Trump Escalates Trade Tensions with 30% Tariffs on EU, Mexico

Source：UPI

July 14, 2025 -- Today’s top stories: Trump Escalates Trade Tensions with 30% Tariffs on EU, Mexico, Albanese in China: Trade Diplomacy Amid Regional Tensions, and U.S. Recycles Old Tech to Counter China’s Rare Earth Dominance.

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By CommonWealth Magazine
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2025-07-14

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Trump to impose 30% tariffs on EU, Mexico on August 1

US President Donald Trump has announced that he will impose 30% tariffs on products coming into the country from the European Union (EU) and Mexico from August 1. In a letter to the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen dated Friday and later posted on Truth Social, Trump said that the US trade deficit was a matter of national security and that a 30% tariff on EU exports would hurt businesses, consumers, and patients on both sides of the Atlantic.

The EU will suspend retaliatory tariffs on US goods scheduled to take effect Monday in hopes of reaching a trade deal with the Trump administration by the end of the month.

The EU negotiates trade deals on behalf of its 27 member countries.

The US stock market fell on Friday, and the S&P 500 slipped from a record high after Trump imposed a 35% tariff on Canada and threatened higher levies on most other nations.

The EU tariff is markedly steeper than the 20% levy Mr Trump unveiled in April, as negotiations with the bloc continue.

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Australian PM in China to boost trade despite regional angst

(Source: AAP)

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has arrived in Shanghai for a Six-Day visit to three Chinese cities, where regional security tensions and efforts to grow economic ties are likely to dominate talks.

Australia's exports to China, its largest trading partner, span Agriculture and energy but are dominated by iron ore.

Albanese will travel with executives from mining giants Rio Tinto, BHP, and Fortescue and hold business events in three cities over six days.

The Australian leader said upon arrival that "the full range of issues" would be on the table during discussions with Chinese leaders including President Xi Jinping, making the visit a tricky balancing act as economic and security priorities compete. Relations between Beijing and Canberra have charted a bumpy course over the past decade, a period marked by repeated disagreements over national security and competing interests across the vast Pacific region.

However, relations improved in December, when China called off a ban on imported Australian rock lobster, removing the final obstacle in a damaging trade war waged between the countries after ties plummeted in 2017.

Albanese is leading "a very large business delegation" to China, which speaks to the importance of the economic relations between Australia and China.

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In rare earth metals power struggle with China, old laptops, phones may get a new life

(Source: Shutterstock)

As the US and China Vie for economic, technological, and geopolitical supremacy, the critical elements and metals embedded in technology from consumer to industrial and military markets have become a pawn in the wider conflict. That's nowhere more so the case than in China's leverage over the rare earth metals supply chain.

This past week, the Department of Defense took a large equity stake in MP Materials, the company running the only rare earths mining operation in the US.

But there's another option to combat the rare earths shortage that goes back to an older idea: recycling.

The business has come a long way from collecting cans, bottles, plastic, newspaper, and other consumer Disposables, otherwise destined for landfills, to recreate all sorts of new products. Today, next-generation recyclers — a mix of legacy companies and startups — are innovating ways to gather and process the ever-growing mountains of electronic waste, or e-waste, which comprises end-of-life and discarded computers, smartphones, servers, TVs, appliances, medical devices, and other electronics and IT equipment.

They are doing so in a way that is aligned with the newest critical Technologies in society.

Most recently, spent EV batteries, wind turbines, and solar panels are fostering a burgeoning recycling niche.

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