2025-04-06 12:08
NEW DELHI, April 6 (Reuters) - India does not plan to retaliate against U.S. President Donald Trump's 26% tariff on imports from the Asian nation, an Indian government official said, citing ongoing talks for a deal between the countries. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's administration has looked into a clause of Trump's tariff order that offers a possible reprieve for trading partners who "take significant steps to remedy non-reciprocal trade arrangements", said the official, who declined to be named as the details of the talks are confidential. Sign up here. New Delhi sees an advantage in being one of the first nations to have started talks over a trade deal with Washington, and is better placed than Asian peers like China, Vietnam, and Indonesia, which have been hit by higher U.S. tariffs, a second government official said, also declining to be named. In the days after Trump's tariff announcement that has shaken global markets to their core, India joined nations like Taiwan and Indonesia in ruling out counter tariffs, even as the European Commission prepares to hit U.S. products with extra duties following China's retaliation. India and the U.S. agreed in February to clinch an early trade deal by autumn 2025 to resolve their standoff on tariffs. The Indian prime minister's office did not immediately respond to an e-mailed request for comment. Reuters reported last month that New Delhi is open to cutting tariffs on U.S. imports worth $23 billion. Modi's administration has taken a number of steps to win over Trump, including lowering tariffs on high-end bikes and bourbon, and dropping a tax on digital services that affected U.S. tech giants. Trump's tariffs could slow India's economic growth by 20-40 basis points in the ongoing financial year and may cripple India's diamond industry, which ships more than a third of its exports to the U.S., putting at risk thousands of jobs. https://www.reuters.com/world/india-unlikely-retaliate-against-trumps-tariffs-deal-talks-progress-sources-say-2025-04-06/
2025-04-06 11:45
CAIRO, April 6 (Reuters) - Libya's central bank announced a 13.3% devaluation of the country's dinar currency on Sunday, setting the exchange rate at 5.5677 to the U.S. dollar effective immediately. This is the first official devaluation since the bank agreed to a devalued exchange rate of 4.48 dinars to the dollar in 2020. Sign up here. The parallel market exchange rate is currently at 7.20 dinars to the dollar. In September last year, the dinar slid against the U.S. dollar in the black market due to a crisis over control of the central bank that slashed oil output and exports. The crisis was resolved later in September following an agreement signed by representatives of Libya's rival eastern and western legislative bodies. The agreement, facilitated by the United Nations, paved the way for the appointment of a new central bank governor. In November, the eastern-based parliament speaker reduced the tax on foreign currency purchases to 15% from 20%. The tax is added to the rate when people buy foreign currencies from commercial banks. Libya has been plagued by instability since a NATO-backed uprising in 2011, leading to a split in 2014 between eastern and western factions, each governed by rival administrations. The spending of the two governments in 2024 totalled 224 billion dinars ($46 billion), including 42 billion dinars for crude-for-fuel swaps, the central bank said in a statement on Sunday. Public debt stood at 270 billion dinars, it said, projecting that it could exceed 330 billion dinars by the end of 2025 due to the lack of a unified budget. In December, Stephanie Koury, deputy head of the U.N. mission to Libya, urged the country's decision-makers to "urgently agree on a framework for spending in 2025 with agreed limits and oversight". ($1 = 4.8250 Libyan dinars) https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/libya-devalues-currency-first-time-four-years-2025-04-06/
2025-04-06 11:22
EU retaliation proposal expected Monday, with vote on Wednesday EU seeks unity amid differing opinions on best response EU executive chief to host steel, cars, pharma CEOs BRUSSELS, April 6 (Reuters) - European Union countries will seek to present a united front in the coming days against U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs, likely approving a first set of targeted countermeasures on up to $28 billion of U.S. imports from dental floss to diamonds. Such a move would mean the EU joining China and Canada in imposing retaliatory tariffs on the United States in an early escalation of what some fear will become a global trade war, making goods more expensive for billions of consumers and pushing economies around the world into recession. Sign up here. The 27-nation bloc faces 25% import tariffs on steel and aluminium and cars and "reciprocal" tariffs of 20% from Wednesday for almost all other goods. Trump's tariffs cover some 70% of the EU's exports to the United States - worth in total 532 billion euros ($585 billion) last year - with likely duties on copper, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors and timber still to come. The European Commission, which coordinates EU trade policy, will propose to members late on Monday a list of U.S. products to hit with extra duties in response to Trump's steel and aluminium tariffs rather than the broader reciprocal levies. It is set to include U.S. meat, cereals, wine, wood and clothing as well as chewing gum, dental floss, vacuum cleaners and toilet paper. One product that has received more attention and exposed discord in the bloc is bourbon. The Commission has earmarked a 50% tariff, prompting Trump to threaten a 200% counter-tariff on EU alcoholic drinks if the bloc goes ahead. Wine exporters France and Italy have both expressed concern. The EU, whose economy is heavily reliant on free trade, is keen to make sure it has wide backing for any response so as to keep the pressure up on Trump ultimately to enter negotiations. Luxembourg will earlier on Monday host the first EU-wide political meeting since Trump's announcement of the sweeping tariffs when ministers responsible for trade from the 27 EU members will exchange views on the impact and how best to respond. EU diplomats said the main aim of the meeting was to emerge with a united message of a desire to negotiate with Washington a removal of tariffs, but a readiness to respond with countermeasures if that failed. "Our biggest fear after Brexit was bilateral deals and a break of unity, but through three or four years of negotiations that did not happen. Of course, here you have a different story, but everyone can see an interest in a common commercial policy," one EU diplomat said. COUNTER-TARIFFS Among EU members, there is a spectrum of opinion on how to respond. France has said the EU should work on a package going well beyond tariffs and French President Emmanuel Macron has suggested European companies should suspend investments in the United States until "things are clarified". Ireland, almost a third of whose exports go to the United States, has called for a "considered and measured" response, while Italy, the EU's third largest exporter to the U.S., has questioned whether the EU should hit back at all. "It's a difficult balance. Measures cannot be too soft to bring the United States to the table, but not too tough to lead to escalation," one EU diplomat said. Talks with Washington to date have not borne fruit. EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic described his two-hour exchange with U.S. counterparts on Friday as "frank" as he told them U.S. tariffs were "damaging, unjustified". The initial EU counter-tariffs will in any case be put to a vote on Wednesday and will be approved except in the unlikely event that a qualified majority of 15 EU members representing 65% of the EU's population oppose it. They would enter force in two stages, a smaller part on April 15 and the rest a month later. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will also hold separate discussions on Monday and Tuesday with chief executives from the steel, automotive and pharmaceutical sectors to assess the impact of tariffs and determine what to do next.($1 = 0.9102 euros) https://www.reuters.com/markets/eu-seeks-unity-first-strike-back-trump-tariffs-2025-04-06/
2025-04-06 11:04
MOSCOW, April 6 (Reuters) - Russia-U.S. contacts may continue next week, Interfax reported citing Russian President Vladimir Putin's investment envoy Kirill Dmitriev. Dmitriev recently flew to Washington for a round of talks with officials from President Donald Trump's administration. Sign up here. Following the discussions, Dmitriev said that he saw a "positive dynamic" in relations between Moscow and Washington. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/putins-envoy-says-new-russia-us-contacts-may-continue-next-week-ifx-reports-2025-04-06/
2025-04-06 10:58
Taiwan places temporary curbs on short-selling stocks Regulator pledges 'timely' adjustments to measures Taiwan markets closed on Thursday, Friday as global stocks slid TAIPEI, April 6 (Reuters) - Taiwan's top financial regulator said on Sunday it will impose temporary curbs on short-selling of shares to help deal with potential market turmoil from U.S. President Donald Trump's new import tariffs, and will take other steps as needed. Taiwan's Financial Supervisory Commission said in a statement it would limit the number of shares that can be sold short and raise the minimum short-selling margin ratio to 130% from 90%, starting from Monday and lasting until Friday. Sign up here. Short sellers borrow shares they expect to fall, aiming to repay the loan for less later to pocket the difference. Taiwan's stock market (.TWII) , opens new tab was closed last Thursday and Friday for a holiday and reopens on Monday, meaning investors have yet to have a chance to respond to the tariffs. Global stock markets have plunged since they were unveiled, with the S&P 500 losing $5 trillion in two days. The commission said that the tariffs were "bound to create a number of major uncertainties for the stability of Taiwan's capital market". It will continue to monitor the international financial developments and the domestic capital market, and adjust the measures "in a timely manner", it added, without elaborating. "The new regulations have been introduced to make it clear that speculative short selling is not welcome," Kao Ching-ping, deputy head of the commission's Securities and Futures Bureau told Reuters. Taiwan, the world's biggest manufacturer of advanced semiconductors that runs a large trade surplus with the United States, is subject to a 32% tariff under the plans announced by Trump on Wednesday. The Taiwan dollar is likely to face considerable pressure against the U.S. dollar on Monday, traders said, given expected heavy falls in the domestic stock market and an outflow of foreign capital. But a source familiar with the situation told Reuters that Taiwan has abundant foreign currency reserves to help the central bank cushion the impact on the Taiwan dollar when the market re-opens. "The central bank is confident that it has the ability to maintain the stability of the exchange rate," the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The Taiwan dollar has depreciated around 0.9% against the greenback so far this year, while the benchmark stock index is down 7.5% since the start of the year. https://www.reuters.com/markets/asia/taiwan-announces-temporary-short-selling-curbs-after-us-tariffs-2025-04-06/
2025-04-06 10:27
MOSCOW, April 6 (Reuters) - Ukraine continues to carry out attacks on Russian energy infrastructure despite a U.S.-brokered moratorium on strikes against energy facilities, the Russian Defence Ministry said on Sunday. According to the ministry, Ukrainian forces conducted seven such attacks over the last 24 hours in Crimea, Bryansk, Rostov, and Voronezh regions. Sign up here. In the Voronezh region, the attack damaged a gas distribution pipeline, the ministry said. Reuters was unable to verify the reports. In separate report the ministry said that Russian forces launched an overnight strike using long-range precision weapons and drones against Ukraine's central artillery armament base and defence industry enterprises involved in drone production. The location of the targets was not disclosed. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-says-ukraine-continues-attacks-russian-energy-infrastructure-2025-04-06/
