Riyadh Economic Forum Tackles Strategic Issues, Solid Studies

 Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Abdulaziz, Governor of the Riyadh region, launched on Monday the tenth edition of the Riyadh Economic Forum. (SPA)
Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Abdulaziz, Governor of the Riyadh region, launched on Monday the tenth edition of the Riyadh Economic Forum. (SPA)
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Riyadh Economic Forum Tackles Strategic Issues, Solid Studies

 Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Abdulaziz, Governor of the Riyadh region, launched on Monday the tenth edition of the Riyadh Economic Forum. (SPA)
Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Abdulaziz, Governor of the Riyadh region, launched on Monday the tenth edition of the Riyadh Economic Forum. (SPA)

Under the patronage of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz, Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Abdulaziz, Governor of the Riyadh region, launched on Monday the tenth edition of the Riyadh Economic Forum, with a wide participation of government officials, economic experts and academics.

Prince Faisal bin Bandar stressed that the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques’ sponsorship of the forum, since the launch of its first session in 2003 and throughout its journey, represented the greatest support for its work and activities in strengthening the national economy and raising its response to facing local, regional and global economic challenges, in line with the objectives of Vision 2030.

He added that the forum also reflected the Kingdom’s support for private sector institutions and the importance of raising their contribution to the achievement of a sustainable economic and social development, especially in light Saudi Arabia’s rapid economic growth and comprehensive renaissance.

The governor of Riyadh pointed that the forum sought to enhance the participation of female and male stakeholders, economic experts and academics to develop solid studies that accurately analyze the challenges facing the national economy in many of its sectors, and adopt a neutral and balanced scientific approach to find viable solutions.

For his part, Ajlan Al-Ajlan, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Chamber of Commerce in Riyadh, pointed to the successes achieved by the forum through its previous nine sessions, emphasizing its recommendations and fruitful results that would contribute to raising the efficiency of the national economy and building an attractive investment environment.



Trump Says He Will Introduce 25% Tariffs on Autos, Pharmaceuticals and Chips 

New trucks crowd a parking lot at the GM assembly plant in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada September 24, 2019. (Reuters)
New trucks crowd a parking lot at the GM assembly plant in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada September 24, 2019. (Reuters)
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Trump Says He Will Introduce 25% Tariffs on Autos, Pharmaceuticals and Chips 

New trucks crowd a parking lot at the GM assembly plant in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada September 24, 2019. (Reuters)
New trucks crowd a parking lot at the GM assembly plant in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada September 24, 2019. (Reuters)

US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he intends to impose auto tariffs "in the neighborhood of 25%" and similar duties on semiconductors and pharmaceutical imports, the latest in a series of measures threatening to upend international trade.

On Friday, Trump said levies on automobiles would come as soon as April 2, the day after members of his cabinet are due to deliver reports to him outlining options for a range of import duties as he seeks to reshape global trade.

Trump has long railed against what he calls the unfair treatment of US automotive exports in foreign markets.

The European Union, for instance, collects a 10% duty on vehicle imports, four times the US passenger car tariff rate of 2.5%. The US, though, collects a 25% tariff on pickup trucks from countries other than Mexico and Canada, a tax that makes the vehicles highly profitable for Detroit automakers.

EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic will meet with US counterparts - Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Trump's nominee to be US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett - in Washington on Wednesday to discuss the various tariffs threatened by Trump.

Asked whether the EU could avoid reciprocal tariffs he proposed last week, Trump repeated his claim that the EU had already signaled it would lower its tariffs on US cars to the US rate, although EU lawmakers have denied doing so.

He said he would press EU officials to increase US imports of cars and other products.

PHARMA, CHIPS DUTIES

Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on Tuesday that sectoral tariffs on pharmaceuticals and semiconductor chips would also start at "25% or higher", rising substantially over the course of a year.

He did not provide a date for announcing those duties and said he wanted to provide some time for drug and chip makers to set up US factories so that they can avoid tariffs.

Trump said he expected some of the biggest companies in the world to announce new investments in the United States in the next couple of weeks. He provided no further details.

Since his inauguration four weeks ago, Trump has imposed a 10% tariff on all imports from China, on top of existing levies, over China's failure to halt fentanyl trafficking. He also announced, and then delayed for a month, 25% tariffs on goods from Mexico and non-energy imports from Canada.

He has also set a March 12 start date for 25% tariffs on all imported steel and aluminum, eliminating exemptions for Canada, Mexico, the European Union and other trading partners. Trump also announced that these tariffs would apply to hundreds of imported downstream products made of steel and aluminum, from electrical conduit tubing to bulldozer blades.

Last week, he directed his economic team to devise plans to impose reciprocal tariffs that match the tariff rates of every country product-by-product.

SHELVED CAR TARIFFS

An auto import tariff of 25% would be a game-changer for a global auto industry that is already reeling from uncertainty caused by Trump's tariff drama.

A similar drama played out in 2018 and 2019 during Trump's first term, when the Commerce Department conducted a national security investigation into auto imports and found that they weakened the domestic industrial base. Trump had threatened car tariffs of 25% at that time, but ultimately took no action, allowing the tariff authority from that probe to expire.

But some of the research that went into the 2018 investigation may be reused or updated as part of a new automotive tariff effort.