03/07/2025

BIZ & FINANCE THURSDAY | JULY 3, 2025

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Trump threatens Japan with up to 35% tariff

Alibaba launches e-commerce subsidies of 50 billion yuan BEIJING: The online retail platform of Chinese tech giant Alibaba announced yesterday that it will issue 50 billion yuan (RM29 billion) in subsidies for certain purchases, providing a much-needed boost for a country struggling with sluggish spending. Taobao, China’s e-commerce champion launched by Alibaba in 2003, said in a WeChat statement that the 50 billion yuan would “directly subsidise consumers and merchants” over a 12-month period starting yesterday. The spending incentives on Taobao’s “flash purchase” feature will take the form of “red envelopes” – a digital form of traditional cash gifts – as well as discounts on products, deliveries and commissions, the statement said. Taobao said that the subsidies will “provide consumers with preferential and convenient services and experiences, further stimulating consumption vitality”. Beijing is battling to stave off deflationary pressure, which has threatened to dampen economic growth even as challenges elsewhere mount. A lengthy property sector crisis and a fierce trade war with the United States this year have exacerbated concerns among Chinese households about making major purchases. Chinese authorities have sought to allay fears, unleashing a series of aggressive policy measures aimed at boosting spending, including key interest rate cuts and various consumer goods trade-in schemes. Results have been mixed, with retail sales in May growing at the fastest clip year-on-year since December 2023, according to official statistics, even as commercial property prices in a group of 70 key cities fell from April. Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday urged efforts to “advance the building of a unified national market” during a high-level meeting on economic policy, state news agency Xinhua said. “As China’s economy faces deflation pressures and a weak labour market, the government aims to address these challenges from the supply side,” said Zhiwei Zhang, chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management. – AFP Indonesia plans to cut mining quota period back to one year JAKARTA: Indonesia plans to cut the duration of mining quotas back to one year from the current three years to improve governance in the sector and better control coal and ore supplies, Mining Minister Bahlil Lahadalia said yesterday. Resource-rich Indonesia extended the validity of mining production quotas, locally known as RKAB, to three years in 2023 to ease red tape. Miners in Indonesia are required to seek RKAB approval to determine how much ore they may dig out over a period of time. “Because we allowed three-year RKAB, we could not control the balance between coal production and global demand ... Same thing happened to nickel, as well as bauxite,”Bahlil told members of Parliament. The switch back to one year was proposed to the minister by lawmakers overseeing the mining sector. The move is expected to help underpin prices of coal and ores and boost government revenues, Bahlil added. – Reuters

and take” and the two sides will have to find middle ground. Bessent told Fox News that different countries have different agendas for trade deals, including Japan, which Trump complained about on Monday and again on Tuesday. Trump said he was not thinking of extending the July 9 deadline and would simply send letters notifying countries of the tariff rate they would face. “We’ve dealt with Japan. I’m not sure we’re going to make a deal. I doubt it,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he returned to Washington from a trip to Florida. Trump suggested he could impose a tariff of 30% or 35% on imports from Japan – well above the 24% tariff rate he announced on April 2 and then paused until July 9. He said Japan was refusing to accept US-grown rice, a demand made by Washington that he described as “an easy one”, while selling millions of cars in the United States. “So what I’m going to do, is I’ll write them a letter saying we thank you very much, and we know you can’t do the kind of things that we need, and therefore you pay a 30%, 35% or whatever the numbers that we determine,” he said. So far, only Britain has negotiated a limited trade deal with the Trump administration, accepting a 10% US tariff on many goods, including autos, in exchange for special access for aircraft engines and British beef. – Reuters

Washington last week through Monday to try to reach agreement on a trade deal with President Donald Trump’s administration and address lingering concerns on both sides, Indian government sources told Reuters. A White House official familiar with the talks said the Trump administration plans to prioritise securing trade deals with countries including India ahead of Japan in the days leading up to the July 9 deadline. India is one of more than a dozen countries actively negotiating with the Trump administration to try to avoid a steep spike in tariff rates on July 9, when a 90-day tariff pause ends. India could see its new “reciprocal” tariff rate rise to 27% from the current 10%. The US-India talks have hit roadblocks over disagreements on import duties for auto components, steel, and farm goods, ahead of Trump’s deadline to impose reciprocal tariffs. “We are in the middle – hopefully more than the middle – of a very intricate trade negotiation,” Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar told an event in New York on Monday. “Obviously, my hope would be that we bring it to a successful conclusion. I cannot guarantee it, because there’s another party to that discussion,” said Jaishankar, who is in the US for a meeting of the China-focused Quad grouping. He added that there “will have to be give

o President says India ready to lower barriers for US companies

WASHINGTON: The United States could reach a trade deal with India that would help American companies compete in the South Asian country and leave it facing far lower tariffs, President Donald Trump said on Tuesday, while casting doubt on a possible deal with Japan. Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that he believed India was ready to lower barriers for US companies, which could pave the way for an agreement staving off the 26% rate he announced on April 2, before pausing it until July 9. “Right now, India doesn’t accept anybody in. I think India is going to do that, if they do that, we’re going to have a deal for less, much less tariffs,” he said. Earlier, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News that the US and India are nearing a deal that would lower tariffs on American imports to the South Asian country and help India avoid levies from rising sharply next week. “We are very close with India,” Bessent told Fox News in response to a question about progress on trade negotiations. Indian officials extended a visit to

A factory near palm oil plantations in Aceh province. – AFPPIC

India’s June palm oil imports jump 61% to hit 11-month high MUMBAI: India’s palm oil imports soared to an 11-month high in June, driven by lower domestic inventories and a price discount to rivals soyoil and sunflower oil that encouraged refiners to ramp up purchases, according to five dealers. “It is now nearly US$100 per ton cheaper than competing oils,”said Sandeep Bajoria, CEO of Sunvin Group, a vegetable oil brokerage. India imported, on average, 475,699 tons of palm oil each month during the first seven months of the current marketing year ending October 2025, according to the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India, which is set to publish its June import data by mid-July. oil lifted India’s total edible oil imports in June by 30% from the month before to 1.53 million tons, the highest since November, according to dealers’ estimates. Palm oil imports are expected to remain robust in the coming months as its prices are attractive amid a pickup in production in key producing countries, said Rajesh Patel, managing partner at GGN Research, an edible oil trader.

Higher palm oil imports by India, the world’s biggest buyer of vegetable oils, will help bring down stocks in top producers Indonesia and Malaysia and support benchmark Malaysian palm oil futures. Palm oil imports in June surged 61% month-on-month to 953,000 metric tons, the highest since July 2024, according to estimates from dealers. “Palm oil has been regaining lost market share since last month.

In the last marketing year, India imported an average of more than 750,000 tons of palm oil each month. Dealers estimated that soyoil imports in June fell 9% month-on-month to 363,000 tons, while sunflower oil imports rose 18% to 216,000 tons. Higher imports of palm oil and sunflower

India buys palm oil mainly from Indonesia and Malaysia, while it imports soyoil and sunflower oil from Argentina, Brazil, Russia and Ukraine. Nepal’s edible oil imports were 75,000 tons in June, down from 155,000 tons in May, GGN Research estimated. – Reuters