for EU products.Countries mostly have been scrambling to blunt the new US tariffs without retaliating, but Beijing is responding in kind, escalating the trade war between the world’s two biggest economies.Beijing announced last week its own 34-percent tariff on US goods, which will come into effect on Thursday.Hopes that the US president would rethink his policy in light of the turmoil were dashed Sunday when he said he would not make a deal with other countries unless trade deficits were solved.”Sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something,” he said of the ructions that have wiped trillions of dollars off company valuations.Wall Street’s three main indices dived almost six percent Friday.- No sector spared -Monday’s savage selling was across the board, with no sector spared.Tech firms, carmakers, banks, casinos and energy firms all felt the pain as investors abandoned riskier assets.Among the biggest losers, Chinese ecommerce titans Alibaba tanked 18 percent and rival JD.com shed 15.5 percent, while Japanese tech investment giant SoftBank dived more than 12 percent and Sony gave up 10 percent.Hong Kong’s 13-percent drop marked its worst day since 1997 during the Asian financial crisis.Shanghai shed more than seven percent, with China’s state-backed fund Central Huijin Investment vowing to help ensure “stable operations” of the market.Singapore plunged nearly eight percent, while Seoul gave up more than five percent, triggering a so-called sidecar mechanism — for the first time in eight months — that briefly halted some trading. Sydney, Wellington, Manila and Mumbai were also deep in the red, while London and Paris both dropped nearly four percent in midday deals. Milan and Madrid each shed more than four percent, with all sectors also affected across Europe.Concerns about future energy demand saw oil prices sink about three percent, having dropped some seven percent Friday. Both main contracts are now sitting at their lowest levels since 2021. The Kremlin said it was monitoring the plummeting price of oil — on which Russia’s economy is highly dependent.- Key figures around 1045 GMT -London – FTSE 100: DOWN 3.4 percent at 7,779.08 points Paris – CAC 40: DOWN 3.9 percent at 6,987.91Frankfurt – DAX: DOWN 3.7 percent at 19,881.07 Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 7.8 percent at 31,136.58 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 13.2 percent at 19,828.30 (close)Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 7.3 percent at 3,096.58 (close)New York – Dow: DOWN 5.5 percent at 38,314.86 (close) West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 2.7 percent at $60.27 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: DOWN 2.6 percent at $63.85 per barrelEuro/dollar: UP at $1.0972 from $1.0962 on FridayPound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2849 from $1.2893Dollar/yen: DOWN at 146.45 yen from 146.98 yen Euro/pound: UP at 85.37 pence from 85.01 penceburs-bcp/ajb/rl

L’Europe doit s’adapter à un “changement de paradigme” du commerce mondial, dit la Commission

L’Europe doit s’adapter à un “changement de paradigme” du commerce mondial, a souligné lundi le commissaire européen Maros Sefcovic au Luxembourg, où se réunissent les ministres du commerce de l’UE pour répondre à l’offensive lancée par Donald Trump.La discussion sert à “préparer” la réponse européenne à l’augmentation de taxes douanières américaines. Les 27 veulent aussi s’assurer que les entreprises européennes reçoivent un “soutien adéquat” et “accélérer” des négociations de libre échange avec le reste du monde, a déclaré M. Sefcovic avant le début de cette réunion.Lundi au Luxembourg, les Européens entendent afficher leur unité face à cette menace de guerre commerciale avec les Etats-Unis. Mais le ton sur les possibles représailles européennes diffère selon les Etats membres.Faut-il cibler la tech américaine ? “Ce serait une escalade extraordinaire à un moment où nous devons travailler à la désescalade”, a mis en garde le ministre irlandais des Affaires étrangères Simon Harris, dont le pays dépend fortement des investissements américains, en particulier dans les secteurs pharmaceutique et technologique.La France et l’Allemagne ont quant à elles montré les muscles. Même si Paris veut “d’abord tout faire pour préférer la coopération” avec les Etats-Unis, le ministre Laurent Saint-Martin (commerce extérieur) a appelé l’UE à “n’exclure aucune option” sur les biens comme les services américains.”La boîte à outils européenne (…) peut être extrêmement agressive”, a-t-il lancé, en mentionnant “l’instrument anti-coercition”, qui permettrait notamment le gel de l’accès aux marchés publics européens ou le blocage d’investissements.Le ministre allemand de l’économie, Robert Habeck, a lui aussi souligné que l’Europe devait être prête à utiliser ce “bazooka” de l’instrument “anti-coercition”.L’UE s’est dotée en 2023 de cet instrument qui vise à punir tout pays utilisant des armes économiques pour faire pression sur elle. Jamais utilisé jusqu’ici, il a été pensé comme un outil de dissuasion, à activer après épuisement des voies diplomatiques.Donald Trump a lancé une offensive protectionniste sans équivalent depuis les années 1930, avec une série de hausse de taxes douanières, dont 20% pour les marchandises de l’Union européenne.La Commission européenne essaye de négocier avec Washington tout en préparant des mesures de rétorsion si les discussions n’aboutissent pas.

Market panic deepens as Trump sticks to tariffs

A global stock market rout deepened on Monday and fears of recession rose after China retaliated against US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and Europe calibrated its response to the escalating trade war.European equities were deep in the red but Asia fared worse, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index crashing 13.2 percent, its biggest drop since the 1997 Asian financial crisis, and Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 falling an eye-watering 7.8 percent.A 10-percent “baseline” tariff on imports from around the world took effect on Saturday but a slew of countries will be hit by higher duties from Wednesday, with levies of 34 percent for Chinese goods and 20 percent for EU products.While other countries weigh their options, Beijing announced last week its own 34-percent tariff on US goods, which will come into effect on Thursday.The tit-for-tat duties “are aimed at bringing the United States back onto the right track of the multilateral trade system”, Chinese vice commerce minister Ling Ji said.”The root cause of the tariff issue lies in the United States,” Ling told representatives of US companies on Sunday, according to his ministry.EU trade ministers gathered in Luxembourg on Monday to discuss the bloc’s response, with Germany and France having advocated a tax targeting US tech giants.”We must not exclude any option on goods, on services,” said French Trade Minister Laurent Saint-Martin.The 27-nation bloc should “open the European toolbox, which is very comprehensive and can also be extremely aggressive”, he said.German Economy Minister Robert Habeck likewise said Europe should be prepared to use its trade “bazooka” — a new anti-coercion mechanism allowing it to punish any country using economic threats to exert pressure on the EU.But signs of divergence already emerged, with Ireland, whose low corporate tax rate has attracted US tech and pharmaceutical companies, warning against that course of action.Targeting services “would be an extraordinary escalation at a time when we must be working for de-escalation”, said Irish Trade Minister Simon Harris.EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic said Europe was facing a “paradigm shift of the global trading system”.- Recession fears -Trump on Sunday doubled down on his demand to slash deficits with trading partners, saying he would not cut any deals unless that was resolved.”Sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something,” said Trump, whose administration has shrugged off the market panic.He told reporters aboard Air Force One that world leaders were “dying to make a deal”.Trillions of dollars have been wiped off stocks worldwide since Trump announced the tariffs last week, and the losses deepened on Monday.Taipei recorded its heaviest loss on record as it sank 9.7 percent.In Europe, Frankfurt’s DAX sank as much as 10 percent in early deals but the German index pared back losses and was down just under four percent shortly after midday, with similar losses in Paris and London.US markets were expected to open deep in the red later on Monday.The main US oil contract dropped below $60 a barrel for the first time since April 2021 on worries of a global recession.”The market’s telling you in plain language: global demand is vanishing, and a global recession is on the cards and coming on fast,” said Stephen Innes at SPI Asset Management.- Status quo ‘gone’ -US officials said more than 50 countries have reached out to Trump to negotiate.Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, whose country faces a 24-percent levy, said Tokyo would present Trump with a “package” of measures to win relief from US tariffs ahead of a mooted call between the leaders.Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel — hit with 17 percent tariffs, despite being one of Washington’s closest allies — was due on Monday to become the first leader to meet Trump since last week’s announcement.British Prime Minister Keir Starmer warned in a newspaper op-ed that “the world as we knew it has gone”, saying the status quo would increasingly hinge on “deals and alliances”.Vietnam, a manufacturing powerhouse with a big trade surplus with the United States, has already reached out and requested a delay of at least 45 days to thumping 46-percent tariffs.US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told NBC’s Meet the Press that Trump has “created maximum leverage for himself”.”I think we’re going to have to see what the countries offer and whether it’s believable,” Bessent said.Other countries have been “bad actors for a long time and it’s not the kind of thing you can negotiate away in days or weeks”, he said.