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The Morning Risk Report: Trump to Hit China With Additional 100% Tariff, Citing Restrictions on Rare-Earth Elements

By Richard Vanderford | Dow Jones Risk Journal

 

Good morning. President Trump said Friday he would hit China with a 100% additional tariff and impose new export controls on critical software products after Beijing placed sweeping restrictions on the export of rare-earth minerals.

  • New Chinese restrictions: The move comes after China this week announced new export restrictions on rare-earth minerals, which are critical components of products such as semiconductors, electric vehicles and jet fighters. China dominates processing capabilities for rare-earth minerals, giving it leverage over the U.S. and other nations.
     
  • Do-over? Some members of the administration want to effectively restart trade talks from zero with Beijing, according to people familiar with the thinking, and U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, who have led the talks, are particularly incensed.
     
  • Time to reconsider: Trump appeared to leave room for Beijing to step back from its new export controls, saying Friday evening that he had purposely set the imposition date for tariffs a few weeks in the future.
     
  • Unclear impact: Which businesses are affected depends on which products are affected, and the rules aren’t clear. They might target just rare-earth materials and rare-earth magnets, or they might hit a range of parts and components that have some rare earths inside. The ambiguity may be purposeful to give the Chinese side flexibility during negotiations with the U.S.
 
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More Risk & Compliance articles from Deloitte
 

Compliance

The EU is looking into how well Alphabet’s Google and YouTube, Apple and Snapchat protect minors online under the bloc’s content-moderation law. loic venance/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

EU scrutinizes Google, YouTube, Apple, Snapchat over children’s online safety.

The European Union is looking into how well Alphabet’s Google and YouTube, Apple and Snapchat protect minors online under the bloc’s content-moderation law.

The executive arm of the EU, the European Commission, has asked for information on the companies’ age-verification systems and on how they prevent minors from accessing products like drugs and vapes or from seeing harmful material such as content that could encourage eating disorders.

 

China goes all in on U.S. trade battle, with Qualcomm in the crosshairs.

With rare-earths export restrictions and a string of actions targeting the U.S. chip industry, Beijing is mounting a full-scale offensive on Washington ahead of an expected meeting between President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

The latest to face Beijing’s ire: Qualcomm, one of the U.S.’s most important semiconductor companies.

 ‏‏‎ ‎
  • The U.K.’s competition enforcer labeled Alphabet’s Google as a company it needs to keep a close eye on due to its ubiquitous search engine and lucrative search-advertising business.
     
  • China plans to impose a special port fee on U.S. vessels docking at Chinese ports, in retaliation for the Trump administration’s move to levy fees on Chinese ships.
     
  • U.S. banks applauded new guidance from federal regulators they said would reduce compliance overhead tied to reporting suspicious transactions, though critics said the move could weaken anti-money-laundering efforts, Risk Journal reports.
     
  • The U.S. announced sanctions on Iraqi bank executives and front companies that allegedly support Iran-backed militias responsible for deaths of U.S. personnel, targeting financial networks that enable terrorist groups to operate in Iraq.
 ‏‏‎ ‎
$2 Billion

The amount of money unaccounted for amid the bankruptcy filing of First Brands. New directors and forensic accountants are investigating whether accounts receivable were double-pledged and collateral was shifted between entities.

 

Risk

Toy makers are among the Chinese manufacturers reckoning with a drop in U.S. orders. Qilai Shen/Bloomberg News

Trump’s fresh tariff assault threatens China’s fragile economy.

For thousands of manufacturers across China, it’s déjà vu—with implications for the country’s fragile economy.

Earlier this year, after President Trump raised tariffs on Chinese goods to 145% in April, American customers of Alan Chau’s toy factory in southern China abruptly froze orders, sparking a cash crunch that brought his business to the brink. So it came as a relief when the U.S. and China reached a trade truce weeks later in mid-May, rolling back most of their tariffs on one another—and allowing Chau to resume shipping his products again.

 

Hyundai factory was a deadly job site before it was raided by ICE.

Before it became the target of one of the biggest immigration raids in U.S. history, Hyundai Motor’s sprawling auto plant in central Georgia had another reputation among workers: It was a dangerous and deadly construction site.

Three workers have died since Hyundai started construction on the $7.6 billion complex in 2022—an unusually high toll, even for a project of its scale, according to a Wall Street Journal review of federal records. More than a dozen other workers have suffered severe injuries, including from falling without harnesses and getting crushed by forklifts.

 
  • A coordinated squeeze forced Hamas to accept a deal it didn’t want.
     
  • China has detained a prominent underground pastor, complicating ties with the U.S.
     
  • North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, armed with nuclear weapons and powerful friends, signaled his determination to stand up to Washington with an elaborate military parade Friday night that featured advancements in an arsenal capable of striking the U.S.
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“AI-amplified performance gaps will intensify the workplace tensions and resentment that stars can sometimes create, undermining team cohesion—and ultimately hurting the collaborative work that drives business success.”

— Matthew Call, an associate professor in the department of management at Texas A&M University’s Mays School of Management, in an essay on how artificial intelligence could widen existing performance gaps between workplace high-performers and average employees.
 

What Else Matters

  • The White House said Friday that it began conducting mass layoffs of federal employees in response to the government shutdown, an unprecedented step that follows through on weeks of threats meant to increase pressure on Democrats.
     
  • All 20 remaining Gaza hostages still alive were released by Hamas and returned to Israel on Monday as part of an agreement aiming to pave the way for peace, closing a chapter in the two-year conflict.
     
  • To tackle a baby shortage, Tokyo intends to ease the pain of childbirth. The Japanese capital plans to subsidize epidurals.
 ‏‏‎ ‎

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About Us

Follow us on X at @WSJRisk. Send tips to our reporters Max Fillion at max.fillion@dowjones.com, Mengqi Sun at mengqi.sun@wsj.com and Richard Vanderford at richard.vanderford@wsj.com.

You can also reach us by replying to any newsletter, or by emailing our editor David Smagalla at david.smagalla@wsj.com.

 
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