In late May, President Donald Trump warned that if the European Union does not remove tariffs and trade barriers against the United States soon, his administration will place a 20 percent tariff on all cars coming from the EU. [...]

President Xi Jinping shrewdly counters coming trade war with surprise offer to purchase America outright. President Donald Trump claimed on Monday that he working on “a huge deal with China that will bring more than $30 trillion into America. No president has ever done anything like this before and it’s all because of my tariff pressure! SMART!” In a series of tweets, Mr. Trump also called t [...]

Beijing continues to lure away the handful of countries which still maintain diplomatic ties with Taiwan. On Tuesday, the Dominican Republic became the latest country to break away from Taipei and establish diplomatic relations with mainland China. Sputnik Mundo has discussed the reasons behind this dramatic U-turn and its potential impact for the region with Andrei Sidorov, an assistant professo [...]

The US Treasury Department sanctions aimed at Russian-based RUSAL may have made a splash in the wrong direction, as companies from US allies in Europe have had to deal with supply disruptions. Layoffs and further difficulties are looming. [...]

Russia's Federation Council is looking to adopt counter-sanctions against the US, under which the country may ban exports of titanium components to aircraft giant Boeing, according to Russian Senator Sergey Ryabukhin. "Among the rare earth metals that Russia supplies to the United States is titanium, which is necessary for the technological cycle of production of Boeing," Ryabukhin told RIA Novost [...]

BP, the company behind the deadly Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster, the biggest in history, has claimed an oil spill off the South Australian coast would be a good thing, as the clean up would boost local economies. BP made the outlandish claim as part of its bid to drill for oil in the pristine Great Australian Blight. [...]

In a spectacular contortion of logic, British Petroleum - seeking highly-profitable licenses to drill for offshore oil in southern Australia - claimed that destructive chemical spills would be a boon to coastal communities. [...]

After paying billions in fines over an emissions-cheating scandal in the US, Volkswagen now has to park thousands of bought-back diesel automobiles at nearly 40 facilities across America. The German automaker has paid over $7.4 billion to buy back nearly 350,000 diesel vehicles in the US as of February, according to the court filing, seen by Reuters. [...]

The price of the traditional safe haven gold increased on Monday after Beijing introduced retaliatory measures against American goods coming to China. After falling in the past three trading sessions, the yellow metal surged over $8 per troy ounce to $1,335. [...]

Beijing is hiking up tariffs on more than 128 US imports, including fruit and pork, as part of a tit-for-tat response to US President Donald Trump’s $60 billion package of tariffs imposed against China. The additional fares, which range from 15 to 25 percent, will take effect on Monday, the Chinese Finance Ministry said on their website. [...]

Germany has issued a permit for the construction and operation of an offshore section of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of Germany in the Baltic Sea. “The BSH [Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency of Germany] issued the permit for this approximately 30-kilometres-long route section in accordance with the Federal Mining Act,” the company in charge of the pr [...]

The American electric-car company Tesla will be bankrupt within four months unless its CEO Elon Musk “pulls a rabbit out of his hat,” according to hedge fund manager John Thompson. “Companies eventually have to make a profit, and I don’t ever see that happening here,” the head of Vilas Capital Management told Market Watch. [...]

Russia's Kalashnikov Concern, which is known throughout the world for its production of reliable AK assault rifles, has reportedly decided to foray into fresh fields. The Russian defense manufacturing concern Kalashnikov has agreed with State Corporation Rostec to acquire 60 percent of the shares of the Molniya research and production association, which developed the first-ever Soviet space [...]

The historic launch of the long-awaited trading of Chinese crude futures this week has stirred up a heated debate among analysts as to whether the new commodity product will prosper or flop. Some market analysts expressed doubts over the success of the petro-yuan, citing Beijing’s yearning for total control over trading as one of the key reasons for a potential bust. [...]

China is the world's biggest crude consumer and buys most of its oil from Russia. However, most settlements are still in US dollars. The launch of the petro-yuan now allows Moscow and Beijing to use national currencies instead. China and Russia are actively reducing dependence on the dollar in bilateral trade. In October 2017, Beijing launched a payment system for transactions in yuan and Russian [...]

A new high-speed bullet train has been rolled out by the Central Japan Railway (JR Tokai). It will debut in 2020 on the Tokaido Shinkansen line, running between Tokyo and Shin-Osaka. According to JR Tokai, the new Shinkansen N700S or Shinkansen ‘Supreme’ train will be smarter, sleeker and quieter. [...]

KASSEL (Germany) (Sputnik) - Moscow was Berlin's only foreign partner that provided Germany with additional natural gas during the cold period in early March, Mario Mehren, the CEO of the Wintershall energy company, said. [...]

Central banks around the world have been building up their gold stockpiles to make sure they are stored on soil they can trust. The National Bank of Hungary (MNB) says it is bringing back three tons of the country’s gold reserves stored at the Bank of England in London, Gold Seek reported. The move to repatriate 130 million dollars’ worth of gold from Budapest previously stored on Britis [...]

Arnold Schwarzenegger has announced that he is taking oil companies to court “for knowingly killing people all over the world.” “This is no different from the smoking issue. The tobacco industry knew for years and years and years and decades, that smoking would kill people, would harm people and create cancer, and were hiding that fact from the people and denied it. [...]

The recent boost in Russian agriculture has made food sales abroad much more profitable for the country than exports of military weapons, according to President Vladimir Putin. “Today, agriculture exports exceed arms sales by more than a third. $28.8 billion from agricultural sector, $15.6 billion from the defense industry," Putin told farmers in Krasnodar on Monday. [...]

The EU's top trade official has employed strong rhetoric as the row with US President Donald Trump over steel and aluminum tariffs heats up following fruitless talks. European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem has promised that Europe would fight back against those who intimidate its trade after joint talks with US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Minister of Economy, Trade and I [...]

European and Chinese officials are firing shots across America’s bow over plans by the Trump administration to impose protectionist tariffs on its steel and aluminum imports. A trade war looms as a result. President Donald Trump is expected to set tariffs of 25 percent on imported steel and 10 percent on imported aluminum this week. [...]