European Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security Maros Sefcovic arrives for a meeting of EU trade ministers at the European Council building in Brussels on May 15. (AP)

BRUSSELS, July 14, (AP): European trade ministers are meeting in Brussels on Monday, following US President Donald Trump’s surprise announcement of 30% tariffs on the European Union. The EU is America’s biggest business partner and the world’s largest trading bloc. The US decision will have repercussions for governments, companies and consumers on both sides of the Atlantic. “We shouldn’t impose countermeasures at this stage, but we should prepare to be ready to use all the tools in the toolbox,” said Denmark’s foreign minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, told reporters ahead of the meeting.

“So we want a deal, but there’s an old saying: ’If you want peace, you have to prepare for war.’” The tariffs, also imposed on Mexico, are set to start on Aug 1 and could make everything from French cheese and Italian leather goods to German electronics and Spanish pharmaceuticals more expensive in the U.S., and destabilize economies from Portugal to Norway.

Meanwhile, Brussels decided to suspend retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods scheduled to take effect Monday in hopes of reaching a trade deal with the Trump administration by the end of the month. The “countermeasures” by the EU, which negotiates trade deals on behalf of its 27 member countries, will be delayed until Aug. 1.

Trump’s letter shows “that we have until the first of August” to negotiate, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told reporters in Brussels on Sunday. Maroš Šefčovič, the EU’s trade representative in its talks with the U.S., said negotiations would continue “I’m absolutely 100% sure that a negotiated solution is much better than the tension which we might have after the 1st of August,” he told reporters in Brussels on Monday.

“I cannot imagine walking away without genuine effort. Having said that, the current uncertainty caused by unjustified tariffs cannot persist indefinitely and therefore we must prepare for all outcomes, including, if necessary, well-considered proportionate countermeasures to restore the balance in our transit static relationship.”  

KUWAIT CITY, July 13: The 2025/2026 budget report revealed that a budget of KD1.497 billion was allocated for construction and major maintenance projects for the fiscal year — an increase of KD46 million compared to the budget last year, which amounted to KD1.451 billion. T

he report indicated that the three largest items in the construction and major maintenance projects budget are buildings and land improvements — KD689.300 million, including construction and major maintenance projects for government, commercial and residential structures; followed by infrastructure with a budget of KD587.675 million, including construction and major maintenance projects for roads, bridges, tunnels, airports, water and sewage networks, communications, electricity and gas.

The third item is the radical maintenance of civil and social service facilities, amounting to KD283.889 million — covering projects for civil and social service facilities. It is worth noting that the entire construction and radical maintenance item includes the amounts paid for new and approved construction projects currently being implemented with additions like expansions, increases, or extensions to an existing asset, as well as the maintenance, replacement, and renovation works.

By Mohammad Ghanem
Al-Seyassah/Arab Times Staff

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese leaves a media event in Sydney on July 11. (AP)

BEIJING, July 13, (AP): Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese kicked off a visit to China this weekend meant to shore up trade relations between the two countries. Albanese met with Shanghai Party Secretary Chen Jining on Sunday, the first in a series of high-level exchanges that will include meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Qiang and Chairman Zhao Leji of the National People’s Congress.

Albanese is leading “a very large business delegation” to China, which speaks to the importance of the economic relations between Australia and China, he told Chinese state broadcaster CGTN upon his arrival in Shanghai Saturday. During a weeklong trip, Albanese is set to meet business, tourism and sport representatives in Shanghai and Chengdu including a CEO roundtable Tuesday in Beijing, his office said.

It is Albanese’s second visit to China since his center-left Labor Party government was first elected in 2022. The party was reelected in May with an increased majority. Albanese has managed to persuade Beijing to remove a series of official and unofficial trade barriers introduced under the previous conservative government that cost Australian exporters more than 20 billion Australian dollars ($13 billion) a year.

Beijing severed communications with the previous administration over issues including Australia’s calls for an independent inquiry into the origins of and responses to COVID-19. But Albanese wants to reduce Australia’s economic dependence on China, a free trade partner. “My government has worked very hard to diversify trade … and to increase our relationships with other countries in the region, including India and Indonesia and the ASEAN countries,” Albanese said before his visit, referring to the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

“But the relationship with China is an important one, as is our relationships when it comes to exports with the north Asian economies of South Korea and Japan,” he added. Chinese state-run Xinhua News Agency, in an editorial Sunday, described China’s relationship with Australia as “steadily improving” and undergoing “fresh momentum.” “There are no fundamental conflicts of interest between China and Australia,” the editorial stated. “By managing differences through mutual respect and focusing on shared interests, the two sides can achieve common prosperity and benefit.”