Bhinneka News Online: Friday Morning Briefing: The price of U.S. customs bonds has shot up as trade tariffs rise

Friday 29 March 2019

Friday Morning Briefing: The price of U.S. customs bonds has shot up as trade tariffs rise

Highlights

Since coming into effect last year, tariffs on Chinese goods have pushed up manufacturing costs, upended decades-old global supply chains and inflated prices for consumers, resulting in lower sales and forcing companies to defer investments. Other ripple effects are less obvious, among them the rising expense of U.S. customs bonds. In some cases, customs bond requirements have increased 500-fold, according to Reuters interviews with a dozen importers, underwriters and customs brokers. For small companies that can ill afford the added cost, the impact can be crippling.

President Donald Trump overrode his budget team and backed funding for the Special Olympics on Thursday after his proposed cuts to the athletic program drew heavy fire from both Republicans and Democrats. Trump’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2020, which he released earlier this month, would have zeroed out funding for the Special Olympics, which has an allocation of $17.6 million this fiscal year.

A former U.S. National Security Agency contractor, portrayed as an eccentric hoarder by his lawyers, pleaded guilty in a Baltimore, Maryland court on Thursday to stealing classified documents in a deal likely to put him in prison for nine years.

Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke will hold campaign rallies on Saturday in his home state of Texas. But he faces far different challenges in the 2020 race from those of his underdog U.S. Senate run in 2018. Now, O’Rourke, 46, faces a diverse slate of accomplished and well-funded rivals hunting for the same votes, especially among the state’s African-American and Hispanic communities.

World

On what was once Brexit day, parliament again votes on Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal. The so-called government motion asks lawmakers to approve the Withdrawal Agreement, something that is needed this week in order to fulfill the conditions set by EU leaders at last week’s summit and secure a delay until May 22. One amendment wants the government to revoke the Article 50 two-year negotiating period and stay in the EU. It has some cross-party support.

Thousands of protesters gathered in central Algiers, piling pressure on President Abdel Aziz Bouteflika to resign days after the country’s powerful military called for his removal. The ailing 82-year-old president, facing the biggest crisis of his 20-year-old rule, has failed to placate Algerians by reversing a decision to seek a fifth term.

The number of confirmed cases of cholera in the cyclone-hit Mozambican port city of Beira has jumped from five to 138. The government and aid agencies are now battling to contain the spread of disease among the tens of thousands of victims of the storm, which smashed into Beira on March 14, causing catastrophic flooding and killing more than 700 people across three countries in southeast Africa.

The head of a Philippine news website The head of a Philippine news website known for critical reports about President Rodrigo Duterte was freed on bail hours after she was re-arrested at a Manila airport on charges she had violated foreign ownership rules. “You cannot harass and intimidate journalists to silence. We’ll stand up and fight against it,” Maria Ressa, the award-winning head of news platform Rappler, told reporters after posting bail of 90,000 pesos ($1,707). Lawsuits Rappler have drawn global concern about a free and open media in the democratic Southeast Asian country.