#tariffs

#tariffs

Tom Athron, the London-based retailer's chief executive, said Trump's stricter country of origin rules and the end of the de minimis cost exemption for parcels worth less than $800 (587) had hit customers across the Atlantic. The American authorities have told us this is the tea industry in its entirety that if you've got tea from China and India in your tea, then its country of origin [is] China or India, and therefore those enormous tariffs apply, he told the Financial Times.

"The United States imports a lot of electronics from Asia and that industry is getting nailed with very high tariffs. So the customers are going to start looking at U.S. made alternatives that don't have to pay the tariff," San Francisco's Chief Economist Ted Egan said, adding that California is well positioned to capitalize off this new demand because it has the largest electronics manufacturing capacity in the country.

International agriculture businesses with investments like distribution networks and subsidiaries in the U.S. are weathering tariffs, which have caused them to alter their business activities, renegotiate contracts with distributors and even threaten to price them out of the market, experts tell Fortune. In response to these produce tariffs, foreign investors are considering bringing claims against the U.S. under international investment treaties, which include a myriad of stipulations like fair and equitable treatment and protects against depriving investors from benefiting from their U.S.-based investments.

Tariffs aren't just bad for business and consumers: They will also increase the number of Americans living in poverty, according to new research. An analysis out this week from The Budget Lab at Yale University found the Trump administration's new 2025 tariff hikes will increase the number of Americans living in poverty by somewhere between 650,000 and 875,000 in 2026-that's 0.2% to 0.3% of the U.S. population-including some 150,000 to 375,000 children.

U.S. producer prices unexpectedly fell in August amid a compression in trade services margins and mild increase in the cost of goods, suggesting that domestic businesses were probably absorbing some of the tariffs on imports. The lack of strong producer price pressures, despite import duties, could also be signaling softening domestic demand against the backdrop of a struggling labor market. The Federal Reserve is expected to cut interest rates next Wednesday, with a quarter-percentage-point reduction fully priced in, after pausing its easing cycle in January because of uncertainty over the impact of President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs.

One US official reportedly said that the Trump administration was ready to go, ready to go right now, but we are only going to do this if our European partners step up with us. Trump's proposal comes amid his frustration at brokering a peace deal, including at a high-profile summit with Putin in Alaska, and amid Russia's increasing drone attacks, including its largest ever air attack on Ukraine last week.

We're ready to go, ready to go right now, but we're only going to do this if our European partners step up with us, the Times quoted an unnamed US official as saying.

Two U.S. courts of appeals have in recent days declared the Trump tariffs illegal, and ordered monies collected pursuant to the tariffs refunded to their payers. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says the rulings threaten to cost the U.S. Treasury as much as $1 trillion in funds through June, worsening the budget deficit and adding to U.S. debt. The White House has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on the issue.

The dismal August jobs report confirmed the labor market cooled significantly during the spring and summer. That coincided with the start of President Donald Trump's trade war. While some tariff-impacted industries have seen minimal changes in payrolls, others like manufacturing and wholesale trade have taken bigger hits. Since President Donald Trump launched his trade war earlier this year, industries impacted by tariffs have shed tens of thousands of jobs.

How India's refusal to acknowledge Trump's mediation during the brief war with Pakistan led to a trade war with the US. For decades, the United States has been courting India as a counterbalance to China in Asia. But after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi refused to agree with US President Donald Trump's insistence that he had ended a Pakistan-India military conflict in May, Trump slapped 50 percent tariffs on Indian goods entering the US market.

US President Donald Trump's tariff policies, imposing levies as high as 50% on the United States' trading partners, have not proven compatible with his campaign promise to turn the US back into a "manufacturing powerhouse," as Friday's jobs report showed. The overall analysis was grim, with the economy adding just 22,000 jobs last month, but manufacturing employment in particular has declined since Trump made his April 2 "Liberation Day" announcement of tariffs on countries including Canada and Mexico.

PITTSBURGH - These are anxious times in which to feed our families. Grocery shopping is not just wildly expensive these days - the Consumer Price Index in July was up 2.7% year-over-year, with the price of some foods reaching record levels - but also filled with uncertainty. Just when you think the price of a box of Honey Nut Cheerios couldn't be higher (seriously folks, $7?) we have to worry about how big a hole President Donald Trump's sweeping global tariffs will burn in our pockets going forward.

The 'manufacturing recession' - underway for years - got uglier. The sector lost 12,000 jobs in August, the fourth consecutive month of shrinking employment. The industry had 78,000 fewer workers last month, relative to the same period a year ago. Construction shed jobs for the third straight month. Wholesale trade - a sector that includes transportation, warehouse staff and material handlers - has lost 32,000 workers since May.

It's been a tumultuous year for the U.S. semiconductor industry. The semiconductor industry plays a sizable role in the "AI race" that the U.S. seems determined to win, which is why this context is worth paying attention to: from Intel's appointment of Lip-Bu Tan to CEO - who wasted no time getting to work trying to revitalize the legacy company - to Joe Biden proposing sweeping new AI chip export rules on his way out of office that never came to fruition.

U.S. winemakers have something to celebrate: the corks they're popping aren't subject to tariffs. Cork comes from the spongy bark of the cork oak tree, which is primarily grown and harvested in the Mediterranean basin. The framework trade agreement between the United States and the European Union singled out the material as an "unavailable natural product." So as of Sept. 1, cork joined a handful of other items, including airplanes and generic pharmaceuticals, that are exempt from a 15% U.S. tariff on most EU products.