People walk in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan’s Nikkei index at a securities firm on July 14, in Tokyo. (AP)

BANGKOK, July 14, (AP): Shares were mixed in Asia on Monday after the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq composite edged away from the records they set last week. An announcement over the weekend by US President Donald Trump that he plans 30% tariffs on goods from Mexico and the European Union had scant immediate impact, as analysts said they expected progress toward trade deals before an Aug 1 deadline.

Trump detailed the planned tariffs Saturday in letters posted to his social media account. The Mexican peso weakened slightly against the dollar, trading at 18.6 pesos to the dollar. Chinese shares advanced after the government reported that exports rose last month as a truce in a tariffs war prompted a surge in orders ahead of an Aug 12 deadline for reaching a new trade deal with Washington.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.5% to 24,253.18, while the Shanghai Composite index also was up 0.5%, at 3,526.75. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index slipped 0.3% to 39,459.20, while the Kospi in South Korea jumped 0.8% to 3,200.25. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 was little changed at 8,577.80. Taiwan’s benchmark lost 2.3%. On Friday, a modest pullback for US stocks left major stock indexes on Wall Street in the red for the week.

The S&P 500 closed 0.3% lower, at 6,259.75, a day after setting a record high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.6% to 44,371.51, and the Nasdaq composite gave up 0.2% to 20,585.53 after drifting between small gains and losses much of the day. The tech-heavy index was coming off its own all-time high on Thursday.

The selling capped an uneven week in the market as Wall Street kept an eye on the Trump administration’s rollout of new tariff threats against trading partners like Canada and looked ahead to the upcoming corporate earnings reporting season. Trump said in a letter Thursday that he will raise taxes on many imported goods from Canada to 35%, deepening the rift between the longtime North American allies.

The letter to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney was an aggressive increase to the top 25% tariff rates that Trump first imposed in March. The administration had initially set Wednesday as a deadline for countries to make deals with the U.S or face heavy increases in tariffs. But with just two trade deals announced since April, one with the United Kingdom and one with Vietnam, the window for negotiations has been been extended to Aug 1. 

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.”