European leaders push Brussels for progress in trade talks with US • FRANCE 24 English

for a look at today’s top business news with Brian Quinn. And Brian, we’re going to start well here in the European Union where leaders are pushing Brussels to reach a trade deal with the United States. Indeed. Uh so the EU currently has until July 9th to make a deal with the Trump administration. Last Friday, the president threatened to slap 50% tariffs on European goods on June 1st before extending that deadline after a call with EU Commission President Ursula Vanderlion. Over the weekend, Trump had accused Brussels of slow walking trade talks after the US was forced to deescalate its trade war with China due to threats of a supply shock in the states. Italy, France, Ireland, and Spain are all reportedly urging Brussels to instead fasttrack those talks. Now, if implemented, Trump’s 50% tariffs would target some 321 billion euros in EU goods. He’s already put 10% tariffs on all global imports to the US as well as 25% duties on European steel and aluminum. Europe has prepared a package of retaliatory levies on $21 billion of American imports in response to the metals tariffs with an an additional list of $95 billion in US goods should Trump follow through on that 50% threat. That kind of trade conflict could shave 6/10en of a percent off US GDP and help fuel inflation there. Analysts though say it would likely be even worse for Europe. The EU would like to deescalate. If there’s a compromise that can be found that would take the tension out of the system, that would just pull everyone back from the from the brink and get rid of some of this uncertainty. That’s something Brussels would very much like. If it does go into allout trade war, Brussels will have to retaliate. And that’s something that will take a lot of time, a lot of energy, and have a lot of cost to the real economy. Well, in the midst of this increasingly uncertain uh global trade environment, leaders in Asia and the Middle East looking to shore up their trade ties. Indeed, they are the 46th Azan Summit of Southeast Asian nations currently underway in Kua Lumpur, Malaysia. This year, the gathering is taking on added urgency as Trump’s global trade war threatens the region’s heavily export-driven economies. In a bit to insulate those economies, Azan is holding its first ever trilateral talks with China with Premier Lee Kyang there as well as the Gulf Cooperation Council of Middle Eastern oil producing countries. The US remains Southeast Asia’s largest source of foreign investment with China coming in fourth place after Japan and the EU Trump’s tariffs though changing the outlook there. Meanwhile, with China as Washington’s prime target for tariffs, Beijing is looking to boost its exports to non- US countries. China and Azan are already each other’s largest trading partners. With Chinese exports to Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia up by double digits in April, China says it wants to boost cooperation with Azan as much as possible. Take a listen here. collaboration will also foster the use of common technology to promote uh integrated digital economy. Uh meanwhile the closer cooperation will lead to their increasing interaction uh across uh business sectors which will promote trade and investment flows and reliable and uh resilient supply chains uh in the region. Let’s get a quick check in on the today’s trading action. How are the markets shaping up so far? So, it’s a mixed picture on Asian indexes Tuesday as investors try to keep up with that constantly changing global trade context. Concerns over mounting US debt. Meanwhile, as Republicans try to push Trump’s budget busting big, beautiful bill through the Senate are pushing the dollar down against Asian currencies. That is bad news for Japanese exporters, but the Nikk in Tokyo still managing to gain around half a percent. Meanwhile, a second straight month of growing industrial profits in China not enough to keep Hong Kong and Shanghai out of the red. The Cosby in Seoul giving up some ground after hitting a three-month high on Monday. It is off by half a percent just ahead of the closing bell there. And finally, Ryan, from you for this hour here in France, we’re seeing a recent spade of crypto crime finally resulting in some arrests. So, Eve, usually when we talk about crypto crime, it’s either about hacking digital wallets, online scams, that sort of thing. France though has seen a number of violent kidnappings as gangs have sought to extort ransoms from people who have made fortunes in cryptocurrencies. Around 15 people were arrested on Monday morning. Jennishin and her colleagues at France have the details. At the Paris police headquarters on Monday afternoon, unmarked trucks and around 30 men from the anti-bandit squad mobilized for a large-scale raid. After three weeks of investigation, some 15 people have been arrested in Paris and its suburbs, as well as the Lisa region in western France. They’re suspected of taking part in this violent kidnapping attempt on May 13th in broad daylight in the heart of Paris. [Applause] A young woman whose father made a fortune in cryptocurrency narrowly escaped thanks to the help of passers by. Investigators say this case is linked to another kidnapping in Paris just 13 days prior. The father of a cryptocurrency millionaire was mutilated here in the Paris suburbs for three days. His finger cut off by attackers before he was released by the police. We’re seeing the same recruitment method we’re currently seeing in many cases with a very young workforce recruited on social media. So far, the suspects include two miners and two young delinquents known to authorities for common crimes who are believed to have been in charge of the logistics and the vehicles used for the kidnappings. But they’re only a small part of a much larger crime underworld that now targets cryptocurrency fortunes. It’s much better for an individual to rob someone who has a wallet with a few bitcoins than to rob a bank. That amount quickly exceeds hundreds of thousands of dollars and it’s less risky. An investigation is now underway to identify the masterminds. Always a risky asset, crisp currencies, but you would hope that risk would stay in the financial realm and not the physical one. Eve, indeed. Brian Quinn, thanks a lot for that business update.

Countries including Italy, Ireland and France want the EU to fast-track negotiations with the Trump administration to avoid US tariffs. The ASEAN group of SE Asian nations meets with China and the Gulf Cooperation Council in a bid to hedge against growing trade uncertainty. And, France makes arrests after a series of violent kidnapping aimed at extorting cryptocurrency moguls.
#europe #tariffs #trump

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9 comments

  1. The primary reason for EU membership is mutual prosperity. If it becomes more beneficial to be out of the bloc than in the bloc Eurosceptic sentiment will increase. The commission needs to resolve these issues promptly. People care much less about solidarity when they can't pay their rent.

  2. Given in to a bully, get bullied even harder. The EU doesn't need cowards right now. China faced of the US and the EU should too.

  3. Just remember all. EU was saying they werent negotiating at all. Turns out they were negotiating the Whole time😂😂😂 I wonder what other countries are lying about not negotiating

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