Tariffs News

U.S. President Donald Trump administration plans to use ongoing tariff negotiations to pressure U.S. trading partners to limit their dealings with China, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday citing people with knowledge of the conversations.U.S. officials plan to use negotiations with more than 70 nations to ask them to disallow China to ship goods through their countries and prevent Chinese firms from being located in their territories to avoid U.S. tariffs, the report added.(Reuters - Reporting by Janaki Venugopalan in Bengaluru; Editing by Himani Sarkar)

Turbulence stirred by President Donald Trump’s tariffs could disrupt global shrimp shipments to the United States, with exporters in top supplier India warning that up to 2,000 containers of frozen shrimp are at risk.Ecuador, however—located thousands of kilometers closer to the U.S.—faces a lower tariff rate and may benefit from the shift, exporters say. Shrimp is the country’s most valuable export after oil.India’s shrimp sector is bracing for a 26% tariff under Trump’s July plan, jeopardizing a $7-billion seafood export industry that relies heavily on major U.S.

At least two vessels carrying Venezuelan crude chartered by Chevron are now stalled in Venezuelan waters due to state oil company PDVSA canceling their export authorizations after the U.S. imposed secondary tariffs on the OPEC member's buyers, two sources with knowledge of the matter said on Friday.The U.S. oil producer awaits customs paperwork to return the cargoes to ports after PDVSA on Thursday canceled set-sail authorizations to two of the Chevron-chartered vessels that had finished loading.

Beijing increased its tariffs on U.S. imports to 125% on Friday, hitting back against U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to hike duties on Chinese goods and raising the stakes in a trade war that threatens to up-end global supply chains.China's retaliation intensified the economic turmoil unleashed by Trump's tariffs, with markets tumbling further and foreign leaders puzzling how to respond to the biggest disruption to the world trade order in decades."Recession risk is much…

Brazil's Santos Port Authority, which administers the largest port in the Southern Hemisphere, said the draft of the port will be deepened to attract larger vessels in coming years.Speaking at the headquarters of the Santos Trade Association, Beto Mendes, director of port operations, said on Thursday the plan is to deepen the draft to 16 meters and then 17 meters, potentially by 2031.Attracting larger vessels would allow Brazil to strengthen trade ties with commercial partners such as China…

The European Union will pause its first countermeasures against U.S. tariffs after President Donald Trump temporarily lowered the hefty duties he had just imposed on dozens of countries, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said on Thursday.The bloc was due to launch counter-tariffs on about 21 billion euros ($23.25 billion) of U.S. imports from next Tuesday in response to Trump's 25% tariffs on steel and aluminium. It is still assessing how to respond to U.S. car tariffs and the broader 10% levies still in place."We want to give negotiations a chance," von der Leyen said on X.

U.S. President Donald Trump has signed an executive order aimed at ‘restoring American maritime dominance’ through the revival of domestic shipbuilding industry and weakening China’s grasp on the global shipping market.The Order directs the creation of a Maritime Action Plan (MAP) to revitalize U.S. maritime industries, which will provide a strategy with specific actions to restore and create sustained resiliency for the American maritime industry.Up until now, government procurement processes and over-regulation have hindered private industry’s ability to build vessels on time and on budget…

U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday aimed at reviving U.S. shipbuilding and reducing China's grip on the global shipping industry.Republican and Democratic U.S. lawmakers for years have warned about China's growing dominance on the seas and diminishing U.S. naval readiness.The order directs the U.S. Trade Representative to move ahead with a plan that includes levying U.S. port docking fees on any ship that is part of a fleet that includes Chinese-built or Chinese-flagged vessels.

South Korea's trade and industry minister Ahn Duk-geun said on Wednesday that potential cooperation with Washington in the shipbuilding sector is a "very important card" in negotiating with the U.S. over its tariffs.U.S. President Donald Trump spoke to South Korean interim leader Han Duck-soo late on Tuesday to discuss shipbuilding and potential energy deals in what Trump labelled a "great call", a day before a 25% tariff on its Asian ally was due to kick in."Since President Trump and the Trump administration are showing great interest in shipbuilding cooperation…

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL), Japan's second-largest shipping company, aims to capitalize on opportunities that emerge from a shift in trade routes driven by new U.S. tariffs, CEO Takeshi Hashimoto said.The highest U.S. tariffs in more than a hundred years came into force on Wednesday, roiling global markets."Trade routes will inevitably be reshuffled," Hashimoto told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday."We'll likely see increased trade from low-tariff countries and declines from high-tariff ones…

The Trump administration has pulled out of the decarbonization negotiations taking place at the IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) 83rd session this week.The US government is threatening reciprocal measures if any fees are imposed on US vessels based on GHG emissions or fuel choices.The 2023 IMO GHG Strategy outlines a set of “mid-term measures” aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions from international shipping. These measures should consist of:• a technical element: a goal-based marine fuel standard designed to gradually lower the GHG intensity of marine fuels…

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told lawmakers on Tuesday that not all of the agency's proposed multimillion-dollar fees for Chinese-built ships to dock at U.S. ports will be implemented, and they may not be cumulative.Greer told a Senate Finance Committee hearing that the proposals were made to address a lack of shipbuilding in the United States.He said the port fees were "proposed actions or series of potential revenue" that could be used to incentivize shipbuilding…

On Friday, China announced a tariff increase of 34% on all US imports, in retaliation to the new tariffs announced by US President Donald Trump. These are in addition to tariffs implemented in February and March, focusing on goods such as grains, coal, LNG and crude oil.In 2024, China was the third largest importer of US exports (measured by value), accounting for 7% of US exports. Chemicals, computer and electronic products, agricultural products, transportation equipment and oil and gas made up 18%…

The global economy is bracing for renewed turbulence following U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement on Wednesday of sweeping new tariffs, triggering fears of a global trade war and sparking immediate market and political reactions.According to the White House, the new measures include a 10% minimum tariff on most imported goods, with certain products - particularly those from major U.S. trade partners like China, South Korea, Japan, and the European Union - facing duties as high as 25%.

U.S. President Donald Trump's new tariff plan has the ocean shipping industry on edge as he stokes a trade war destined to stanch transport demand and send companies scrambling to manage the fallout.The Trump administration on Wednesday is set to announce "reciprocal tariffs" targeting nations that have duties on U.S. goods. That move would come after it slapped new import levies on products from Mexico, China and Canada - the top U.S. trading partners - as well as on goods including steel and autos.Major global container shipping firms like MSC…

President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he would impose a 10% baseline tariff on all imports to the U.S. and higher duties on dozens of other countries, including some of the United States' biggest trading partners, deepening a trade war that he kicked off on his return to the White House.The sweeping duties would erect new barriers around the world's largest consumer economy, reversing decades of trade liberalization that have shaped the global order. Trading partners are…

Danish shipping company Maersk has benefited from robust U.S. demand so far this year and expects that to continue, though the outlook could be clouded by U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff plans, it said on Wednesday.Maersk's regular global market outlook was published before Trump is expected to announce fresh tariffs later on Wednesday against nations that have duties on U.S. goods."U.S. growth is (the) main scenario, but volatile geopolitics cloud economic visibility," the…

Nippon Yusen (NYK), Japan's largest shipping line, is concerned that U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs could push up the cost of automobiles and daily goods, denting consumer demand and slowing cargo flows, its president said."The tariffs are not directly borne by consumers, but the burden ultimately falls on them, which in turn reduces the actual flow of goods. That's our biggest concern," President Takaya Soga told Reuters in an interview on Monday.Trump last week unveiled plans to impose a 25% tariff on automobile imports, a move expected to hit Japan's export-driven economy.

The Baltic Exchange's dry bulk sea freight index, which monitors rates for vessels moving dry bulk commodities, fell for a sixth straight session on Tuesday, pressured by lower rates across all vessel segments.The main index .BADI, which tracks rates for capesize, panamax, and supramax shipping vessels, was down 11 points at 1,587, its lowest since March 12.The capesize index .BACI fell 25 points to 2,440, a near one-month low.Average daily earnings for capesize vessels .BATCA…

Car-carrying ships have sent more cargo from Europe and China, Japan and Korea to the United States in the first months of the year than last year, shipping data showed, in a sign of companies front-loading shipments ahead of looming tariffs.A total of 33 so-called roll on, roll off ships - designed for wheeled cargo and mostly carrying new cars - left Europe for the U.S. in February this year, up from 28 in February 2024, according to data analytics firm Esgian, which monitors shipping routes and ports worldwide.Those ships will have been able to carry around 30…

BLG Group, a logistics provider managing one of the world's busiest autos terminals at Germany's Bremerhaven port, said on Wednesday it is calculating scenarios for 15% less traffic as a result of the 25% tariffs expected on U.S. auto imports from April 3.Around 30% of its export and import of cars is to and from the United States, BLG Group Chairman Matthias Magnor said."Protectionist trade barriers have a direct impact on demand and thus influence exports, imports, and ultimately the prosperity of both economies," he added.(Reuters)

Some drugmakers are taking the unusual step of sending more medicines by air to the U.S., two executives and two logistics firms said amid fears President Donald Trump's April 2 tariffs announcement could include products made in Europe.Two European-headquartered drugmakers told Reuters this week they are sending as much of their medicines across the Atlantic as possible over the past several weeks and heard other pharmaceuticals companies were doing the same.One of the executives…

Fossil fuel and agriculture industry executives on Wednesday criticized a plan by President Donald Trump's administration for big fees on China-linked ships entering U.S. ports, arguing at a hearing in Washington that the move would hobble their ability to export everything from coal to soybeans.The proposed fees on China-built vessels could top $3 million per U.S. port call.The administration says the fees would curb China's commercial and military dominance on the high seas and promote a U.S.