Tag - trade

 
 

TRADE

Japan's current account surplus grew 29.5% year on year in 2024, the Finance Ministry said.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 10, 2025
Japan's current account surplus hits record high in 2024
The surplus grew 29.5% from 2023 to ¥29.26 trillion ($193 billion) last year, the Finance Ministry said in a preliminary report.
Investors believe the amicable atmosphere of the first summit between Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday has the potential to help support Japanese stocks in the medium term.
BUSINESS / Markets
Feb 10, 2025
Japan markets wobble as Trump talks of new steel tariffs for 'everyone'
The U.S. president's talk of reciprocal tariffs for "everyone” has provided a reminder of the risks that face America’s trading partners.
Trucks cross the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, in Canada in the early morning hours of Feb. 1.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 10, 2025
Betrayed: How Trump’s tariff threats tore the U.S.-Canada bond
Donald Trump’s menacing rhetoric seems to have fractured the fraternal trust that has been the core of the relationship between the U.S. and Canada.
A worker welds at a steel manufacturing facility in Mexico City on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 10, 2025
Trump to announce 25% steel and aluminum tariffs in latest escalation
Trump, speaking to reporters on Air Force One on his way to the Super Bowl in New Orleans, said he will announce the new metals tariffs on Monday.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and U.S. President Donald Trump hold a joint news conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington on Saturday.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 9, 2025
Ishiba says Trump didn't push defense spending hike or discuss tariffs
Ishiba also echoed Trump's pledge to help mediate a move by Japan’s Nippon Steel to invest in U.S. Steel rather than purchasing the American company.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's visit to the U.S. for talks with Donald Trump yielded moderate success, highlighting the strategic focus of the American presidents second administration.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 9, 2025
So far, so good for Ishiba — at least for now
It's safe to say, Ishiba’s visit to the U.S. went well. But we mustn't become complacent.
Yellowtail is unloaded in Himi, Toyama Prefecture. Japan is looking to expand yellowtail exports to the United States, with China's blanket ban on Japanese fishery products still in place.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 9, 2025
JETRO to support yellowtail exports to U.S.
JETRO hopes to help expand sales channels for the fish in the United States, where Japanese cuisine has become popular amid an increase in health conscious consumers.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba shakes hands with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington on Friday.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 8, 2025
Trump targets U.S. trade deficit in first meeting with Ishiba
The two leaders pledged to pursue a "new golden age" of U.S.-Japan relations — though Ishiba did get an earful about America's trade deficit with its ally.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Friday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 8, 2025
Trump says he will announce reciprocal tariffs on many countries next week
Trump did not identify which countries would be hit but suggested it would be a broad effort that could also help solve U.S. budget problems.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump will likely aim at maintaining the status quo, avoid new trade issues and ensure Japan isn’t targeted by tariffs.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 7, 2025
A new golden age for U.S.-Japan? I don’t think so.
Ishiba won’t be looking for any great breakthrough, a dramatic defense re-posturing, or support for any of his long-held foreign policy goals
Singapore is positioning itself as a key player in the effort to diversify supply chains away from China, leveraging its proximity to Malaysia’s Johor state.
COMMENTARY
Feb 7, 2025
Singapore finds its seat at the China+1 table
Singapore is positioning itself as a key player in the effort to diversify supply chains away from China.
People line up outside an Apple store in Beijing.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 7, 2025
Apple’s China focus thrusts it into center of geopolitical fight
It counts China as its biggest manufacturing hub and the U.S. as its largest market, putting it at the center of an escalating geopolitical fight.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and U.S. President Donald Trump
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Feb 6, 2025
With Ishiba-Trump meet, Tokyo hopes to keep ties on even keel
Tokyo has been scrambling for ways to placate the U.S. leader, and head off any dust-up between the allies during Friday’s meeting.
A cargo ship full of shipping containers at the port of Oakland in Oakland, California, as trade tensions escalate over U.S. tariffs on Monday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 6, 2025
Economists brace for Trump's new trade war to rekindle inflation worldwide
Stubborn growth in consumer prices was bothering much of the world even before U.S. President Donald Trump entered the White House.
Ditching the U.S.' normal trade relations designation for China could lead to an automatic jump in levies, at rates that could far exceed what Trump has so far slapped on China.
BUSINESS / Economy / ANALYSIS
Feb 6, 2025
Trump's China focus increases odds of end to special trading status
The Permanent Normal Trade Relations designation was was extended to China in 2000.
The United States was the biggest food export destination for Japan, with shipments totaling ¥242.9 billion, up 17.8%, helped by efforts to diversify scallop export markets following China's fishery import ban.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 5, 2025
Japan's food exports hit record high for 12th straight year
The United States was the biggest food export destination for Japan.
U.S. President Donald Trump's imposed and since paused tariffs on Canada and Mexico, coupled with his broad levies on China — and possibly others soon — pose risks of economic retaliation, supply chain disruptions and long-term damage to U.S. influence.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 5, 2025
The tariff man is making a risky bet
The optimal tariff argument ignores the substantial risks that Trump is taking. A generalized trade war will make everyone worse off.
China, under President Xi Jinping, is resisting Donald Trump’s trade tariffs, but may need to respond with major fiscal stimulus, currency devaluation or allowing TikTok’s sale to navigate economic challenges.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 5, 2025
China’s Mr. Big Won’t Cave in to Trump for Nothing
Does Xi Jinping have a trade war game plan? He’ll need to make hard choices.
A ship transits through the Gatun locks at the Panama Canal in Colon, Panama, on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 5, 2025
Panama considers canceling port deal with Hong Kong firm
Such a move would mark a concession to U.S. President Donald Trump, who says China has too much control over the Panama Canal.
Cargo containers await loading onto ships at the port of Tianjin, China, on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 5, 2025
Xi’s careful reply to Trump tariffs shows China has more to lose
The shift reflects both Xi’s success at diversifying imports away from the U.S. since Trump’s first term, as well as China’s more precarious economic situation.

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Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone.
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan