2025-06-05 20:05
Ireland, Switzerland join seven others on global monitoring list China not a manipulator but 'stands out' for lack of transparency Dollar dynamics have changed in 2025, making it more tempting for countries to try to weaken their currencies June 6 (Reuters) - No major U.S. trading partner manipulated its currency in 2024, the Treasury Department said on Thursday in the first semi-annual currency report of President Donald Trump's new administration, although its "monitoring list" of countries warranting close attention grew to nine with the addition of Ireland and Switzerland. While it did not label China a currency manipulator for now despite "depreciation pressure" facing its currency, the yuan, Treasury issued a stern warning to China, saying it "stands out among our major trading partners in its lack of transparency around its exchange rate policies and practices." Sign up here. "This lack of transparency will not preclude Treasury from designating China if available evidence suggests that it is intervening through formal or informal channels to resist (yuan) appreciation in the future," Treasury said in a statement. Treasury said China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Vietnam, Germany, Ireland and Switzerland were on its monitoring list for extra foreign exchange scrutiny. Countries that meet two of the criteria - a trade surplus with the U.S. of at least $15 billion, a global account surplus above 3% of GDP and persistent, one-way net foreign exchange purchases - are automatically added to the list. Ireland and Switzerland were added due to their large trade and current account surpluses with the U.S. The Swiss National Bank on Friday denied being a currency manipulator, but said it would continue to act in Switzerland's interests as the strong Swiss franc helped push inflation into negative terrain last month. "The SNB does not engage in any manipulation of the Swiss franc," it said. "It does not seek to prevent adjustments in the balance of trade or to gain unfair competitive advantages for the Swiss economy." Trump in his first term labeled China a manipulator in August 2019, a move made then - as now - amid heightened U.S.-China trade tensions. The Treasury Department dropped the designation in January 2020 as Chinese officials arrived in Washington to sign a trade deal with the U.S. Thursday's report was released hours after Trump spoke with China's leader Xi Jinping for the first time since returning to the White House amid an even more tense trade standoff between the world's two largest economies, and more recently a battle over critical minerals. The countries struck a 90-day deal on May 12 to roll back some of the triple-digit, tit-for-tat tariffs they had placed on each other since Trump's January inauguration. The latest report covers the final full year of the administration of Trump's predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden, who over his four-year term never labeled any trading partner a currency manipulator but raised similar concerns over China's behavior and lack of transparency. Last year was marked generally by broad-based dollar strengthening, with the greenback gaining 7% in 2024 against a basket of major trading partners' currencies. That dynamic made it less likely that Treasury would find evidence of consistent one-way actions by countries to weaken their currencies for competitive advantage, since most currencies were broadly weakening anyway, Treasury officials said. That could change over the course of this year, with the dollar already down by roughly 9% since Trump returned to the White House and launched a trade war that has global investors rethinking their commitments to U.S. assets. In the current environment, it might be more tempting for countries to step in to try to prevent or reverse the continued strengthening of their currencies, and Treasury officials said they would be watching closely for such behavior. In the case of China more specifically, Treasury officials said they were looking at broadening their surveillance to include monitoring of the activities of sovereign wealth and state pension funds for any indication these entities were acting on Beijing's behest in the foreign exchange market. They said there was no current evidence of that but it had been a tactic used by others in the past. https://www.reuters.com/world/china/us-finds-no-currency-manipulation-2024-ireland-switzerland-added-monitoring-list-2025-06-05/
2025-06-05 19:59
OTTAWA, June 5 (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and U.S. President Donald Trump are in direct communication as part of Ottawa's bid to persuade Washington to lift tariffs, Industry Minister Melanie Joly said on Thursday. "We are in a trade war and it's normal that at the same time that the trade war is taking place, there are also diplomatic negotiations, and that therefore, Prime Minister Carney and President Trump talk to each other," she told reporters. Sign up here. The Globe and Mail newspaper earlier quoted the U.S. envoy to Canada as saying the two leaders were secretly holding direct talks to work out a framework for a trade and security deal. Trump this week doubled the tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum to 50% from 25%. The move has the potential to hurt Canada, which is the largest seller of the metals to the U.S. Carney said on Wednesday that the countries were in intense negotiations over the tariffs and that Canada was "preparing reprisals if those negotiations do not succeed". Pete Hoekstra, the U.S. ambassador to Canada, told the Globe the two sides were "laying out the perimeters" of a deal that could involve boosting U.S. content in autos, improving U.S. access to Canadian critical minerals and ensuring Canada played a much bigger role in the Arctic. The talks also include increased defense spending, energy, border security, steel and aluminum as well as stopping the smuggling of fentanyl, the paper cited him as saying. Carney's office declined to comment. In an email, an official at the U.S. embassy in Ottawa said "both the President and Prime Minister, or members of their teams, have publicly acknowledged that there are ongoing conversations". Unifor, the country's largest private sector union, on Wednesday called on Carney to retaliate immediately. https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/trump-carney-are-direct-contact-over-tariffs-says-canadian-minister-2025-06-05/
2025-06-05 19:37
June 5 (Reuters) - International monitors at the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine heard repeated rounds of gunfire that appeared to be aimed at drones reportedly attacking the site's training centre, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog said on Thursday. Russian forces seized the Zaporizhzhia plant, Europe's largest nuclear facility with six reactors, in the early weeks of Moscow's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Each side has since routinely accused the other of attacking the plant and posing a threat to nuclear safety. Sign up here. Monitors from the International Atomic Energy Agency reported hearing at least five explosions between 11:30 a.m. and 13:45 p.m. local time, each preceded by gunfire, an IAEA statement said. The statement gave no indication of the origin of the drones and said there were no reports of any damage to the centre. "Drones flying close to nuclear power plants could threaten their safety and security, with potentially serious consequences," IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said. "As I have stated repeatedly during the war, such incidents must stop immediately." The statement said it was the fourth time this year that the training centre, located just outside the site perimeter, was reportedly targeted by drones. The plant's Russian management had earlier said Ukrainian drones had landed on the roof of the training center in "yet another attack" on the facility. It said there had been no casualties or damage. The Zaporizhzhia station, with all its reactors in shut down mode, produces no electricity. Before the war, it generated one-fifth of Ukraine's electricity. Grossi last week told Reuters that while Russia had "never hidden the fact" that it wanted to restart the plant, this could not be done soon as it lacked water for cooling and a stable power supply. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/iaea-team-ukraines-zaporizhzhia-says-it-heard-repeated-rounds-gunfire-2025-06-05/
2025-06-05 19:30
GENEVA, June 5 (Reuters) - Indirect carbon emissions from the operations of four of the leading AI-focused tech companies rose on average by 150% from 2020-2023, due to the demands of power-hungry data centres, a United Nations report , opens new tab said on Thursday. The use of artificial intelligence by Amazon (AMZN.O) , opens new tab, Microsoft (MSFT.O) , opens new tab, Alphabet (GOOGL.O) , opens new tab and Meta (META.O) , opens new tab drove up their global indirect emissions because of the vast amounts of energy required to power data centres, the report by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the U.N. agency for digital technologies, said. Sign up here. Indirect emissions include those generated by purchased electricity, steam, heating and cooling consumed by a company. Amazon's operational carbon emissions grew the most at 182% in 2023 compared to three years before, followed by Microsoft at 155%, Meta at 145% and Alphabet at 138%, according to the report. The ITU tracked the greenhouse gas emissions of 200 leading digital companies between 2020 and 2023. Meta, which owns Facebook and WhatsApp, pointed Reuters to its sustainability report that said it is working to reduce emissions, energy and water used to power its data centres. Amazon said it is committed to powering its operations more sustainably by investing in new carbon-free energy projects, including nuclear and renewable energy. Microsoft highlighted its sustainability report, which says it had doubled its rate of power savings last year and is transitioning towards chip-level liquid cooling designs, instead of traditional cooling systems, to reduce energy at its data centres. The other companies did not respond immediately to requests for comment. As investment in AI increases, carbon emissions from the top-emitting AI systems are predicted to reach up to 102.6 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year, the report stated. The data centres that are needed for AI development could also put pressure on existing energy infrastructure. "The rapid growth of artificial intelligence is driving a sharp rise in global electricity demand, with electricity use by data centres increasing four times faster than the overall rise in electricity consumption," the report found. It also highlighted that although a growing number of digital companies had set emissions targets, those ambitions had not yet fully translated into actual reductions of emissions. https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/tech-giants-indirect-emissions-rose-150-three-years-ai-expands-un-agency-says-2025-06-05/
2025-06-05 19:16
BRASILIA, June 5 (Reuters) - Brazil's poultry exports fell in both value and volume in May from a year earlier, government data showed on Thursday, as trade restrictions following a bird flu case weighed on the sector. Herlon Brandao, director of Statistics and Foreign Trade Studies at the Ministry of Development, Industry, Trade and Services, said at a press conference that poultry exports had been on the rise before the outbreak, the first on a commercial farm in Brazil. Sign up here. In May, poultry exports fell 12.9% to $655 million, while volumes declined 14.4% to about 363,100 metric tons. https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/brazils-poultry-exports-fell-may-hit-by-bird-flu-case-2025-06-05/
2025-06-05 18:54
WASHINGTON, June 5 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump suggested on Thursday that he may terminate U.S. government contracts and subsidies given to Elon Musk's companies, as the public feud between the two men escalates over a tax and spending bill. "The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts," Trump said in a Truth Social post. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-suggests-terminating-musks-us-government-contracts-subsidies-2025-06-05/
