2025-04-13 12:09
SEOUL, April 13 (Reuters) - South Korean steelmaker POSCO is considering joining a project by Hyundai Steel (004020.KS) , opens new tab to build a $5.8 billion plant in Louisiana as the country's steel industry tries to respond to U.S. tariffs on the sector, news reports said on Sunday. Hyundai Steel said it did not have any comment on the matter. Sign up here. POSCO said the company was considering various strategic options regarding its investment in the United States, but nothing had yet been decided. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/south-koreas-posco-considers-joining-hyundai-steels-58-billion-steel-plant-2025-04-13/
2025-04-13 11:27
RIYADH, April 13 (Reuters) - The United States and Saudi Arabia will sign a preliminary agreement to cooperate over the kingdom's ambitions to develop a civil nuclear industry, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright told reporters in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Sunday. Wright, who had met with Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman earlier on Sunday, said Riyadh and Washington were on a "a pathway" to reaching an agreement to work together to develop a Saudi civil nuclear programme. Sign up here. Wright, on his first visit to the kingdom as secretary as part of tour of energy-producing Gulf states, said further details over a memorandum detailing the energy cooperation between Riyadh and Washington would come later this year. "For a U.S. partnership and involvement in nuclear here, there will definitely be a 123 agreement ... there's lots of ways to structure a deal that will accomplish both the Saudi objectives and the American objectives," he said. A so-called 123 agreement with Riyadh refers to Section 123 of the U.S. Atomic Energy Act of 1954 and is required to permit the U.S. government and American companies to work with entities in the kingdom to develop a civil nuclear industry. Saudi authorities have not agreed to the requirements under the act, Wright said. It specifies nine non-proliferation criteria a state must meet to keep it from using the technology to develop nuclear arms or transfer sensitive materials to others. Progress on the discussions had previously been difficult because Saudi Arabia did not want to sign a deal that would rule out the possibility of enriching uranium or reprocessing spent fuel - both potential paths to a bomb. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has long said that if Iran developed a nuclear weapon, Saudi Arabia would follow suit, a stance that has fuelled deep concern among arms control advocates and some U.S. lawmakers over a possible U.S.-Saudi civil nuclear deal. Wright did not mention a wider arrangement with the kingdom, which the previous administration of U.S. president Joe Biden had been seeking and included a civil nuclear agreement and security guarantees in the hopes it would lead to normalisation of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel. Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, is seeking to generate substantial renewable energy and reduce emissions, under the crown prince's Vision 2030 reform plan. At least some of this is expected to come from nuclear energy. https://www.reuters.com/world/saudi-arabia-us-pathway-civil-nuclear-agreement-us-energy-secretary-says-2025-04-13/
2025-04-13 10:49
LONDON, April 13 (Reuters) - Britain will not relax its food safety standards as part of any deal to secure lower tariffs on its exports to the United States, business minister Jonathan Reynolds said on Sunday. U.S. President Donald Trump has imposed 10% tariffs on most imports of British goods to the United States and a higher 25% rate on imports of cars, steel and aluminium. Sign up here. Although the tariffs imposed on Britain are at the lower end of the United States' scale - reflecting broadly balanced trade flows between the two countries - Reynolds said he still viewed the greater trade barriers as "disappointing". Earlier this month, just after the tariffs were announced, Reynolds told the BBC it was "not inaccurate" to say the United States and Britain had agreed the broad outline of a possible deal, though Trump had not seen it. However, there has been little sign of progress since and last week finance minister Rachel Reeves said she intended to meet U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent "shortly". Attempts to strike a bilateral trade deal during Trump's first term in 2017-21 ran into opposition from Britain's Conservative government at the time over measures to lower animal welfare and environmental standards. Reynolds said on Sunday that looser food standards remained off the table for the Labour administration, as he viewed that as breaching promises made in 2024's election campaign. "We will never change our SPS (sanitary and phytosanitary) food standards. We've made that perfectly clear to the United States," he told Sky News in an interview. Common U.S. and Canadian practices such as washing raw chicken in chlorinated water or feeding growth hormones to cattle are banned in Britain and the European Union. However, parts of the U.S. food industry did meet British standards, Reynolds said, hinting at a possible area for negotiation on tariffs. Last week Britain's culture minister ruled out any changes to its new Online Safety Act, which can fine big, predominantly U.S., tech companies up to 10% of their global turnover if they do not moderate content to British regulators' liking. (This story has been refiled to remove the duplicate words in paragraph 4) https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/looser-food-standards-off-menu-any-us-uk-trade-deal-uk-says-2025-04-13/
2025-04-13 09:05
MADRID, April 13 (Reuters) - Homes were flooded and roads turned into muddy rivers after torrential rainfall over the Spanish Canary Island of Lanzarote, a popular year-round tourist destination. A state of emergency was declared after 6 cm (2.4 inches) of rain fell in two hours on Saturday, emergency services said on Sunday. Sign up here. Dramatic video footage showed a surge of brown flood water streaming under a bridge while bystanders took pictures and cars were stuck on flooded roads. Enrique Espinosa, head of emergency services for the Lanzarote government, said some homes had been submerged. "We have been working all night, attending 300 calls overnight, many of them in Arrecife and Teguise. Some houses are flooded and what remains is a great quantity of mud," Espinosa told RTVE state television on Sunday. No one has been injured in the flooding, authorities said. https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/spains-lanzarote-island-hit-by-flooding-after-torrential-rain-2025-04-13/
2025-04-13 04:30
Japan shouldn't think about selling US Treasuries holdings Weak yen behind rising cost of living, Onodera says Remarks come as Japan gears up for trade talks with US TOKYO, April 13 (Reuters) - Japan must strengthen the yen, such as by helping boost the country's industrial competitiveness, as the currency's weakness has pushed up households' living costs, the ruling party's policy chief said on Sunday. Ahead of trade talks with the U.S., Itsunori Onodera, chair of the Liberal Democratic Party's Policy Research Council, also said Japan should not intentionally sell its U.S. Treasury holdings, the largest outside the United States, in retaliation against tariffs levied by President Donald Trump. Sign up here. "As a U.S. ally, the government shouldn't think about intentionally using U.S. Treasury holdings," Onodera told a programme on public broadcaster NHK, rejecting an opposition lawmaker's suggestion that Tokyo use its huge holdings of U.S. government debt as a negotiating tool in bilateral trade talks. By blaming the weak yen for accelerating inflation, Onodera could be signalling that Japanese policymakers consider the yen's downtrend, rather than its recent rebound, as the bigger problem for the economy. "The weak yen has been among factors pushing up prices," Onodera said. "To strengthen the yen, it's important to strengthen Japanese companies." The bilateral trade negotiations this week will likely include the thorny topic of currency policy, with some officials privately bracing for Washington to call on Tokyo to prop up the yen. The slow pace at which the Bank of Japan is raising interest rates from ultra-low levels could also come under fire, sources have told Reuters. Tokyo's top trade negotiator Ryosei Akazawa, the minister for economic revitalisation, will meet Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Thursday, two people familiar with the negotiations told Reuters. TARIFFS ROIL YEN, TREASURIES Japan has historically sought to prevent its currency from rising too much, as a strong yen would hurt its export-reliant economy. But in recent years as the BOJ continued its ultra-loose monetary policy while the Federal Reserve raised U.S. interest rates, the yen slid to nearly three-decade lows. Tokyo intervened to buy the yen in 2022 and again last year, when the dollar had risen to nearly 160 yen. The Japanese currency has recently rallied in a broad-based sell-off of the dollar , which fell on Friday as low as 142.895 yen, its lowest since September. The 10 trading days since Trump hit automakers with tariffs were the most convulsive since the pandemic panic of 2020, as prices of stocks, bonds, oil, gold and the dollar swung wildly. Selling in Treasuries - the linchpin safe asset in global markets - was the heaviest for decades. A massive wave of selling that hit U.S. government debt in Asia on Wednesday stoked market speculation China was among those unloading its holdings. The Treasury sell-off was among the factors that led Trump to announce a 90-day pause on his "reciprocal" tariff plan, with Bessent likely playing a key role. Japan held $1.079 trillion in Treasuries in January, followed by China with $760.8 billion, according to Treasury Department data. https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/japan-ruling-party-chief-calls-stronger-yen-2025-04-13/
2025-04-12 22:36
Indirect talks mediated by Oman aim to address Tehran's escalating nuclear programme Talks took place in a 'productive, calm and positive atmosphere', Iranian foreign minister says He says both sides seek deal in short term: 'We do not want talks for (the sake of) talks' White House says talks have been very positive and constructive Iran has been sceptical about prospects for deal, wary of Trump's military threats DUBAI, April 12 (Reuters) - Iran and the U.S. said they held "positive" and "constructive" talks in Oman on Saturday and agreed to reconvene next week in a dialogue meant to address Tehran's escalating nuclear programme, with President Donald Trumpthreatening military action if there is no deal. "I think we are very close to a basis for negotiations and if we can conclude this basis next week, we’ll have gone a long way and will be able to start real discussions based on that,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told state television. Sign up here. Araqchi said the talks - the first between Iran and a Trump administration, including his 2017-2021 first term - took place in a "productive, calm and positive atmosphere". "Both sides have agreed to continue the talks ... probably next Saturday," Araqchi added. "Iran and the U.S. side want an agreement in the short term. We do not want talks for (the sake of) talks." The White House called the talks involving Trump's Middle East envoy Steven Witkoff, U.S. Ambassador to Oman Ana Escrogima and Araqchi "very positive and constructive." "These issues are very complicated, and Special Envoy Witkoff’s direct communication today was a step forward in achieving a mutually beneficial outcome," it said in a statement. "The sides agreed to meet again next Saturday." Asked about the talks, Trump told reporters on Saturday night: "I think they’re going OK." "Nothing matters until you get it done, so I don’t like talking about it, but it’s going OK. The Iran situation is going pretty good, I think," he said on Air Force One. Trump made a surprise announcement on Monday that Washington and Tehran would begin talks in Oman, a Gulf state that has mediated between the West and the Islamic Republic before. It has brokered the release of several foreign citizens and dual nationals held by Iran. BOTH SIDES FAR APART Saturday's exchanges were indirect and mediated by Oman, as Iran had wanted, rather than face-to-face, as Trump had demanded. Each delegation had its separate room and exchanged messages via Oman's foreign minister, according to Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei. Araqchi said his delegation had a brief encounter with its U.S. counterpart headed by Witkoff, after they exited the talks. "After the end of more than 2-1/2 hours of indirect talks, the heads of the Iranian and American delegations spoke for a few minutes in the presence of the Omani foreign minister as they left the talks. It (the encounter) was based on our political etiquette," Araqchi said. "The current focus of the talks will be de-escalating regional tensions, prisoner exchanges and limited agreements to ease sanctions (against Iran) in exchange for controlling Iran's nuclear programme," an Omani source told Reuters. Baghaei denied this account but did not specify what was false. Trump, who in his first term withdrew the U.S. from a 2015 big-power accord with Tehran, has again brought a tougher approach to a Middle Eastern power whose nuclear programme Washington's ally Israel regards as an existential threat. At the same time, Iran and allied groups have been weakened by the military offensives Israel has launched across the region, including air strikes in Iran, during its war with Hamas after the Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked Israel from Gaza in October 2023. Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia's ambassador to international bodies in Vienna, called the statements issued by both sides after the talks "encouraging". Tehran approached the talks warily, sceptical they could yield a deal and suspicious of Trump, who has repeatedly threatened to bomb Iran if it does not halt its accelerating uranium enrichment programme - regarded by the West as a possible pathway to nuclear weapons. While each side has talked up the chances of some progress, they remain far apart on a dispute that has rumbled on for more than two decades. Iran has long denied seeking nuclear weapons capability, but Western countries and Israel believe it is covertly trying to develop the means to build an atomic bomb. "This is a beginning. So it is normal at this stage for the two sides to present to each other their fundamental positions through the Omani intermediary," Baghaei said. Signs of progress could help cool tensions in a region aflame since 2023 with wars in Gaza and Lebanon, missile fire between Iran and Israel, Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping and the overthrow of the government in Syria. HIGH STAKES However, failure would aggravate fears of a wider conflagration across a region that exports much of the world's oil. Tehran has cautioned neighbouring countries that have U.S. bases that they would face "severe consequences" if they were involved in any U.S. military attack on the OPEC member. "There is a chance for initial understanding on further negotiations if the other party (U.S.) enters the talks with an equal stance," Araqchi told Iranian TV. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say on key state matters, has given Araqchi "full authority" for the talks, an Iranian official told Reuters. Iran has ruled out negotiating its defence capabilities such as its ballistic missile programme. Western nations say Iran's enrichment of uranium, a nuclear fuel source, has gone far beyond the requirements of a civilian energy programme and has produced stocks at a level of fissile purity close to those required in warheads. Trump, who has restored a "maximum pressure" campaign on Tehran since February, ditched a 2015 nuclear pact between Iran and six world powers, including Russia and China, in 2018 during his first term and reimposed crippling sanctions on the Islamic Republic. Since then, Iran's nuclear programme has leaped forward, including by enriching uranium to 60% fissile purity, a technical step from the levels needed for a bomb. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iran-us-start-talks-oman-under-shadow-regional-conflict-2025-04-12/
