Trump’s stance on trade, tariffs angers China
BEIJING — China’s government accused the Trump administration of hurting its credibility by acting erratically on trade and vowed Wednesday to fight back if Washington goes ahead with a threatened tariff hike.
Aforeign ministry spokeswomancomplained the U.S. decisionto renew a threat to raiseduties on a $50 billion list ofChinese goods conflicts withan agreement in midMayaimed at settling that dispute.Treasury Steven Mnuchinsaid then that the conflictwas “on hold” after Beijingpromised to buy more U.S.goods to help narrow its multibillion-dollartrade surpluswith the United States.
Thespokeswoman, Hua Chunying,declined to say whetherTuesday’s announcementmight disrupt plans for CommerceSecretary Wilbur Rossto visit Beijing for talks startingSaturday. The CommerceMinistry didn’t respondto questions about the statusof the meeting, but the AmericanEmbassy said a delegationof trade, agriculture andtreasury officials had arrivedin the Chinese capital to makepreparations.
Italy seeking coalition
ROME — Italy’s president gave populist politicians another chance Wednesday to try to form a coalition government after his naming of an interim leader roiled global markets that feared a new election would amount to a referendum on the euro.
Carlo Cottarelli, the former International Monetary Fund official tapped Monday to be a neutral, temporary premier, said “new possibilities” had emerged for a government based on the results of the March election to run Italy rather than the government of technocrats he would direct.
The two populist parties that prevailed in the March 4 vote — the euroskeptic 5Star Movement and the right-wing League — presented their proposed Cabinet over the weekend. Italian President Sergio Mattarella vetoed their euroskeptic economy minister, collapsing the deal.
4 killed in Belgian attack
BRUSSELS— A Belgian prison inmate who killed four people while on furlough committed “terrorist murder” and likely intended to cause more harm, prosecutors said Wednesday as authorities searched for possible accomplices.
The convict who stabbed two police officers in the city of Liege and used their handguns to kill them and a bystander was a “soldier of the caliphate,” IS said in a brief statement.
Interior Minister Jan Jambon noted that Benjamin Herman, the Belgian national named as the Liege killer, killed a fourth person Monday night away from the eastern industrial town.
Herman,31, a convert to Islam,was known to authoritiesas a repeat offender involvedin petty crime and drugs.He spent most of his timein prison since 2003 and wason a two-day leave when helaunched his attack. Police shothim dead not long after.
Europe bracing for tariffs
PARIS — Europe is bracing for the U.S. to slap restrictions Thursday on imported steel and aluminum, a move that could provoke retaliatory tariffs and inflame trade tensions.
TopEuropean officials held last-ditchtalks in Paris with Americantrade officials to try toavert U.S. tariffs on steel andaluminum. But they did notsound optimistic. “Realistically,I do not think we can hope”to avoid either U.S. tariffsor quotas on steel and aluminum,said Cecilia Malmstrom,the European Union’s tradecommissioner.
TheU.S. in March announcedtariffs of 25 percent onsteel and 10 percent on aluminum.But it granted an exemptionto the EU and other U.S. allies; that reprieve expires Friday.