04/02/2025

BIZ & FINANCE TUESDAY | FEB 4, 2025 EU to make e-commerce

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Trump announces talks with Canada and Mexico

firms liable for ‘unsafe’ goods BRUSSELS: The European Union is planning to make e-commerce platforms such as Temu, Shein and Amazon Marketplace liable for dangerous or illegal products sold online, the Financial Times reported. Customs reforms would oblige online platforms to provide data before goods arrive in the EU, allowing officials to better control and inspect packages, according to a draft proposal seen by FT. Currently anyone who purchases goods online in the EU is treated as the importer for customs purposes, but the new reform will hold the platforms responsible, the newspaper reported. Online retailers would have to collect the relevant duty and VAT and ensure the goods comply with other EU requirements, the report said. Customs data from the 27 national authorities will be pooled and a new central EU customs authority (EUCA) set up, according to the FT. “The EUCA would be able to screen the goods based on this information and to identify potential risks, even prior to the loading of the goods for transport,” the report said. – Reuters WASHINGTON: Donald Trump has fired the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, who announced that his term had been “concluded” in the latest move by the Republican president to reshape the American government. Rohit Chopra, who had been named to head the agency responsible for protecting bank customers in 2021, had been due to serve a five-year term, but in a letter posted on social platform X he said that had been cut short. “Every day, Americans from across the country shared their ideas and experiences with us. You helped us hold powerful companies & their executives accountable for breaking the law, and you made our work better.” Advocacy group Progressive Change Campaign Committee slammed the dismissal as “a direct giveaway to Wall Street”, accusing Trump of having“caved into pressure”. Chopra had engaged in multiple skirmishes with the major US banks, particularly over excessive overdraft fees. – AFP punishable by up to 10 years in prison, said the government. Cooper told the BBC on Sunday that a recent inquiry had found that around 500,000 children across the UK are victims of child abuse of some form each year, “and the online aspect of that is an increasing and growing part of it”. The measures will be introduced as part of the Crime and Policing Bill when it comes to Parliament. – AFP US consumer protection chief fired

prices, Trump has put the levy on energy imports from Canada at only 10%. The president has cited illegal immigration and the trafficking of the deadly opioid fentanyl as reasons for the “emergency” measures. But on Sunday, he also expressed general outrage at trade deficits, which he has long viewed as signs of unfair treatment against the United States. “The USA has major deficits with Canada, Mexico, and China (and almost all countries!), owes 36 Trillion Dollars, and we’re not going to be the ‘Stupid Country’ any longer,” he wrote. The tariffs announcements capped an extraordinary second week of Trump’s new term, with the president facing the worst US aviation disaster in years – even as his administration moved to drastically overhaul the government in actions decried by critics as illegal. In a separate social media post, Trump took particular aim at Canada, repeating his call for America’s northern neighbour to become a US state.

Claiming the United States pays “hundreds of billions of dollars to SUBSIDIZE Canada,” Trump said that “without this massive subsidy, Canada ceases to exist as a viable Country”. “Therefore, Canada should become our Cherished 51st State,” he said, reiterating the expansionist threat against one of his country’s closest allies. The US Census Bureau says the 2024 trade deficit in goods with Canada was US$55 billion (RM246 billion). Canadian backlash was swift, with video posted to social media showing fans at a Toronto Raptors game on Sunday booing during the US national anthem. Trudeau vowed Saturday to hit back with 25% levies on select American goods worth C$155 billion (RM477 billion), with a first round today followed by a second one in three weeks. Leaders of several Canadian provinces have already announced retaliatory actions as well, such as the immediate halt of US liquor purchases. – AFP

foreign exporters, without being passed on to American consumers, contradicting the opinion of a broad range of experts. Earlier on Sunday he acknowledged, in a series of messages on his Truth Social network, that Americans may feel economic “pain” from his tariffs, but argued it would be “worth the price” to secure US interests. China, Mexico and Canada are the top three US trade partners and all have vowed to retaliate when the tariffs take effect today. “Will there be some pain? Yes, maybe (and maybe not!)” Trump wrote on Sunday morning in all caps on his Truth Social media platform. “But we will Make America Great Again, and it will all be worth the price that must be paid.” Analysts expect the trade war to slow US growth and increase prices, at least in the short term, something the president had resisted acknowledging after frustration over rising costs was seen as a major factor in his 2024 election win. Seeking to limit a spike in fuel

o President says tariff ‘pain’ will be ‘worth the price’

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said he will discuss the punishing tariffs he has levied on Canada and Mexico with both countries today, after arguing that Americans may feel economic “pain” from the 25% duties but that it will be “worth the price”. Speaking to reporters after he flew back to Washington Sunday evening from a weekend in Florida, Trump said he was “speaking with Prime Minister (Justin) Trudeau, and I’m also speaking with Mexico.” “I don’t expect anything very dramatic,” he added. Trump has also hit China with a 10% tariff in addition to levies already in place. A fervent supporter of tariffs, Trump had always maintained that their impact would be borne by

Trump speaking to reporters after signing Interior Secretary Doug Burghum’s commission in the Oval Office in Washington. – AFPPIC

UK to become first country to criminalise AI child abuse tools

LONDON: Britain will become the first country to introduce laws against AI tools used to generate sexual abuse images, the government announced. The government will make it illegal to possess, create or distribute AI tools designed to generate sexualised images of children, punishable by up to five years in prison, Interior Minister Yvette Cooper revealed. It will also be illegal to possess AI “paedophile manuals” which teach

people how to use AI to sexually abuse children, punishable by up to three years in prison. “This is a real disturbing phenomenon. Online child sexual abuse material is growing, but also the grooming of children teenagers online. And what’s now happening is that AI is putting this on steroids,“ Cooper told Sky News. She said AI tools were making it easier for perpetrators “to groom

children, and it’s also meaning that they are manipulating images of children and then using them to draw and to blackmail young people into further abuse”. “It’s just the most vile of crimes,” she added. The new law would include banning “some of the AI models being used for child abuse”, she said. “Other countries are not yet doing this, but I hope everyone else

will follow,” the minister added. AI tools are being used to generate child sexual abuse images by “nudeifying” real life images of children or by “stitching the faces of other children onto existing images”, said the government. The new laws will also criminalise “predators who run websites designed for other paedophiles to share vile child sexual abuse content or advice on how to groom children,”