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No one's looking as China makes friends and influences people in Latin America
As the US and EU impose tariffs on Chinese goods, China has been seeking to diversify its trade partners with a focus on Latin America.
With tariff walls going up in the US and Europe, say experts, Latin America has the opportunity to become a key player in global trade. China is already on site making friends and influencing people with its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), upgrading infrastructure and connectivity in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Peru.
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Gauging the credibility of Trump and Modi's plan to build merchant fleets from scratch
Both India and the United States share an ambition to build an ocean going merchant marine from scratch - or very nearly. Neither has much in the way of ocean shipping that flies their national flags.
India has been content to leave shipping to others. First, the British controlled it, but then the ocean shipping business went to any and all flags to take cargoes away.
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AI and tariffs will likely be the dominant influences on shipping for years to come
To restore domestic manufacturing in the United States, long lost to more affordable Asian labour, protectionism has become the new faith sweeping the land. Less so, and to a lesser extent, it has also spread in Europe, which has suffered a similar loss of domestic manufacturing for the same reason.
Protectionist policies, such as tariffs and quotas, increase the cost of imported goods, making them less attractive to consumers, thus enhancing demand for domestic products and reducing demand for imports.
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Rule meant to do one thing becomes a loophole helping air cargo to evade duties
What was meant as a tax break for individual gift givers, became a loophole for the Chinese "fast fashion" firms to air freight their wares to the US duty free.
The situation, and its remedy, renews the recent focus on customs and excise and pits two heroic figures against each other - Abraham Lincoln, a champion of tariffs, and Scottish economist Adam Smith, who advocated free trade.
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