The Uncertainty Will Continue

The latest tariff deadline has arrived, but the negotiations go on.

Good Morning!

Here are today’s highlights:

• So far, the tariffs have accelerated China’s growth and cost global automakers billions.

• Ami Kassar says entrepreneurs know when to ignore the headlines and just keep going.

• A company that makes backyard pizza ovens in China isn’t all that worried about tariffs.

• Fed up with online hiring portals, some employers are returning increasingly to the old ways—including newspaper classifieds.

THE TRADE WAR

The uncertainty will continue: “The president said Wednesday that tariffs on imported semiconductors would be set at around 100 percent—with exemptions for companies such as iPhone-maker Apple that invest in U.S. manufacturing. Promised new levies on other sensitive sectors such as pharmaceuticals are still to be officially announced. This confusion—and the president’s willingness to adjust tariffs spontaneously in pursuit of a variety of political goals—mean that uncertainty over access to the U.S.’s vast domestic market is becoming a key feature of the emerging economic order, with knock-on effects for business investment, hiring, and prices. Trump on Wednesday said imports from India would be hit with an extra 25-percent levy as punishment for buying Russian oil, on top of a 25-percent tariff it already faces.”

• “Administration officials for months insisted there would be ‘no exemptions, no exceptions’ to country-specific tariffs that Trump in April announced were coming down the pike, targeting allies and adversaries alike in what the president said was the U.S. hitting back at decades of unfair treatment in international trade.”

• “Chile is another country that persuaded the Trump administration to exempt a key export from tariffs. Chile is a major copper supplier to the U.S., and succeeded in winning relief from a 50-percent tariff that Trump said he would levy on copper imports. About 65 percent of U.S. imports of refined copper come from Chile, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.”

• “Now, the rush to secure further exemptions is on. The E.U. accepted a 15-percent baseline tariff on most U.S. imports from the bloc as part of what it described as a political agreement with the White House. The bloc said it anticipates that some products will be excluded from the 15-percent baseline tariff because the U.S. views them as strategic goods. ... European companies are making their case, too.” READ MORE