Free Republic

The oil market is shrugging off President Donald Trump’s threats to impose heavy tariffs on countries that buy Russian energy exports. Trump has given Russia until Friday to agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine. If Moscow does not comply, the U.S. will impose 100% “secondary tariffs” on countries that buy Russian exports, the president has said. This would in theory force countries to choose between buying Russian oil or trading with the U.S. India, China and Turkey are the most exposed as the three biggest importers of Russian oil. Trump on Wednesday targeted India with a 25% tariff for buying...

India said it had no plans to stop buying and reselling Russian oil despite an announcement by President Trump on Monday that he would “substantially” increase the 25 percent tariffs he imposed on Indian goods because of the practice. India’s foreign ministry called the targeting of New Delhi “unjustified and unreasonable,” and said the United States had once actively encouraged the oil imports Mr. Trump now seeks to punish.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Wednesday that Thailand and Cambodia reached trade agreements with the U.S. just days after the Southeast Asian countries agreed to a ceasefire to end five days of deadly clashes along their border. Monday’s pause in fighting came after President Trump directly pressured both nations, warning the U.S. might not proceed with trade talks if the military conflict continued. In an interview Wednesday evening on Fox News’s “Hannity,” Lutnick praised Trump’s dealmaking approach, which the Commerce secretary said paid off particularly well with Cambodia and Thailand. The Commerce secretary noted Trump spent all day Saturday “calling...

Trump announces new tariff rates: 🇦🇫 Afghanistan – 15% 🇩🇿 Algeria – 30% 🇦🇴 Angola – 15% 🇧🇩 Bangladesh – 20% 🇧🇴 Bolivia – 15% 🇧🇦 Bosnia and Herzegovina – 30% 🇧🇼 Botswana – 15% 🇧🇷 Brazil – 10% 🇧🇳 Brunei – 25% 🇰🇭 Cambodia – 19% 🇨🇲 Cameroon – 15% 🇹🇩 Chad – 15% 🇨🇷 Costa Rica – 15% 🇨🇮 Côte d'Ivoire – 15% 🇨🇩 Democratic Republic of the Congo – 15% 🇪🇨 Ecuador – 15% 🇬🇶 Equatorial Guinea – 15% 🇪🇺 European Union (Goods >15%) – 0% 🇪🇺 European Union (Goods <15%) – 15% 🇫🇰 Falkland Islands –...

"We're thinking about a little rebate," Trump said Friday before leaving on his trip to Scotland. President Donald Trump told reporters that the administration was considering rebate checks for Americans based on tariff revenue."We're thinking about a little rebate," Trump said Friday before leaving on his trip to Scotland. "But the big thing we want to do is pay down debt. But we're thinking about a rebate."He added that the rebate checks would be "for people of a certain income level," but didn't go into any details, according to CBS News.Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said during an interview with Fox...

BRUSSELS (Reuters) -The European Union is heading towards a trade deal with Washington that would result in a broad 15% tariff on EU goods imported into the U.S., avoiding a harsher 30% levy slated to be implemented from August 1, two EU diplomats said on Wednesday. The rate, which could also extend to cars, would mirror the framework agreement the United States struck with Japan. Officials from the European Commission, which negotiates trade deals on behalf of the 27-nation bloc, briefed EU envoys on the state of talks with their U.S. counterparts. U.S. President Donald Trump would ultimately make any...

President Donald Trump's proposed 50% tariff on Brazilian imports is bad news for coffee drinkers. Brazil, the largest U.S. supplier of green coffee beans, accounts for about a third of the country's total supply, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Coffee beans need to grow in a warm, tropical climate, making Hawaii and Puerto Rico the only suitable places in the United States to farm the crop. But, as the world's top consumer of coffee, the U.S. requires a massive supply to stay caffeinated. Mintel estimates that the U.S. coffee market reached $19.75 billion last year.

I'm posting this as a vanity post because 20 minutes after the announcement, the only source that's published a story on this is Bloomberg, which doesn't allow re-ups. Copper is already up 11% today, having already advanced 25% year to date.

Consumer sentiment soared in early June, rising for the first time in six months and posting its strongest monthly gain since January 2024, according to preliminary data released Friday by the University of Michigan. The university’s closely watched index of consumer sentiment jumped to 60.5 in the first half of June, up from 52.2 the prior month—a 16 percent gain that beat every estimate in a Wall Street Journal survey of economists. The expectations sub-index surged more than 21 percent, the biggest one-month gain since late 2023. The sharp rebound in optimism follows weeks of steady economic data, including soft...

The prices of goods and services charged by U.S. businesses rose by less than expected in May, adding to the evidence that President Trump’s tariffs are not putting upward pressure on inflation. The producer price index for final demand ticked up 0.1 percent last month, half of what economists had forecast. Core producer prices, a metric which excludes food and energy, also rose 0.1 percent, one-third of the 0.3 percent increase forecast by economists. If trade services, a measure of retail and wholesale margins, is also excluded, prices still rose by just 0.1 percent. Compared with a year ago, the...

Calling the trade talks a stalemate, US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose a 50% tariff on the EU on June 1. European markets took an immediate tumble following Trump's social media post. US President Donald Trump announced on Friday that he is recommending a 50% tariff on goods from the European Union, citing a stalemate in trade talks. "Our discussions with them are going nowhere! Therefore, I am recommending a straight 50% Tariff on the European Union, starting on June 1, 2025," he wrote on social media. In a post on Truth Social, Trump reiterated his criticism of...

50% is a reasonable tariff to place on the E U since we are going into 80 years of the Marshall plan to help Europe recover from World War 2. Eighty years, when Truman was president. I wasn't even born yet. It's time to cut these freeloaders loose. In addition, let's make them pay for their own defense. June 1 is as good a date as any.

Rogue communication devices found in Chinese solar inverters Undocumented cellular radios also found in Chinese batteries U.S. says continually assesses risk with emerging technology U.S. working to integrate 'trusted equipment' into the grid LONDON, May 14 (Reuters) - U.S. energy officials are reassessing the risk posed by Chinese-made devices that play a critical role in renewable energy infrastructure after unexplained communication equipment was found inside some of them, two people familiar with the matter said. Power inverters, which are predominantly produced in China, are used throughout the world to connect solar panels and wind turbines to electricity grids. They are...

Import prices ticked up slightly in April, driven by higher costs for nonfuel goods even as fuel prices continued to slide, according to data released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Import Price Index rose 0.1 percent in April, following a 0.4 percent decline in March. Over the past year, import prices were up just 0.1 percent. But excluding fuel, prices for imported goods rose 0.4 percent in April and were up 1.2 percent from a year earlier, suggesting continued resilience in U.S. demand for foreign goods despite the implementation of new tariffs in early April. The Trump...

U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday said he told Apple CEO Tim Cook that he doesn’t want the tech giant to build its products in India, taking shots at the company’s moves to diversify production away from China and urging him to pivot Stateside. “I had a little problem with Tim Cook yesterday,” Trump said. “I said to him, ‘my friend, I treated you very good. You’re coming here with $500 billion, but now I hear you’re building all over India.’ I don’t want you building in India.” Trump was referencing Apple’s commitment of a $500 billion investment in the...

Receipts from U.S. tariffs hit a record level in April as revenue from President Donald Trump’s trade war started kicking in. Customs duties totaled $16.3 billion for the month, some 86% above the $8.75 billion collected during March and more than double the $7.1 billion a year ago, the Treasury Department reported Monday. That brought the year-to-date total for the duties up to $63.3 billion and more than 18% ahead of the same period in 2024. Trump instituted 10% across-the-board tariffs on U.S. imports starting April 2, which came on top of other select duties he had leveled previously.

Looking forward to The Five this afternoon on FOX, and hoping Harold Ford is on. I wonder if he will eat his words concerning his take on the tariffs.

California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) reacted Monday evening to President Donald Trump’s proposed 100% tariff on movies made outside the U.S. by asking for a $7.5 billion tax credit for the industry instead. Trump made the tariff proposal Sunday as a way of shifting Hollywood production back to the U.S., after decades in which the industry sought to cut costs by filming in Canada or even as far away as South Africa. The president’s proposal drew applause from unions that represent “below the line” workers in the film industry, such as the Teamsters, which praised the president for taking American...

President Donald Trump announced on Sunday a 100% tariff on movies produced outside of the United States, saying the US movie industry was dying a “very fast death” due to the incentives that other countries were offering to draw American filmmakers. “This is a concerted effort by other Nations and, therefore, a National Security threat. It is, in addition to everything else, messaging and propaganda,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. Trump said he was authorizing the relevant US government agencies such as the Department of Commerce to immediately begin the process of imposing a 100% tariff on...

In a move that could shake up the entertainment industry, President Trump says he’s directed his administration to put a “100% tariff” on any movies coming into the U.S. that were not produced in this country. He posted on his Truth Social platform on Sunday that he’s authorized the Department of Commerce and the United States Trade Representative to institute the tariff. “The Movie Industry in America is DYING a very fast death,” he wrote. “Other Countries are offering all sorts of incentives to draw our filmmakers and studios away from the United States. Hollywood, and many other areas within...