More worryingly, even before the US-China tensions can be resolved, the US has opened a new front in the trading war. On Oct 2, the US announced that it intended to impose tariffs on US$7.5 billion ($10.34 billion) worth of European goods after the World Trade Organization ruled that Airbus had received illegal aid from the European Union. Nevertheless, the EU is on track to win their WTO case accusing the European MNC’s US counterpart, The Boeing Co, of receiving clandestine support from the US via defence and space contracts. This will no doubt “inspire tit-for-tat” tariffs against the US at some stage, says Jeffrey Halley, OANDA senior market analyst for Asia-Pacific.
SINGAPORE (Oct 7): The bleak economic outlook could be realised sooner rather than later as negative factors emerge.
This week, data from Automatic Data Processing showed that US businesses had added a modest 135,000 jobs in September. The weak data further suggests that the US economy is not as robust as previously thought. ADP also lowered its estimate of new jobs created in August to 157,000 from 195,000 previously. ADP is a global provider of human resources management software and services, and its data is seen as a bellwether of hiring trends.
