Saudi Crown Prince Emphasizes Kingdom’s Commitment to Stable Oil Supplies to Japan

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman holds a video call with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on the sidelines of the Saudi Arabia-Japan Vision 2030 Forum. (SPA)
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman holds a video call with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on the sidelines of the Saudi Arabia-Japan Vision 2030 Forum. (SPA)
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Saudi Crown Prince Emphasizes Kingdom’s Commitment to Stable Oil Supplies to Japan

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman holds a video call with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on the sidelines of the Saudi Arabia-Japan Vision 2030 Forum. (SPA)
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman holds a video call with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on the sidelines of the Saudi Arabia-Japan Vision 2030 Forum. (SPA)

Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia, underscored on Tuesday the Kingdom’s commitment to maintaining the supply of crude oil to Japan, pointing to Riyadh’s desire to boost cooperation with Tokyo in other fields, including clean energy.

He made his remarks during a video call with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on the sidelines of the Saudi Arabia-Japan Vision 2030 Forum, which witnessed an agreement to announce the Saudi-Japanese Partnership Council.

Kishida expressed his gratitude to the Kingdom for the steady supplies of crude oil to his country, highlighting Saudi Arabia’s leading role in stabilizing the global oil market and supporting global supply chains for clean energy.

The leaders also tackled bilateral economic and investment cooperation in energy and joint investments, research related to the climate initiative, environmental sustainability, environmental protection, and means to reduce the effects of climate change.

Crown Prince Mohammed highlighted the growth of bilateral trade exchange in recent years and the aspiration to work with Japanese companies in a number of promising fields and giant projects, stressing that Japan is Saudi Arabia’s largest investment destination.

Kishida expressed his happiness at handing over the torch of Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, to Saudi Arabia in 2030, noting Japan’s effort to encourage further growth in the fields of entertainment, tourism, education and sports.

During the Saudi-Japan Vision 2030 Business Forum in Japan, Saudi Minister of Energy Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman announced that the Kingdom had achieved new global records in reducing the cost of electricity production from wind energy, through the AlGhat and Wa’ad Alshamal projects.

The Saudi Power Procurement Company signed two power purchase agreements with a consortium led by investment conglomerate Marubeni to purchase power from the AlGhat (600 MW) and Wa’ad Alshamal (500 MW) wind projects.

The signing of the two purchase agreements came after a public competition for five bids for each project. Both projects achieved new global records for wind energy projects in terms of the total cost of electricity production.

Oil experts said Saudi Arabia’s new achievements align within the country’s efforts to diversify energy sources, boost its global position in exporting renewable and sustainable energy, as well as increasing its use of clean energy, reducing carbon emissions and preserving the environment in line with the goals of Vision 2030.

They stressed that the Kingdom possesses great capabilities in the production and export of renewable energy, such as wind, solar and hydrogen energy, as well as a suitable investment environment. They pointed to the launch of huge projects worth billions of riyals, and strategic plans that will transform Saudi Arabia into one of the most important countries that export all types of renewable energy.

In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, former chief advisor to the Saudi Ministry of Energy Dr. Mohammad Srour Al-Sabban said Saudi Arabia has achieved new world records in reducing the cost of producing electricity from wind energy.

He added that this was a very important step within the roadmap of Vision 2030 and its goals to raise the share of electrical production relying on renewable energy to 50 percent.

This approach will save the amount of liquid feedstock used for electric power generation, which will be liberated from oil and directed for export, in addition to reducing the cost of production in wind energy projects, he explained.

Oil expert Dr. Fahad Mohammed bin Jumah told Asharq Al-Awsat that this achievement will contribute greatly to decreasing the costs of electricity production in Saudi Arabia and achieving the Kingdom’s plans to curb the dependence on gas to about 50 percent.

Meanwhile, the forum saw the signing of more than 30 memorandums of understanding in the fields of energy, manufacturing, and financial activities.

Minister of Energy and Minister of Investment Khalid Al-Falih met with Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Ken Saito, who said Saudi Arabia is the largest supplier of crude oil to Japan, and one of the most important partners in energy security.



EU Sees €28 Billion Hit from Trump’s Steel, Aluminum Tariffs

FILED - 12 July 2020, Lower Saxony, Salzgitter: An employee walks along coiled steel at Salzgitter AG. Photo: Julian Stratenschulte/dpa
FILED - 12 July 2020, Lower Saxony, Salzgitter: An employee walks along coiled steel at Salzgitter AG. Photo: Julian Stratenschulte/dpa
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EU Sees €28 Billion Hit from Trump’s Steel, Aluminum Tariffs

FILED - 12 July 2020, Lower Saxony, Salzgitter: An employee walks along coiled steel at Salzgitter AG. Photo: Julian Stratenschulte/dpa
FILED - 12 July 2020, Lower Saxony, Salzgitter: An employee walks along coiled steel at Salzgitter AG. Photo: Julian Stratenschulte/dpa

The European Union estimates that the first wave of Donald Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs will hit as much as €28 billion ($29.3 billion) of the bloc’s exports in what would be a massive escalation in the US president’s trade war, Bloomberg reported.

The amount of goods — which the EU assesses will include derivative products as well — would be about four times larger than the last time Trump targeted the bloc’s metals sector, according to people familiar with the EU’s thinking.

EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic debriefed the bloc’s ambassadors on Friday after his visit to Washington to meet with his US counterparts. He cautioned that the situation is in flux and the details and the scope of any tariffs could still change, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

As part of his effort to rewrite global trade rules, Trump announced a series of duties including 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum exports that could take effect as soon as March 12. He’s also announced reciprocal tariffs based on policies of partners that are seen as obstacles to US trade.

The European Commission, which has authority over EU trade actions, declined to comment.

For the EU, the fight over American metals tariffs started in 2018 during Trump’s first term, when the US hit nearly $7 billion of European steel and aluminum exports with duties, citing national security concerns. At the time, officials in Brussels scoffed at the notion that the EU posed such a threat.

In that first salvo, the US hit steel goods with 25% tariffs and aluminum with 10%, and included exemptions for certain products. Bloomberg reported earlier that this time around, no exemptions were planned.

The 27-nation bloc retaliated by targeting politically sensitive companies with retaliatory duties, including Harley-Davidson Inc. motorcycles and Levi Strauss & Co. jeans. The measures were applied product-by-product and included agricultural goods and apparel in addition to steel and aluminum products.

The two sides agreed to a temporary truce in 2021, when the US partly removed its measures and introduced a set of tariff-rate quotas above which duties on the metals are applied, while the EU froze all of its restrictive measures.

The EU has said that it would respond quickly and proportionally to US tariffs and could reactivate as a first step the lists previously suspended. The commission has been preparing various lists with different sectors and goods targeted with the principle of causing more harm on the American side, including in sensitive constituencies, Bloomberg previously reported.

The commission has said that unfreezing the suspended tariffs, which are on pause until the end of March, could be done quickly.

Sefcovic, who met with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Jamieson Greer, his pick for US trade representative and National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett this past week, told EU envoys that the atmosphere was positive but no negotiations were conducted yet, said the people.

According to Bloomberg, Sefcovic said he used the meeting as a first point of contact to open the channels of communication and to try to debunk claims by the Americans that he said were false, including that Europe’s value added tax is unfair to the US, they said.

In order to avoid a trade clash, Sefcovic offered to his American counterparts a deal to lower tariffs on industrial goods, including cars, one of Trump’s longstanding demands.