European authorities will be encouraged to buy more domestic goods and services when they spend public money under the EU latest effort to counter China’s economic might. In a further “Buy European” plan, the European Commission published proposals on Wednesday for a sweeping overhaul of EU public procurement rules. National authorities and public bodies, such as schools and hospitals, will be encouraged to buy goods and services made in Europe but, unlike earlier plans to promote domestically manufactured clean tech, there will be no binding “made in Europe” quotas. Brussels…
Tag: International trade
EU faces 300,000 factory job cuts as China ‘colonises’ supply chains, industry warns
Protest using 10 coffins to symbolise struggling manufacturing industry to take place in Brussels Job losses in EU manufacturing will rapidly increase unless Brussels stops the “colonisation” of industry by Chinese component manufacturers, a leading industry trade body has warned. Eurometal predicts 300,000 job losses in manufacturing in the rest of 2026 because of expanding competition from China, which is now enjoying a record €1bn-a-day trade surplus with the bloc. Continue reading… The Guardian
‘Economic D-day’: how desperate is Trump to end Iran war? — The Latest
The White House has threatened sanctions on any country that trades with Iran in another bid to economically isolate the country, as US military efforts falter. Launching what he called Operation Economic Outcast, the US Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, compared it with D-day. China, Iran’s biggest trading partner, has already signalled that it will not cooperate with Trump’s attack on the Iranian economy. Lucy Hough speaks to Julian Borger, senior international correspondent – watch on YouTube The Guardian
China is the biggest buyer of Iran’s oil. Could US sanctions threaten those ties?
The US has unveiled an expansion of sanctions that it says will cut off Iran’s economic lifeline but stopped short of the most punishing measures, instead putting the world on notice to cease doing business with the Islamic republic. Treasury secretary Scott Bessent warned other countries would need to sever business ties with Iran or risk being forced out of the dollar-based financial system. He previously urged cooperation from China – the biggest buyer of Iranian oil for several years – although the US blockade of Iran’s ports, renewed in…
Iran vows to retaliate against countries that cooperate with fresh US sanctions
Tehran has vowed to retaliate against any country that cooperates with the US attempt to impose fresh sanctions against Iran in what the Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, has billed as “the single greatest financial offensive ever marshalled against an adversary”. In advance of the US announcement, the United Arab Emirates, Iran’s single biggest trading partner in the Middle East, announced it was ending all trade with Iran, a move Tehran believes was coordinated between Washington and the UAE. The US has said it will impose sanctions on any country or…
After Hormuz, China looks to the promise – and peril – of the Arctic’s ‘ice silk road’
When Marco Rubio suggested that the world should look to new shipping lanes to bypass the logjammed strait of Hormuz, it’s unlikely he had the Arctic’s northern sea route in mind. And yet in recent months the promise of this 5,500km channel – cleaved through frozen seas by nuclear-powered icebreakers and illuminated by a sun that never dips below the Arctic horizon – has grown. Japan, Korea and India have all expressed interest in sending cargoes through the northern sea route (NSR), but it’s China that has established the first…
President Xi nevers wastes a good crisis. As Iran, Ukraine and Palestine distract the world, he tightens his grip | Simon Tisdall
Imagine what would happen if a British prime minister in London told the Scots they could not have their own parliament, national football team or fly the saltire. Or if the Welsh were told their language and poetry were banned and must no longer be taught in schools. The ensuing uproar would probably destroy the United Kingdom. Yet that’s exactly what Xi Jinping, China’s communist emperor, is telling the roughly 125 million members of the 55 ethnic and religious minorities who together comprise about 9% of the country’s (majority Han…
China’s economy grows at 4.3%, one of its lowest rates on record
China has posted worse-than-expected growth figures for the three months to June as its economy expanded by just 4.3% – one of its lowest quarterly readings on record. The rate, which came in under the government’s target of 4.5% to 5%, was one of the weakest since reporting on official quarterly GDP figures began in the early 1990s. The last period when growth was lower was the final quarter of 2022 when the country was still under its three-year period of Covid-19 restrictions. The data released on Wednesday by the…
China’s monthly car exports top 1m for first time as overall trade soars
China’s monthly car exports topped 1m for the first time in June as overall overseas shipments from the world’s second biggest economy rose 27%. Official Chinese customs data showed that a stronger-than-expected trade performance kept China on track to match or beat last year’s record trade surplus of $1tn (£748bn), achieved despite Donald Trump’s curtailed tariff war. Sales of Chinese brands ranging from BYD to Jaecoo are booming, eating into the market shares of long-established brands, particularly in Europe. Analysis by the Mercator Institute for China Studies (Merics) in Berlin…
UK to halve tariff-free steel imports to counter glut of cheap Chinese metal
The UK government will halve the amount of tariff-free steel imports allowed in an attempt to counter a global oversupply of cheap Chinese metal and bolster its beleaguered local industry. New “safeguards” will be introduced on 1 July and will coincide with similar new limits being introduced by the EU for the same purposes. At the same time tariffs on steel imports above the duty-free quotas will be doubled to 50% of the product’s value. The quotas replace existing pre-Brexit rules that set import levels across the EU. The UK…