25/02/2026

BIZ & FINANCE WEDNESDAY | FEB 25, 2026

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Tokyo and Washington agree to stick to trade deal TOKYO: Washington and Japan agreed to stick to last year’s trade deal even after the US Supreme Court blocked many of President Donald Trump’s global tariffs, Tokyo said yesterday. announcing a new 15% global levy. Tokyo and Washington struck a trade deal last year that cut threatened US tariffs of 25% to 15% on Japanese imports in exchange for US$550 billion worth of investments. In a call on Monday, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Ryosei Akazawa, Japan’s trade minister, welcomed the recent announcement of the first projects under that deal worth US$36 billion. “Minister Akazawa also requested that as the US government takes new tariff measures, Japan is not treated less favourably than in last year’s agreement,” Japan’s Trade Ministry said in a statement. Trump responded the court’s ruling on Friday that he lacked the authority to impose the tariffs by

Commerce Department’s website or X account after the 40-minute phone call. On Monday, European Union lawmakers put the bloc’s trade deal with the United States on hold following the Supreme Court ruling, postponing a vote that had been due to take place this week. – AFP

“The two ministers then reaffirmed that Japan and the United States will continue to faithfully and promptly implement the agreement reached between Japan and the United States last year,” the Japanese statement added. There was no statement immediately visible on the US

New US tariffs take effect after Supreme Court ruling

UOB banks on Asean to weather uncertainty SINGAPORE: Singapore’s United Overseas Bank, or UOB, said yesterday it will leverage its presence in Asean and opportunities from shifting global trade flows to drive growth in 2026, against the backdrop of tariff and geopolitical turbulence. The remarks from the bank’s top executives came after Southeast Asia’s third-largest bank by assets reported a 7% fall in net profit in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, as margin headwinds outweighed loan growth. Net profit for October-December dropped to S$1.41 billion (RM4.3 billion) from S$1.52 billion a year earlier, though it beat the mean estimate of S$1.35 billion from three analysts polled by LSEG. Speaking at the bank’s results briefing, CEO Wee Ee Cheong said UOB’s “Asean 4” markets – Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam – were a bright spot for the lender last year, with total income there up 5% even as the group’s total income fell 3%. “The market is very uncertain. The biggest risk is something that is a little bit beyond our control. But (for) the Asean we are talking about, I feel quite confident,” he said. For the full 2025 financial year, UOB’s net interest margin, a key gauge of profitability, dropped to 1.89% from 2.03% a year earlier. Its net interest income slid 3% year-on-year to S$9.36 billion. Net fee income rose 7% to a new record of S$2.6 billion, helped by wealth management and loan-related fees amid favourable market conditions and rising consumer confidence. Net new money inflows also stayed positive, with high-net-worth assets under management rising 6% from the previous year to S$201 billion in 2025. The results followed a 72% slump in its third-quarter net profit, with UOB attributing the rebound to lower credit costs. Still, credit-cost “hot spots” remain in Greater China and the United States, tied mainly to commercial real estate exposures, said CFO Leong Yung Chee. Shares of UOB fell nearly 4% on Tuesday, underperforming the Singapore domestic benchmark’s 0.7% decline. Analysts at CGS International said in a note that they reiterate their“hold”call on UOB, citing a lack of additional capital return initiatives and potential downside risks from a weaker Asean economic outlook and further provisioning for the bank’s Greater China commercial real estate portfolio. On the global trade outlook, the bank’s executives were sanguine that intra-regional trade would remain robust even amid broader uncertainties. – Reuters

“The Trump tariffs amounted to an average tax increase per US household of US$1,000 in 2025,” she added. With Trump’s global tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act ruled illegal, his new and existing duties are still set to “result in a household burden of US$700 in 2026”, she said. Trump insisted on Monday that the Supreme Court gave him “far more powers and strength” with its ruling, adding that he could “use licenses to do absolutely ‘terrible’ things to foreign countries.” “With his tariff wings clipped, Trump needs a new tool to express displeasure on actions by others,” said Wendy Cutler, a former US trade official. “Threatening steep licensing fees is an alternative but it lacks the flair and quantitative nature of tariffs,” added Cutler, senior vice-president at the Asia Society Policy Institute. Trump also threatened on Monday to hike tariffs on countries

in a rebuke of his signature economic policy. His sector-specific tariffs on goods like steel and autos remain intact, but the ruling sets the stage for a complex fight for refunds elsewhere. The new duty that took effect yesterday only lasts for 150 days unless extended by Congress and is widely seen as a bridge towards more durable trade policy. US Customs and Border Protection has said it would stop collecting tariffs struck down by the court, too. It started collecting the new 10% tariffs yesterday. The conservative-majority court ruled six to three that Trump had exceeded his authority in using a 1977 law to impose sudden tariffs on individual countries. Trump’s new tariff will apply to US$1.2 trillion (RM4.7 trillion) worth of imports on an annual basis or about 34% of total goods imported, said Erica York, vice-president of federal tax policy at the Tax Foundation.

that choose to “play games” following the court decision, in a warning to nations that recently struck trade deals with Washington under the threat of duties. Over the past year, Trump has imposed various tariff rates on partners – sometimes changing them on short notice – to cajole and punish both friend and foe. He has used this as leverage in trade talks. US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said on Sunday on CBS that tariff agreements remain in force despite the ruling. “We expect our partners to stand by them.” But the threatened 15% duty, for some countries like Britain and Australia, exceeds a 10% rate they faced under the previous programme. Cutler warned that Trump’s actions could intensify US partners’ disappointment. While it is doubtful that they would retaliate, they could step up efforts to diversify away from the United States, she said. – AFP

WASHINGTON: Fresh US tariffs on imported goods came into effect yesterday, as President Donald Trump moved to rebuild his trade agenda after the Supreme Court ruled against a swath of his global duties. The new tariffs, initially set at 10%, are justified as a means “to deal with the large and serious United States balance-of-payments deficits”, according to a White House released on Friday. Trump has since vowed to raise this level to 15%, with exclusions expected to remain for goods covered by sector-specific investigations and the US-Mexico-Canada trade pact. The US president has doubled down on imposing tariffs on trading partners since the high court on Friday struck down many of his sweeping and often arbitrary duties, o Trump threatens countries that choose to ‘play games’

A FedEx driver stands with packages near a delivery truck in Washington. – REUTERSPIC

FedEx sues administration for ‘full refund’ of duties it paid WASHINGTON: US delivery and freight giant FedEX sued Donald Trump’s administration on Monday seeking to reclaim money it paid for tariffs that have now been ruled illegal. emergency economic powers to impose them. It was a major political setback for Trump, striking down a cornerstone of his economic agenda, and has also opened up the government to legal action. Border Protection, filed at the US Court of International Trade. The lawsuit appears to be the first from a major company since the court ruling, which did not address how refunds would be handled – though one justice acknowledged it could be a “mess”.

Court’s Friday ruling. The tariffs raised more than US$130 billion from importers, collected by the government. After the ruling against Trump’s country-specific tariffs last week, he turned to a separate law to sign an order for broad 10% duties on imports. He later vowed to hike the new tariffs to 15%. – AFP

The Supreme Court struck down the president’s signature global tariffs last week, ruling that he had exceeded his authority in tapping

FedEx is seeking a “full refund” of the duties it paid on imported goods in its suit against Customs and

Several lawsuits had already been filed before the Supreme