Mōrena and welcome to your Monday recap of international business and political news from over the weekend.
First up, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order for food products to avoid global tariffs, the BBC reported.
Dozens of products on the list of exemptions include avocados, tomatoes, coconuts, and mangoes. The Trump administration said those products cannot be produced in sufficient quantities domestically.
Trade Minister Todd McClay cautiously welcomed the US tariff relief on a range of New Zealand products, including beef, offal, and kiwifruit. The products represented about 25% of this country’s exports to the US, worth about $2.21 billion each year.
“The US remains an important trade partner for New Zealand and the decision to lift these tariffs is a step in the right direction and will be welcomed by exporters who have faced months of uncertainty and higher costs.
“Returning to the pre-reciprocal tariff access we had before April provides some much-needed stability for our farmers and processors. We estimate this is a saving of around $330 million in additional tariff duty.”
McClay noted that tariffs remained on other New Zealand products. “I have spoken directly with my US trade counterpart Jamieson Greer a number of times over the last few months and will continue to make the case that New Zealand’s trading relationship with the US is balanced and that the additional reciprocal tariffs on other New Zealand exports should also be removed.”
In Ukraine, at least four people were killed and dozens injured after Russian drone and missile strikes in Kyiv, the BBC reported. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said about 430 drones and 18 missiles had been launched on the capital and dozens of high-rise buildings damaged.
In Russia, a Ukrainian attack hit the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk. Krasnodar governor Veniamin Kondratyev said four people were hurt in the strike, which damaged the main oil depot and a container terminal.
Meanwhile, Ukraine wanted to resume prisoner exchanges with Russia that could bring 1200 Ukrainians back home, Al Jazeera reported.
“We are … counting on the resumption of POW exchanges,” Zelensky wrote on social media. “Many meetings, negotiations and calls are currently taking place to ensure this.”
Elsewhere, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned there would be no Palestinian state, as the US attempted to get UN Security Council approval for a Gaza plan, Bloomberg reported.
“Our opposition to a Palestinian state in any territory has not changed,” Netanyahu said. “Gaza will be demilitarised, and Hamas will be disarmed, the easy way or the hard way.”
UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves.
In the UK, Chancellor Rachel Reeves is set to abandon a plan to raise income tax in the November 26 Budget. The Guardian confirmed the measures had been ditched and Reeves may instead look at thresholds at which people pay tax.
The Government may focus on a series of small tax increases to fill an expected bigger fiscal hole in the public finances because of weaker productivity and U-turns on other policies, the Guardian added.
The pound fell and UK government borrowing costs rose as investors fretted about the upcoming budget. The FTSE 100 also declined from global jitters as investors pondered whether we were in the middle of an AI tech bubble.
Over the Ditch, Australian energy executives cautioned against the country turning away from its net zero ambitions as the country’s Liberal Party dropped its net zero by 2050 commitment, the ABC reported.
The chief executives warned abandoning the energy transition was untenable given the ageing and increasingly unreliable nature of coal plants. They said renewable energy backed by batteries, gas plants, and pumped hydro was still the "least-cost" way of replacing that coal.
