Dr Oliver Hartwich: Trump’s diesel squeeze leaves NZ dangerously exposed

Donald Trump’s second term has given Europe one fight after another. Tariffs, Greenland, Ukraine and Iran have all had their turn.

Last week, the Americans added one more: diesel. On Thursday, Reuters reported the Trump administration had told Germany and France to draw down their emergency diesel stocks “or face a potential US diesel export ban”. By Trump’s standards, it was a polite request.

Mike's Minute: Why is Retail NZ calling for tariffs?

It's hard to reconcile but the power of self interest is never to be underestimated.

Retail NZ is loving the look of the EU, who this month started a new tariff on cheap goods.

It's three euro per package for anything under 150 euros.

It's aimed at Temu and co.

Bob Edlin: Pork producers – perturbed by cheaper imports.....

Pork producers – perturbed by cheaper imports – press for a level playing field, but others struggle against imports, too

The Otago Times reports:

Farmers are renewing calls for the government to enforce the same animal welfare standards that local pig farmers face on imported pork.

Romina Boccia: America Can’t Tariff Its Way Out of This Debt Crisis

"Without tariffs,” the President said on his affordability tour in Georgia, “everybody would be bankrupt, the whole country would be bankrupt.” In court, the Trump administration has made similar sweeping claims, arguing that revoking certain tariff authorities would have “catastrophic consequences” and “lead to financial ruin.”

The Supreme Court has now struck down the administration’s “reciprocal tariffs” imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). This is a major victory for American consumers and businesses who suffered from higher taxes and higher prices that the tariffs imposed.

Michele White: Trump Ups the Ante Over Greenland With New Tariffs

It’s a matter of national security, the president says.

President Donald Trump has announced the next step in his pursuit of Greenland, stronger US national security, and world peace. Starting February 1, the US will impose an additional 10% tariff on all goods sent to the United States from Norway, the United Kingdom, and six European Union countries: Denmark, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Finland. That tariff will jump to 25% on June 1 and continue until a deal is reached for the US to purchase Greenland.

Dr Will Jones: Trump to Hit Britain With Tariffs Over Greenland

Donald Trump has announced tariffs on the UK and other European countries for their opposition to a US takeover of Greenland as he ratchets up the pressure in his move to acquire the Danish Arctic territory. The Telegraph has more.

Bob Edlin: NZ traders look likely to be hit by flak.....

NZ traders look likely to be hit by flak as Trump plays the tariff card to put Iran’s Ayatollah and his cronies in their place

Uh, oh. It looks like New Zealand traders might become collateral damage as US president Donald Trump’s flexes his muscle against Ayatollah Khamenei, who has been Iran’s supreme leader since 1989, and his theocratic cronies.

Besides threatening to launch military strikes, Trump has said countries that engage in trade with Iran will face a 25 per cent tariff on any business done with the US.

Mike's Minute: The bad side of the tariffs are coming home to roost

So soybean farmers, like a lot of American farmers, are having a very tough time of it.

Soybean farmers particularly so because most of their product goes to China. So far this season, China has bought no beans.

A lot of countries, when they can, are doing business with other countries and avoiding the American tariff regime.

Duggan Flanakin: The U.S. Rediscovers a Valuable Trading Partner — Indonesia

In the throes of the summer, the Trump administration announced an Agreement on Reciprocal Trade with the Republic of Indonesia — the world’s third largest democracy — that builds on the 1996 U.S.–Indonesia Trade and Investment Framework Agreement. Key features of the agreement relate to tariffs and other barriers to bilateral trade, environmental protections, and labor rights.

DTNZ: US-Chinese trade talks ‘stalled’ – Treasury Secretary

Negotiations over tariffs are progressing more slowly than expected, Scott Bessent says,

The trade negotiations between the US and China have “stalled” and may require intervention by the countries’ leaders, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: How 100 days of tariffs turned the left into free traders

One hundred days into Donald Trump’s second presidency, his economic nationalism has produced an unexpected consequence. The man who campaigned on ‘America First’ and delivered sweeping tariffs within weeks of retaking office has become an unlikely champion of free trade – by forcing his opponents to defend it.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: China, Throw Down your Wall.....

China, Throw Down your Wall. Give Freedom to your people. Doing So Will Eliminate America's Trade Deficit with Your Nation and End the Tariffs.

Its easy to believe there's a world-wide Big Media frenzied conspiracy against the US, which our increasingly hysterical PM has jumped on, because its looking that way. We know why New Zealand PM Luxon is talking with the Queen of World Protectionism, The European Union's Ursula von der Leyen, and with the Big Army Boss who ended democracy in Fiji, its current PM Sitiveni Rabuka, about their freedom and free trade convictions. Its because Luxon's marketing brain is telling him, "Shift the narrative away from Treaty of Waitangi", which he has washed his hands of.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: A world trade policy for grown-ups

There is something tragic about watching the United States deliberately harm itself – especially when the damage spills over to everyone else.

President Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ trade tariffs are a disaster for America and the world. In the name of “fairness” and “balancing trade,” the United States is slapping double-digit tariffs on all imports (except from Russia, Belarus, North Korea and Cuba!).

DTNZ: Tariffs personally cost Trump $500m – Forbes

The US president’s wave of duties on imports has roiled stock markets.

US President Donald Trump’s net worth has fallen by half a billion dollars in less than a week after he implemented a sweeping wave of tariffs, according to estimates by Forbes.

Michael Reddell: Tariff madness and monetary policy

We’ve seen this morning the latest step up in the Trump-initiated trade war, with the additional 50 per cent tariffs imposed on imports from China. If the tariff madness persists – but in fact even if were wound back in some places (eg some of the particularly absurd tariffs on supposed US allies in east Asia, or 48 per cent tariffs on Madagascar’s vanilla) – it is going to be extremely damaging to global economic activity in the (probably protracted) transition.

Roger Partridge: The Art of the Fail

My previous columns critiquing President Donald Trump’s constitutional overreach and foreign policy blunders prompted some readers to suggest I had failed to grasp the President’s strategic brilliance. Trump, they insisted, was playing four-dimensional chess while the rest of us fumbled with checkers. His actions masked the unfolding of a masterful plan to restore American greatness.

Dr Eric Crampton: Tariffs, AI, and the certainty of volatility

I am always glad that I am not an economic forecaster.

Most people’s exposure to economists is radio or newspaper bits from bank economists making their best guesses about economic growth, the unemployment rate, or the track for interest rates.

John Klar: EU Tariffs and Sweeping Climate Directives Threaten Global Trade

The European Union (EU) is facing off with the United States over tariffs, war with Russia, and increased regulations governing corporations doing business on the continent. Some claim globalist NGOs exert undue influence over modern Europe through the union: Pending laws that seek to impose environmental and social rules on all US and international companies resemble a globalized regulatory structure. The showdown is underway.

Dr Eric Crampton: An age of prosperity gives way to the time of monsters

Late last year, online newsmagazine The Spinoff asked the usual suspects for their one-sentence summary of the year ahead.

I stole a line from Gramsci, or at least a paraphrased version of it. Translations vary, and I don’t read Italian. “The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters.”

Dr Will Jones: Save Free Speech or Face Trump Tariffs, Farage Warns

Britain is at risk of tariffs from Donald Trump unless it eases its restriction on free speech, Nigel Farage has warned. The Telegraph has more.

The Reform Party leader, a close ally of the US President, suggested that the nation’s free speech “problem” could put it firmly in the crosshairs of the White House.