Good morning. The looming end of a tariff exemption for low-cost goods is distressing e-commerce merchants and U.S. shoppers who fear prices will rise.

• The ruling: The White House last week said it was suspending the de minimis provision, which allows shipments worth $800 or less to enter the U.S. tariff-free, as of Aug. 29. This is much sooner than a July 2027 deadline mentioned in President Trump’s recent budget bill.
   
• Change in tack? “Nobody wanted to deal with this,” said Hugo Pakula, chief executive of Tru Identity, an artificial-intelligence platform for global trade. “They were happy to push off the problem for two years.”
   
• Impact: Businesses that depend on low trade barriers will have to pay tariffs that could range from 10% to as much as 50%, depending on the country of origin and the product. Some U.S. consumers say they are worried those higher costs will lead to price hikes, as they have at brick-and-mortar retailers such as Walmart and Best Buy. Big online marketplaces such as Etsy that host small businesses may also suffer from lower sales.

U.S. arrests two over alleged Nvidia chip shipments.

The U.S. has charged two Chinese nationals with exporting tens of millions of dollars of controlled chips, including powerful Nvidia processors used in artificial intelligence applications, to China in violation of U.S. export controls.

What the U.S. alleged: Prosecutors on Monday said Chuan Geng and Shiwei Yang exported controlled chips to Malaysia and Singapore but then received payment from entities in mainland China and Hong Kong. The exported chips included the powerful H100 GPU, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court in Los Angeles.

SEC bars lender after $7.9 million loss on stablecoin crash.

The Securities and Exchange Commission barred the founder and operator of an online lending program for allegedly misusing investor funds to purchase the TerraUSD stablecoin that later crashed.

The commission said Tuesday that Huynh Tran Quang Duy, the founder and operator of online lending platform MyConstant, misled investors by claiming to operate a low-risk, short-term loan-matching service backed by collateral in the form of cryptocurrency worth at least 150% of the value of the loaned funds.

Huynh didn’t invest most of the funds in low-risk, short-term loans backed by collateral, but instead used at least $11.9 million of the $20 million investors entrusted him with to purchase TerraUSD, which crashed in May 2022.

• President Trump’s gripes against big banks have become increasingly personal.
   
• Taiwanese authorities have arrested and detained three people after Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing reported suspicions that current and former employees illegally obtained trade secrets.
   
• An organization of investor advocates is criticizing a Wall Street trade group’s proposal to overhaul the arbitration process overseen by Finra, the brokerage industry’s self-regulatory organization, according to Barron’s. 
   
• Russia continues to circumvent sanctions to procure military and dual-use goods through third countries despite sanctions, the U.K. government said in new guidance to businesses.
   
• A group of Democratic congressmen introduced a bill that aims to make it more difficult for the president to fire the head of a statistics agency.
   
• Norway ordered a review of Israeli investments held in the country’s $1.94 trillion sovereign wealth fund after receiving complaints that some might be contributing to Israel’s military action in Gaza.
   
• The U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority has fined Neil Woodford 5.8 million pounds, the equivalent of $7.7 million, for failures relating to the collapse of his flagship Equity Income fund in 2019, according to MarketWatch. 

India defies Trump on Russian oil despite tariff threats.

India is digging in its heels and resisting pressure from the U.S. to curb purchases of Russian oil, despite threats by President Trump to retaliate by imposing higher tariffs on India.

Last week, Trump said he would place a 25% tariff on Indian imports to the U.S. in retaliation for India’s large-scale purchases of cheap Russian oil. Then, on Monday, the president said he would be “substantially raising” tariffs on Indian goods—on top of the 25% duty—because of the “massive amounts” of Russian oil that India buys.

Political risk: Political experts said that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is calculating that Trump will decide that ties between the two countries are ultimately too critical to jeopardize in a trade spat.

• Trump Says Chip, Pharma Tariffs Are Coming Within Next Week
• EU Continues to Press for Tariff Exemption on Wine, Spirits
• The Tariff Effect: Billions in Revenue but No Economic Earthquake

• Israel said it will allow more goods to enter Gaza through the private sector for the first time in nearly a year, a move that could help increase the availability of food to Palestinians amid growing international pressure over the deadly hunger crisis in the enclave.
   
• Four European countries are buying U.S. military equipment valued at roughly $1 billion for delivery to Kyiv’s forces.
   
• A private gauge of China’s services sector showed activity expanded at the fastest pace in more than a year in July, as demand improved during the summer travel rush.
   
• Canada’s merchandise-trade deficit inched up in June as tariffs and uncertainty continued to drag on exports, widening the shortfall for the second quarter to a record.
   
• Increased competition from Chinese manufacturers has led to significant jobs losses in the eurozone over recent years, and that threat is set to intensify as higher U.S. tariffs force Chinese businesses to look elsewhere for customers, the European Central Bank said Wednesday.

• The House Oversight Committee subpoenaed the Justice Department for records related to its Jeffrey Epstein investigation and is seeking to question Bill and Hillary Clinton along with a host of former officials over the disgraced financier’s crimes.
   
• The most high-profile job search in Washington this week is to fill the now-delicate role of overseeing the country’s jobs data. So what does it take to be a successful candidate?
   
• President Trump ruled out choosing Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent as chairman of the Federal Reserve.
   
• The U.S. Coast Guard determined the implosion of the Titan submersible that killed five people while traveling to the wreckage of the Titanic was a preventable disaster caused by OceanGate Expeditions’s inability to meet safety and engineering standards.
   
• Blackstone this week used a companywide call to honor Wesley LePatner, a top executive killed in a shooting at the firm’s building last week, and process lingering trauma.

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