Brussels backs US-style tariffs on Chinese steel

Good morning and welcome again to FirstFT Asia. In at the moment’s publication:

• EU backs tariffs on low-cost Chinese language metal

• Supreme Courtroom blocks Trump from instantly firing Fed’s Lisa Cook dinner

• Can Nvidia save its China enterprise?

We start in Brussels the place the EU is planning to hitch US and Canadian efforts to deal with low-cost Chinese language metal imports by decreasing import quotas and growing tariffs.

What’s occurring: The European trade commissioner promised trade bosses and unions to levy tariffs of as much as 50 per cent on overseas metal at an emergency assembly on Wednesday, in response to two individuals briefed on the talks. Stéphane Séjourné stated the European Fee would “cut back overseas metal quotas by nearly half” and “considerably improve customs tariffs, consistent with what our American and Canadian companions are doing”, the individuals stated.

Why it issues: The EU is hoping the transfer will fulfill the White Home that it’s appearing to maintain a glut of Chinese language metal out of huge world markets, and that the bloc will safe decrease US tariffs in return. Séjourné stated the EU should not be “naive”, in a pointed reference to China. “We refuse to be open with out limits to overseas overcapacity. We refuse to just accept dumping costs made attainable by huge subsidies.” However some EU nations and industries — together with carmakers — are warning that curbing cheaper imports might drive up costs. Read the full story.

Right here’s what else we’re preserving tabs on at the moment:

• Financial knowledge: South Korea publishes September inflation knowledge and Singapore reviews PMI for the month. Japan releases the most recent client confidence survey.

• Japan: The 62nd US-Japan Enterprise Convention begins in Tokyo, operating for 2 days.

5 extra prime tales

1. The Supreme Courtroom has refused to let Donald Trump instantly hearth Lisa Cook dinner, in a pivotal victory for the Federal Reserve governor and the US central financial institution’s independence. The highest US court docket deferred a choice on the president’s bid to sack Cook dinner till the justices hear oral arguments within the case in January 2026.

2. South Korea’s leftwing president has introduced a steep rise in navy spending, following stress from Washington to shoulder extra accountability for the nation’s defence. Lee Jae Myung stated the annual defence price range would rise by 8.2 per cent subsequent 12 months, the most important improve since 2008, in response to “an era of increased conflict, where it’s every man for himself”.

3. Taiwan has been shopping for tens of millions of tonnes of oil product naphtha from Russia for the reason that full-scale invasion of Ukraine, elevating issues that China might lean on Moscow to choke off provides and threaten Taipei’s financial safety. Read more about Taiwan’s dependence on Russian naphtha, which is used to make chemical substances for expertise and semiconductor manufacturing.

4. First Manufacturers Group’s $1.1bn rescue mortgage faces a authorized problem from a Utah-based personal asset-backed finance specialist, which has emerged as the most important recognized creditor to the bankrupt US auto components firm. Onset Financial built up $1.9bn of exposure to auto components producer First Manufacturers within the years earlier than it collapsed out of business, in response to authorized filings.

5. An extended-awaited rise in rates of interest and various company governance reforms have made Japan a significant world goal for personal credit score funds, in response to considered one of KKR’s prime executives in Asia. Diane Raposio, who oversees each KKR’s credit score and capital markets companies in Asia, stated it was tapping Japan’s huge pool of insurance coverage property to make loans in yen to corporations. Read the full interview.

The Huge Learn

China has been a important marketplace for Nvidia for years and the AI chipmaker is embedded in key components of the nation’s software-hardware infrastructure. However that symbiosis is in jeopardy as Nvidia’s chips change into a bargaining device in superpower politics. Jensen Huang, the Nvidia chief government who has assumed the unofficial put up of worldwide AI diplomat, is on a mission to save his China business.

We’re additionally studying . . . 

• Japanese economic system: Inflation of the kind mirrored within the curry rice price index has collided noisily with the nation’s politics, writes Leo Lewis.

• ‘Patriot’ bonds: Indonesia’s richest tycoons are lining as much as purchase so-called patriot bonds despite below-market yields, in a present of help for President Prabowo Subianto.  

• Hamas’s ultimate pink line: The militant group is below intense stress to just accept a US ceasefire proposal for Gaza. Will it fold?

Chart of the day

Trump is popping interdependence right into a chokehold, writes Martin Wolf, however others can play at this recreation too. China already is, he writes in his column on the new era of predatory superpowers.

Take a break from the information . . . 

New analysis could effectively problem concepts about how the primary celestial objects fashioned, and in what order. Did stars and galaxies give rise to black holes, or was it the opposite manner round? Anjana Ahuja reviews the science.