US proposes tariffs on $200 billion more in Chinese imports

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is readying tariffs on another $200 billion in Chinese imports, ranging from burglar alarms to mackerel, escalating a trade war between the world's two biggest economies.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative proposed 10 percent tariffs Tuesday on a list of 6,031 Chinese product lines.

The office will accept public comments and hold hearings on the plan Aug. 20-23 before reaching a decision after Aug. 31, according to a senior administration official who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity.

Last Friday, the U.S. imposed 25 percent tariffs on $34 billion in Chinese products, and Beijing responded by hitting the same amount of U.S. imports.


The administration said the new levies are a response to China's decision to retaliate against the first round of U.S. tariffs.

President Donald Trump has threatened to tax as much as $550 billion in Chinese products — an amount that exceeds America's total imports from China last year.

The United States complains that China uses predatory practices in a push to challenge American technological dominance. Chinese tactics, the administration says, include outright cybertheft and forcing U.S. companies to hand over technology in exchange for access to the Chinese market.

The initial U.S. tariff list focused on Chinese industrial products in an attempt to limit the impact on American consumers. By expanding the list, the administration is beginning to hit products that U.S. households buy, including such things as electric lamps and fish sticks.

"Tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese products amounts to another multibillion-dollar tax on American businesses and families," said Scott Lincicome, a trade lawyer and senior policy analyst for the group Republicans Fighting Tariffs. "Given China's likelihood of retaliation, it's also billions worth of new tariffs on American exporters."

Members of Congress are increasingly questioning Trump's aggressive trade policies, warning that tariffs on imports raise prices for consumers and expose U.S. farmers and manufacturers to retaliation abroad.

"Tonight's announcement appears reckless and is not a targeted approach," Senate Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said in a statement. "We cannot turn a blind eye to China's mercantilist trade practices, but this action falls short of a strategy that will give the administration negotiating leverage with China while maintaining the long-term health and prosperity of the American economy."

source: philstar.com

Asia's export engine stuck in neutral despite U.S. uptick

HONG KONG - Asia's once-reliable export engine remains stalled two years into a global economic recovery, raising concerns about the region's competitiveness and its ability to motor through the next tough time for emerging markets.

Exports from seven of East Asia's biggest exporters - Japan, China, South Korea, Taiwan,Thailand, Hong Kong and Singapore - grew by just 0.8 percent in the third quarter, according to a Reuters analysis of national trade data, led by a 3.1 percent gain in exports to the U.S. from the same three months of 2012.



The data reinforce a worrying trend in a region where gross exports represent more than a third of its combined economic output: since peaking in 2010 as the global economy rebounded from financial crisis, Asia's export growth has rapidly cooled.

Double-digit growth, common to the past decade, petered out in 2011 and has not recovered.

"There is really no change in the main thing that's going on across Asia - which is no growth in exports the past two years," said Tim Condon, head of financial markets research at ING in Singapore.

"I think it's weak global spending, it's as simple as that."

There is a growing consensus that Asia faces slower growth and more uncertain prospects once the U.S. economy improves to the point where the Federal Reserve begins scaling back five years of radical monetary stimulus.

If exports fail to offset rising interest rates and ebbing global capital flows, economists say, Asia will have to rely on domestic demand to take up the slack - a difficult proposition given aging populations and other structural hurdles.

The failure of Asian exports to rise in tandem with global recovery has sparked a debate among economists about whether Asia might be losing its competitiveness as wages and other costs rise. But Asia's share of U.S. imports, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau and Bureau of Economic Analysis, has been growing since 2002 alongside a steady climb in China's exports since its 2001 entry into the World Trade Organization.

"There's no compelling evidence that the competitiveness of EM (emerging market) Asia's exports has fallen," said Johanna Chua, head of Asia economics and market analysis at Citigroup in Hong Kong. The sluggish recovery in U.S. imports reflects the lopsided nature of the U.S. recovery, she said, one led by housing and shale gas instead of consumer spending or business investment.

"We're not getting a broad-based recovery," said Chua.

Japan's hollowing out

Japan, however, is a different story.

The world's third-largest economy has slowly been losing market share in the United States. Japanese exports fell almost 11 percent to $180.4 billion in the third quarter, leading Asia's export decline.

In local currency terms, Japanese exports climbed nearly 13 percent in the quarter because of a sharply weaker yen over the past 12 months. But the volume of shipments was virtually flat.

And while Japan lost its lead as Asia's top exporter to the United States and Europe a decade ago, it now appears to be losing its edge in China to neighbor and rival South Korea.

Asia's exports to China in the third quarter rose 1 percent, with a 9 percent rise in exports from Korea offsetting an 11 percent decline in exports to China from Japan. Indeed, in the past five years, Korea has edged out Japan as Asia's biggest exporter to China.

That may be a reflection less of declining popularity or competitiveness of Japanese products than a shift of production out of Japan to other production bases in Asia and the United States - the "hollowing out" of Japanese industry.

This phenomenon explains how a weak yen can boost exports in yen and the earnings of Japanese exporters calculated in yen even though shipments from Japan are falling. Japan's exporters are earning more from products sold - and manufactured - overseas.

"Japanese automobiles and general machinery remain competitive and, in fact, Japanese auto sales have increased in the United States this year from last. But exports have not increased as much," said Yasuo Yamamoto, senior economist at Mizuho Research Institute in Tokyo.

"The reason is their continued shift to local production. The weak yen at current levels won't help reverse the trend of hollowing out of industry and is unlikely to boost exports as much as it used to."

source: interaksyon.com

US allows Philippines to export 3rd biggest volume of sugar with low tariff

MANILA - The Philippines will enjoy the third-largest volume of sugar that can enter the US with lower duties for the 2014 fiscal year (FY) starting next month, the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) said.

On its website, the USTR said the Philippines has been allocated 142,160 metric tons raw value (MTRV) under the US’ tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) on raw cane sugar for FY 2014 covering October 1 this year until September 30 next year.

According to the USTR, TRQs allow countries to export specified quantities of a product to the US at a relatively low tariff, "but subject all imports of the product above a pre-determined threshold to a higher tariff.”

In terms of volume, the allocation for the Philippines is just behind those for Dominican Republic (185,335 MTRV) and Brazil (152,691 MTRV).

Forty countries in all may export a combined 1,117,195 MTRV of raw cane sugar to the US, the volume committed by the US under the World Trade Organization (WTO).

The USTR said the allocations were based on each country’s historical shipments to the US.

“The allocations of the raw cane sugar TRQ to countries that are net importers of sugar are conditioned on receipt of the appropriate verifications of origin, and certificates for quota eligibility must accompany imports from any country to which an allocation is provided,” the USTR said.

The FY 2014 in-quota volume for refined sugar shipments to the US meanwhile amounts 122,000 MTRV, of which 101,656 MTRV are for specialty sugar, which include organic sugar and other specialty sugars not being produced commercially in the US or "reasonably available from domestic sources.”

For sugar-containing products, the in-quota volume is 64,709 metric tons.

Exports of refined and specialty sugar, as well as sugar-containing products to the US under the TRQ can be availed by trading partners on a “first-come, first-served basis.”

source: interaksyon.com

Dole Philippines starts banana exports to US next month

MANILA - Dole Philippines next month will start shipping Cavendish bananas to the US, an official of the Department of Agriculture (DA) said yesterday.

Clarito Barron, DA-Bureau of Plant Industry director, said 3,000 metric tons of bananas would be shipped to US military bases.

“The initial export will be 3,000 metric tons, which will be shipped by June,” he said.

The Philippines has pursued alternative export markets after China imposed stricter sanitary and phyto-sanitary restrictions on Manila's bananas. Besides the US, the Philippines is also eyeing more shipments to Japan, Korea and the Middle East.

source: interaksyon.com

Handicrafts sector registers P10M loss due to rains, flooding

Handicraft, decor and gifts exporters lost at least P8 million to P10 million due to the destructive monsoon rains that hit Metro Manila and other parts of Luzon the last several days, the Philippine Chamber of Handicraft Industries Inc. said.

PCHI president Dennis Orlina said the final amount will probably be even higher, as many company owners have not yet made or turned in their assessments.

"The flooding also caused work stoppage. And we have to pay more now to do some rework. People have to work overtime," Orlina said in a statement.

Orlina said stocks of raw materials and packaging materials were severely damaged when floods hit warehouses in Pampanga, Cainta, Taytay and Antipolo.

However, he added that these businesses could meet their delivery commitments by the end of the month.

Orlina also urged handicraft companies to increase their participation in local trade fairs, particularly the Buy Pinoy Exporters' Fair to be held this week.

"This is an opportunity for them to recover a bit their losses," he said.

The continuous rains had also temporarily halted production in the holiday decor and giftwares sector. - BM, GMA News

source: gmanetwork.com

'Sukang Iloko' now exported to Guam, Hawaii

MANILA - A recent returnee to the metropolis was upbeat with a souvenir item he was told he should bring home from the north of the country: Ilocos vinegar or better known as “sukang Iloko.”

”Sukang (accent on the second syllable) Iloko,” a popular condiment in many an Ilocano kitchen, is an easily available mild acid and, according to vinegar hounds, has a wide range of industrial, medical, and domestic uses.

Vivencio, the Manila returnee, had been familiar with the other vinegar varieties commercially available in the metropolis, but the souvenir gift was something that gave him a sense of wonder and pride in things indigenous to his country.

Vinegar, according to enthusiasts, is a competitive condiment, a liquid substance consisting mainly of acetic acid (CH3CO2H ) and water, the acetic acid being produced through the fermentation of ethanol by acetic acid bacteria.

Commercial vinegar is produced either by fast or slow fermentation processes. In general, slow methods are used with traditional vinegars, like “sukang Iloko,” and fermentation proceeds slowly over weeks or months.

According to vinegar buffs, the longer fermentation stretch allows for the accumulation of a nontoxic slime composed of acetic acid bacteria.

Fast methods add mother of vinegar -- or what others call bacterial culture -- to the source liquid before adding air using a venturi pump system or a turbine to promote oxygenation to obtain the fastest fermentation.

Mother of vinegar, which can form in store-bought vinegar if there is some non-fermented sugar and/or alcohol contained in the vinegar, is more common in unpasteurized vinegar.

In fast production processes, vinegar may be produced in a period ranging from 20 hours to three days.

Vivencio has also returned with an information, perhaps not properly disseminated to as wide an audience possible, that a Laoag City-based food firm is now producing high-quality Ilocos vinegar.

This is Cormel Foods owned by Anthony Abadilla who exhibited in recent past his products at the International Food Exhibition (IFEX) at the World Trade Center-Manila.

Official sources say Cormel Foods has since launched a new product -– duhat concentrate.

”Sukang lloko” or Ilocos vinegar is the company’s top money maker, according to sources.

Aside from local sales, it has been exporting its vinegar to Hawaii and Guam -- where thousands of Ilocanos hack out a living -- and has been shipping 3,600 liters of vinegar to Hawaii annually.

The company has been helped by government agencies, particularly the Department of Science and Technology and the state-run Mariano Marcos State University in Batac, Ilocos Norte.

According to sources, the company initially faced the use of recycled rum and gin bottles which was not good in terms of its product reputation.

With the help of DOST regional office in Ilocos Norte and MMSU, official sources said the vinegar firm was able to improve its plant operations, quality control and product image.

This has resulted in the acquisition of more presentable packaging materials in the form of new bottles, plastic jugs and labels.

This was followed by total overhauling of the company’s plant facilities with the installation of stainless steel tanks, earthen jars, plastic barrels and crates, and filtration agents.

The company also received, according to sources, marketing assistance through participation in regional trade fairs.

”Sukang Iloko,” whose popularity is making a ripple effect even in non-Ilocano areas for its exotic seasoning and preservative quality, is dark brown in color.

The Manila returnee has discovered that “sukang Iloko,” like other cane vinegars, can be used in dishes with sweet and sour sauces, and a good condiment for slices of cucumber and other salad dishes.

In the Philippines, one of the perennial, if classic, dishes is “adobo” and “paksiw na pata,” usually made with several cups of vinegar.

The returnee has also returned from Ilocos with some northern practice: adding a touch of “sukang Iloko” to dressings for fruits, including the indigenous “dippig” or “balayang” banana variety, the Spanish plum (sarguelas), the tamarind (salamagi) and the guava (bayawas) since it will tot up some bite but will not interfere with natural fruit flavors.

Meanwhile, the Sugar Regulatory Administration has itself packaged a fast, easy-to-follow and cost effective technology on making vinegar.

source: interaksyon.com