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Pacific island nations hit hardest by US President Donald Trump’s trade tariffs are querying the “unfair” impost, and they are fearful of the impact.The United States has punished Fiji, Vanuatu and tiny Nauru for running trade surpluses with the economic superpower, slapping them with duties far above its new 10-percent baseline.Besides squeezing their finances, analysts say the US levies are making Pacific countries wary of their historic ally, which has already cut humanitarian aid programmes.”It’s just another reason to have less trust in the US, stacked on top of the US aid freeze,” said Blake Johnson, senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute think tank.It also creates opportunities for China to expand its ties from aid to trade, he said, as Beijing vies with the United States and its allies for influence in the geographically strategic region.Among the Pacific countries’ biggest sellers in the United States are the traditional narcotic kava drink, and spring water under the brand Fiji Water — owned by Los Angeles-based The Wonderful Company.The 22-percent tariffs on Vanuatu are expected to impact exports and hurt kava farmers, a spokesperson for the prime minister said.-‘Just suck them up’ -Vanuatu was hit by the tariffs after running a US$6.6 million surplus in its trade of goods with the United States last year, according to UN data. Jonathan Naupa, owner of Vanuatu kava exporter Mount Kava, said demand for kava was high and he had no plans to cut prices for the US market.”We are going to keep our prices right where they are — the American public can just suck them up,” he told AFP, adding that there was a growing global market for kava exports.He welcomed Trump’s move.”I actually think it’s a good thing that he’s done this because it will make the Americans realise that they need to treat our cultural product with a bit more respect,” he said.”With the shortage of kava in Vanuatu, I don’t see prices going down, and I hope my fellow exporters also try to follow suit and not drop their prices.”Nauru’s main exports include the remnants of its once-vast phosphate deposits and the sale of fishing rights, but it was not clear what made up its 2024 goods trade surplus with the United States of $1.4 million — about the price of a one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan.It faces a 30-percent US trade tariff.Fiji runs a larger surplus in the trade of goods with the United States of about $252 million helped by exports of  Fiji Water, kava and fish, and it now faces a 32-percent tariff across the board.- ‘Unfair’ -The beach-fringed tourist magnet says it applies zero or five-percent duty on 96 percent of US imports.Trump’s levy “is quite disproportionate and unfair”, Finance Minister Biman Prasad said in a statement.”We are still trying to get more details on the exact rationale and application of the newly announced retaliatory tariff by the US and will work with our key stakeholders and US counterparts to get this,” he said.Roland Rajah, director of the Indo-Pacific Development Centre at the Lowy Institute think tank, said the tariffs were based on the scale of US trade deficits with each country.But it makes economic sense to have a trade deficit with some countries and a surplus with others, he said.”It’s not necessarily driven by particular policy distortions,” Rajah added, making it hard for countries to find a basis for trade talks with the United States.”The other factor for the Pacific is that being small countries and quite small trading partners in the world it might be very difficult for them to get a hearing with the Trump administration, who will have bigger fish to fry at the current moment.”Papua New Guinea, the most populous Pacific island country, said it had no plans to retaliate against the US decision to impose a 10-percent tariff.”We will continue to strengthen our trade relations in Asia and the Pacific, where our produce is welcomed,” Prime Minister James Marape said in a statement.”If the US market becomes more difficult due to this tariff, we will simply redirect our goods to markets where there is mutual respect and no artificial barriers.”

TikTok on Friday was hours from a deadline to find a non-Chinese owner or face a ban in the United States.The hugely popular video-sharing app, which has more than 170 million American users, is under threat from a US law that passed overwhelmingly last year and orders TikTok to split from its Chinese owner ByteDance or get shut down in the United States.US President Donald Trump on Thursday said his administration was “very close” to a deal to find a buyer for TikTok, adding that it involved “multiple” investors but giving no further details.Motivated by national security fears and widespread belief in Washington that TikTok is ultimately controlled by the Chinese government, the law took effect on January 19, one day before Trump’s inauguration.In the hours before that deadline, TikTok temporarily shut down in the United States and disappeared from app stores, to the dismay of millions of users.But the Republican president quickly announced a 75-day delay and TikTok subsequently restored service to existing users, returning to the Apple and Google app stores in February.That delay is set to expire at midnight (0400 GMT) on April 5, but Trump has repeatedly downplayed risks that TikTok is in danger, saying he remains confident of finding a buyer for the app’s US business.The president also suggested TikTok could even be part of a broader deal with China to ease the stinging tariffs he imposed on Beijing as part of a worldwide blitz of levies.Asked Thursday if he was willing to make deals with countries on tariffs, he said: “As long as they are giving us something that is good. For instance with TikTok.””We have a situation with TikTok where China will probably say we’ll approve a deal but will you do something on the tariffs. The tariffs give us great power to negotiate,” he added.According to reports, the most likely solution would see existing US investors in ByteDance roll over their stakes into a new independent global TikTok company.Additional US investors, including Oracle and Blackstone, the private equity firm, would be brought on to reduce the proportion of Chinese investors.Much of TikTok’s US activity is already housed on Oracle servers, and the company’s chairman, Larry Ellison, is a longtime Trump ally.- What about the algorithm? -But uncertainty remains, particularly over what would happen to TikTok’s valuable algorithm. The New York Times suggested the new company could licence it from ByteDance.The arrangement would however go against the spirit of the law, which is in part based on the premise that TikTok’s algorithm can be weaponized by the Chinese against US interests.Amazon has also reportedly made a last-minute bid to buy TikTok.Other proposals include an initiative called “The People’s Bid for TikTok,” launched by real estate and sports tycoon Frank McCourt’s Project Liberty initiative.Artificial intelligence startup Perplexity recently expressed interest in buying TikTok, as did a joint venture involving YouTube mega-celebrity MrBeast.Trump, though he supported a ban in his first term, has lately become a TikTok defender, seeing it as a reason more young voters supported him in November’s election.One of his major political donors, billionaire Jeff Yass, is a major stakeholder in parent company ByteDance.

In unveiling tariffs this week challenging the decades-old international trade order, President Donald Trump lambasted globalization as a raw deal for the United States that has devastated US manufacturing towns.Trump left out the upside to the United States from the liberal flow of goods: a reliable supply of affordably priced appliances, clothing and electronics whose consumption has helped lift US economic growth above other developed economies in recent years.”Obviously we’ve benefited significantly,” said Paul Gruenwald, global chief economist at S&P Global Ratings. “We get to consume a lot of things that are produced more efficiently in other countries.”Trump’s tariffs are almost certain to negatively impact this dynamic, say economists who see the levies lifting the price on everything from Gap t-shirts to the Apple iPhone to French wine.”This is very clearly going to raise consumer prices,” Michael Pearce, a US economist with Oxford Economics, said of the barrage of levies announced late Wednesday in an unveiling the White House billed as “liberation day.”Winners in Trump’s policy include communities that benefit from reshored manufacturing, while losers include export-focused industries like plane manufacturing and pharmaceuticals if there are retaliatory tariffs, Pearce said. But imports represent only about 14 percent of US gross domestic product, while exports account for 11 percent — figures that are even lower if energy is taken out. Moreover, goods account for one-third of US consumption compared with services, which comprise the rest.”The net impact on the US economy may be surprisingly small given the headlines we’re seeing,” said Pearce, who warned that Trump’s levies could end up disproportionately hurting low-income consumers if the tariffs are paired with tax cuts that benefit the wealthy.Gruenwald, who described US consumer resiliency as a core strength in recent times, said S&P will lower the US outlook somewhat amid a higher inflation outlook for 2025. But he said the trade war “wouldn’t move the needle” in the short-term “for a big economy like the United States.”- More ‘friction’ ahead -Trump’s Wednesday White House event unveiled levies on dozens of countries including all major US trading partners. These included the imposition of 20 percent levies on the European Union, 24 percent on Japan and an additional 34 percent on goods from China — bringing the new added tariff rate there to 54 percent. Trump cast the event in historic terms, saying Wednesday “will forever be remembered as the day American industry was reborn” and the country turned the page on globalization.”For decades, our country has been looted, pillaged, raped, and plundered by nations near and far, both friend and foe alike,” he said.A day after the announcement, commentators cautioned that the president’s history of sometimes quickly shifting on tariffs meant that the proposed levies could be altered after bargaining with other governments, which could lean on big companies to lift investments in the United States. In any case, economists predicted the shift would lessen trade between the United States and other countries, but not end it.”There will be a lot more friction,” said Joseph Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM US, a consultancy, who predicted the underlying structure around trade and capital flows will be maintained.Brusuelas said the United States has been the “big winner” under globalization, but predicted growth “won’t be as exceptional.” “Europe and Asia will narrow the gap,” Brusuelas added, calling them “places where the state plays a more central role in constraining the movement of goods and capital.”Pearce said Trump’s unpredictability on trade would lead to reduced capital spending by firms in the short run and that the broad tilt against trade will be “slightly negative” for the US economy in the long run.Gruenwald pointed to the risk of reduced competition.Globalization forced US companies “to deal with foreign competition,” Gruenwald said. “If we kind of seal off that competition, there’s a risk these nice productivity numbers could decline.”

From European wines to industrial tools, global tariffs launched by US President Donald Trump this week promise to sweep through the world’s biggest economy, impacting everyone from restaurant owners to industrial manufacturers.For Brett Gitter, who makes his quality control instruments in China-based factories, Trump’s planned tariff hike on goods from the country marks a further price surge to potentially startling levels for customers.”I add a surcharge at the bottom of every invoice to cover the expense of the tariff,” he told AFP.”The bottom of the invoice now is going to say 54 percent,” he added, referring to a new rate hitting Chinese imports starting next Wednesday.All of this stacks on an existing 25 percent rate Chinese imports already faced before Trump returned to the presidency, he said, although he tried to absorb some of the earlier duties.”That’s a lot,” he added. “That’s going to alarm people.”This week, Trump unveiled a sweeping 10 percent tariff on most US trading partners, set to take effect on Saturday.He declared that foreign trade practices have caused a “national emergency,” imposing levies to boost his country’s position.Additionally, “worst offenders” that have large trade imbalances with the United States will face even higher rates come April 9.The list covers about 60 partners including the European Union, China, India and Japan.Gitter said his customers, who are American manufacturers too, will have to decide if they want to foot the higher bill.”Other countries that have similar types of product have added tariffs too,” he said. “Where does my product made in China fit, and how bad does it take a hit compared to other competitors?”- ‘Frightening’ -Andrew Fortgang, who runs three restaurants and a wine shop in Oregon, worries about Trump’s additional 20 percent tariff on European Union imports — specifically, wine.The rate is also taking effect April 9.”Probably 25 percent of our revenue is from imported wine,” he told AFP, noting that the steep tariff will bite.For these sales to vanish would be “really frightening,” he said.Beyond that, “everything from oil, to mustards, cheeses, and meats, they are just not fungible, they are not made here,” Fortgang said. “It’s going to add up.”While he expects he would be forced to pass on some costs to consumers by hiking menu prices, high inflation after the Covid-19 pandemic have weighed on customers.”You’ll kind of reach a tipping point,” he said, “on how much you can raise prices.”US Wine Trade Alliance president Ben Aneff called the plan “a disaster for small businesses.””Restaurants really rely on large margins in order to effectively subsidize the rest of their business,” he said, adding that consumers will likely see higher prices.”We import about $4.5 billion worth of (wine) from the EU and US businesses make almost $25 billion from those imports. There is no plug for that hole,” he told AFP.Others in the food and beverages sector have already been hit by Trump’s multiple waves of tariffs.Bill Butcher, a craft brewer in Virginia, earlier saw a shortage of glass bottles for his beers when metals tariffs took effect in March — as industry giants pivoted away from aluminum cans to avoid added costs.Now, he awaits suppliers’ verdict on how much the incoming tariffs on European goods will add to costs for the grains and hops needed in his brews.”It’s just a lot of uncertainty and chaos in our supply chain,” he said.- Hard to relocate -Gitter, whose business is based in New Jersey, has tried “many times” to relocate production to the United States.”There’s a lack of infrastructure in the US to support what we do,” he said.The printed circuit boards used in his instruments, for example, require chips made in East Asia.Will Thomas, whose company transforms coils of steel into metal products, added: “We import from necessity, not desire.”While he is not hard hit by Trump’s partner-based tariffs this week, earlier 25 percent duties on steel and aluminum imports have eaten away at his profits.”I’m hoping this is not another nail in the coffin for foreign supply,” Thomas said.”I would just like the leaders of the countries to be able to sit down and work things out.”

Donald Trump fired several US national security officials after a far-right conspiracy theorist questioned their loyalty in a White House meeting with the president, US media reported Thursday.Influencer Laura Loomer, who is known for claiming that the 9/11 terrorist attacks were an inside job, laid out her concerns to Trump on Wednesday, the New York Times said in a report followed up by other outlets.The reported purge comes as the National Security Council (NSC) faces scrutiny over a scandal in which a journalist was accidentally added to a chat on the Signal app in which officials discussed air strikes on Yemen.Six people from the NSC were sacked after the Loomer meeting, including three senior officials on the body which advises the president on top foreign policy matters from Ukraine to Gaza, the New York Times said.Loomer confirmed the meeting, but said on X that “out of respect for President Trump and the privacy of the Oval Office, I’m going to decline on divulging any details.”The activist later said she had presented “opposition research” to the Republican president.Asked about the report of the firings, Trump later told reporters: “We’re always going to let go of people — people we don’t like or people that take advantage of or people that may have loyalties to someone else.”Trump described Loomer as a “great patriot” but said she was “not at all” involved with the reported NSC firings.”She makes recommendations… and sometimes I listen to those recommendations,” he told reporters on Air Force One.NSC spokesman Brian Hughes told AFP the council “doesn’t comment on personnel matters.”The 31-year-old Loomer often flew with Trump on his campaign plane during the 2024 election.She sparked accusations of racism when she said on social media that Trump’s Democratic rival Kamala Harris — whose mother was of Indian descent — would make the White House “smell like curry” if she won.In recent days Loomer has repeatedly targeted national security official Alex Wong — who was reportedly not among those sacked — over the so-called “Signalgate” scandal that has rocked the White HouseShe baselessly suggested that he was responsible for accidentally adding Atlantic magazine journalist Jeffrey Goldberg to the chat, even though National Security Advisor Mike Waltz has taken responsibility for the error.Trump has resisted calls to sack Waltz over the issue. Waltz was seen boarding Trump’s helicopter as the president left the White House for a trip to Florida on Thursday.But US media have reported that Waltz is considered by some in Trump’s orbit as too tied to neo-conservative policies, rather than Trump’s “America First” approach.

An original model of E.T., created for Steven Spielberg’s beloved film “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,” did not find a buyer after being put up for auction, Sotheby’s auction house in New York said Thursday.The piece, a little over a meter high and which had been estimated to fetch between $600,000 and $900,000, comes from the collection of Italian special effects artist Carlo Rambaldi.The three-time Oscar winner — including one for “E.T.” — died in 2012 at the age of 86.”Rambaldi’s beloved ET model is an extraordinary piece of film history,” Sotheby’s vice chair Cassandra Hatton told AFP.”While it did not find a buyer during today’s auction, its significance remains undiminished.”The model offered for sale is one of three used by Spielberg for his 1982 film.In a statement before the auction, Hatton described the model as embodying “the artistry of an era before CGI (computer-generated imagery) took hold, a nostalgic and iconic piece of Hollywood history as captivating as the stories themselves.”Sotheby’s said that a separate E.T. sketch made by Rambaldi had sold Thursday for over $53,000, well above its top-end estimate of $18,000.In 2022, a metallic automaton representing E.T. and also used during the shooting of the successful film was sold for $2.56 million at an auction organized by the American house Julien’s.

Donald Trump’s tariffs have become a black and white issue on social media, where penguin memes have gone viral after he targeted an island inhabited by the flightless birds, but no people.One widely shared image on Thursday showed a penguin in place of Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office during his recent row with the US president and Vice President JD Vance.Another meme showed US First Lady Melania Trump gazing up at an emperor penguin — in place of former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — while Trump looks askance.Trump’s announcement of worldwide tariffs on Wednesday certainly received an icy reception in many countries.But there has also been bafflement about why some of the most remote parts of the world have been targeted.A case in point: why would Trump slap 10 percent tariffs on all exports from the Heard and McDonald Islands, a barren sub-Antarctic Australian territory without a human population, but four different species of penguin? “The penguins have been ripping us off for years,” Anthony Scaramucci, who was Trump’s former communications chief for 11 days in his first term and is now a vocal critic, joked on X.”Donald Trump slapped tariffs on penguins and not on Putin,” posted US Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, referring to the fact that Russia was not on the US tariff list.The White House said sanctions on Russia over President Vladimir Putin’s war on meant that there was no “meaningful” trade on which to impose tariffs.Trump also caused puzzlement with his 29 percent tariff on Norfolk Island, a tiny Australian territory in the Pacific with a population of a little over 2,000 humans.”I’m not quite sure that Norfolk Island, with respect to it, is a trade competitor with the giant economy of the United States,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.Britain’s remote Falkland Islands — home to one million penguins, and most famous for a 1982 war fought by Britain to repel Argentinian invaders — was hit by 41 percent exports even though the UK only faces 10 percent.Trump’s tariffs have however been no laughing matter for global markets, with US stocks suffering their worst day since the Covid pandemic in 2020.

As global financial markets plunge in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs, Americans must also grapple with the potentially long-lasting impact of the move on household budgets.The tariffs — which are paid in the first instance by US importers — will likely push up the price of many household items in the United States and reduce consumers’ spending power. – Grocery store costs -The US imports a growing share of the fresh fruits and vegetables consumed each year, according to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).Many of the fresh goods come from Canada and Mexico, two countries not immediately affected by the tariffs announced Wednesday. But other goods will be hit by the stinging duties set to come into effect this month.For example, the United States imports large quantities of bananas from the Latin American countries of Guatemala, Ecuador and Costa Rica, which will all face a 10 percent tariff from April 5.Coffee — around 80 percent of which is imported, according to the USDA — is likely to see a price increase, given that top exporters Brazil and Colombia will also face the new baseline 10 percent rate.Olive oil and alcohol imports from Italy, Spain and Greece will be hit with a new 20 percent levy against the European Union from April 9. And Thai jasmine rice and Indian basmati rice will face tariffs of 36 percent and 26 percent respectively, while Indian shrimp — which the US imports large quantities of — will face the same 26 percent rate. – Electronics and cars -Consumer electronics are also set to be hit with steep tariffs this month, given how many of products are manufactured or assembled in India and China. Despite moves to expand its supply chain, Apple still makes the vast majority of its iPhones in China, through supplier Foxconn, where hardware exports will be hit with a tariff totaling 54 percent from April 9.Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicted that US buyers of high-end iPhones, who account for as much as 70 percent of sales, are “relatively more accepting of price increases.”On top of the measures announced Wednesday, the Trump administration has also rolled out a 25 percent tariff against vehicles not made in the United States — a step analysts have warned could add thousands to the cost of the average car. – Shoes, clothes -Shares of clothing and textile companies, which rely on cheap labor in countries including China and Vietnam, fell sharply Thursday, with Nike sinking more than 13 percent and Gap tanking more than 20 percent.The new tariffs announced Wednesday mean imports to the United States from China and Vietnam will be taxed at 54 percent and 46 percent respectively. Yale’s Budget Lab estimated the effect of recent tariffs, up to and including Wednesday’s announcement, would cause a 17 percent rise in the cost of clothing and textiles.The think tank calculated that the overall effect on prices of the tariffs announced so far was equivalent to an average per household consumer loss of $3,800.Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Trump insisted that tariffs would make the United States “very rich.””The operation is over,” he said, referring to the recent tariff announcement. “And now we let it settle in.”

President Donald Trump said his administration was “very close” to a deal to find a buyer for TikTok, which faces a US ban if not sold by its Chinese owner by the weekend.”We’re very close to a deal with a very good group of people,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, adding that it involved “multiple” investors but giving no further details.The hugely popular video-sharing app, which has over 170 million American users, is under threat from a US law that passed overwhelmingly last year and orders TikTok to split from its Chinese owner ByteDance or face a ban in the United States.Motivated by national security fears and widespread belief in Washington that TikTok is ultimately controlled by the Chinese government, the law took effect on January 19, one day before Trump’s inauguration.But the Republican president quickly announced a delay that has allowed it to continue to operate; that delay is set to expire on April 5.Trump has downplayed risks that TikTok is in danger of being banned in the United States, saying he remains confident of finding a buyer for the app’s US business.The US president also suggested TikTok could even be part of a broader deal with China to ease the stinging tariffs he imposed on Beijing as part of a worldwide blitz of levies.Asked Thursday if he was willing to make deals with countries on tariffs, he said: “As long as they are giving us something that is good. For instance with TikTok.”He added: “We have a situation with TikTok where China will probably say we’ll approve a deal but will you do something on the tariffs. The tariffs give us great power to negotiate.”According to reports, the most likely solution would see existing US investors in ByteDance roll over their stakes into a new independent global TikTok company.Additional US investors, including Oracle and Blackstone, the private equity firm, would be brought on to reduce the proportion of Chinese investors.Much of TikTok’s US activity is already housed on Oracle servers, and the company’s chairman, Larry Ellison, is a longtime Trump ally.But uncertainty remains, particularly over what would happen to TikTok’s valuable algorithm. The New York Times suggested the new company could licence it from ByteDance.Amazon has also reportedly made a last-minute bid to buy TikTok.