09/06/2025

BIZ & FINANCE MONDAY | JUNE 9, 2025

18

China offers fast-track rare earth approvals to EU o Consultations on EV minimum price in final stage

Australia seeks stronger trade ties after ‘unjustified’ American tariffs

SYDNEY: Australia will push to expand free trade agreements with other countries to reduce its reliance on the United States, Trade Minister Don Farrell said yesterday, slamming President Donald Trump’s “unjustified” tariffs. Australia is a close US ally but has been slugged with a blanket 10% tariff on goods exported to the United States, rising to 50% on steel and aluminium, as part of Trump’s sweeping global duties. “I’m hopeful that those countries around the world who do believe in free and fair trade can reach an agreement to extend free trade agreements across the globe, so that irrespective of what the Americans might chose to do, we have a greater diversity of trading partners,” Farrell told Sky News. The minister was speaking after talks last week in Paris with the World Trade Organisation, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and other countries which he said had focused on preventing “protectionism” and encouraging free and fair trade. Trade between Australia and the United States is worth an estimated A$100 billion (RM275 billion) a year, with Australia buying more from the United States than it is selling, Farrell said. He said he had protested the duties last week to his US counterpart Jamieson Greer. “The position I’ve put to Jamieson Greer is that the tariffs that the United States have imposed on Australia are unjustified,” Farrell said. “We want all of the tariffs removed, not just some of them.” The European Union said last month it is seeking a defence partnership with Australia, as the bloc looks to forge a united international response to the Ukraine war and other global crises. – AFP Bank of England LONDON: The Bank of England still expects the ongoing rise in UK inflation to fade but is “not sanguine” about it after price growth proved more persistent than anticipated only a few years ago, BoE monetary policymaker Megan Greene said on Saturday. Britain suffered a bigger than expected inflation surge in April – even after taking out an error in the data – prompting investors to bet on the BoE slowing its already gradual pace of interest rate cuts. “Our view is that we can look through it, but of course there’s a pretty big risk,” Greene told a conference in Croatia. “The last time we had a lot of second round effects. We’re hoping that we won’t have second round effects this time around, but we’re not sanguine about it.” She argued the recent cost-of-living crisis, which saw inflation peak at 11.1% in 2022, might have made “people ... more sensitive to upticks in inflation and so that could feed through the wage-price behaviour”. Greene, an external member of the BoE’s Monetary Policy Committee, voted last month with the majority for a quarter-point cut in rates to 4.25% and has said she was part of the group who might have voted to keep rates on hold if it had not been for US tariffs. She reaffirmed on Saturday that private-sector pay growth was “way above what would be consistent with a 2% inflation target”. – Reuters ‘not sanguine’ about inflation hump: Official

Chinese anti-dumping measures that applied duties of up to 39% on imports of European brandy – with French cognac bearing the brunt – have also strained relations between Paris and Beijing. The brandy duties were enforced days after the EU took action against China-made EV imports to shield its local industry. The duties have dented sales of brands including LVMH’s Hennessy, Pernod Ricard’s Martell and Remy Cointreau. China’s Commerce Ministry said on Saturday that French firms and relevant associations had proactively submitted applications on price commitments for brandy to China and that Chinese investigators had reached an agreement with them on the core terms. Chinese authorities were now reviewing the complete text on those commitments and would issue a final announcement before July 5, it said. In April, the European Commission said the EU and China had also agreed to look into setting minimum prices of China-made EVs instead of tariffs imposed by the EU last year. China’s Commerce Ministry said the EU had also proposed exploring “new technical paths” relating to EVs. – Reuters

range of rare earths and related magnets has upended the supply chains central to automakers, aerospace manufacturers, semiconductor companies and military contractors around the world. The ministry said China attached great importance to the EU’s concerns and “was willing to establish a green channel for qualified applications to speed up the approval process”. In a separate statement the Commerce Ministry issued later on Saturday, it said China was willing to further strengthen communication and dialogue with relevant countries on rare earth export controls as it recognised that demand from sectors such as robotics and electric vehicles had risen. The ministry earlier said Wang during the meeting “expressed the hope that the EU will meet us halfway and take effective measures to facilitate, safeguard and promote compliant trade in high-tech products to China”.

SHANGHAI: China is willing to accelerate the examination and approval of rare earth exports to European Union firms and will also deliver a verdict on its trade investigation of EU brandy imports by July 5, its Commerce Ministry said on Saturday. Price commitment consultations between China and the EU on Chinese-made electric vehicles (EVs) exported to the EU have also entered a final stage but efforts from both sides are still needed, according to a statement on the ministry’s website. The issues were discussed between Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao and EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic in Paris last Tuesday, according to the statement. The comments mark progress on matters that have vexed China’s relationship with the EU over the past year. Most recently, China’s decision in April to suspend exports of a wide

A man working at a rare earth metals mine at the Chinese province of Jiangxi. – REUTERSPIC

UK govt announces £86b for science, tech, defence LONDON: The UK government yesterday announced £86 billion (RM490 billion) of investment in science and technology and defence by 2030, days before it unveils its spending plan for the coming years. boost of up to £30 billion for the under-pressure National Health Service on Wednesday, when she presents the government’s broader review of UK public spending over the coming years, according to The Time s newspaper. week that the review would include plans to double investment in public transport in England’s urban regions by 2030, to over £15 billion.

The Defence Ministry also seems certain to receive a budget boost in Wednesday’s review, but other departments will have to tighten their belts beyond the cuts already announced in March. Areas expected to be targeted include support for disabled people and government operating costs. Thousands gathered in central London on Saturday to protest against those anticipated measures, with many holding placards reading “tax the rich, stop the cuts – welfare not warfare”. – AFP

The £86 billion investment will target “people’s priorities: health, security and the economy”, the government said. The investment plan will enable the development of“innovation clusters”across the UK and give local government leaders powers to decide where their funding goes, it added. Reeves hopes the spending will boost sluggish growth, which is also likely to suffer from the trade war launched by US President Donald Trump. The government announced earlier this

Labour Finance Minister Rachel Reeves has announced drastic cuts to public budgets in recent months amid tight fiscal conditions and has also authorised more borrowing for investment, unlocking a total of £113 billion by the end of the decade. Within this framework, £86 billion will be invested “to turbo-charge our fastest growing sectors, from tech and life sciences, to advanced manufacturing and defence”, the government said in a statement. Reeves is also set to announce a funding