Secretary of State Marco Rubio, right, shakes the hand of Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, left, at the State Department, Friday, July 25, in Washington. (AP)

ISLAMABAD, July 31, (AP):The United States and Pakistan reached a trade agreement expected to allow Washington to help develop Pakistan’s largely untapped oil reserves and lower tariffs for the South Asian country, officials from both nations said Thursday.

Officials did not specify where the exploration would take place, but most of Pakistan’s reserves are believed to be in the insurgency-hit southwestern province of Balochistan, where separatists say the province’s natural resources are being exploited by the central government in Islamabad.

“We have just concluded a deal with the country of Pakistan, whereby Pakistan and the United States will work together on developing their massive oil reserves,” U.S. President Donald Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

“We are in the process of choosing the oil company that will lead this partnership,” Trump added. “Who knows, maybe they’ll be selling oil to India someday!”

Total U.S. trade with Pakistan was an estimated $7.3 billion in 2024, according to the Office of the United States Representative, which said on its website that U.S. exports to Pakistan in 2024 were $2.1 billion, up 4.4% ($90.9 million) from 2023. U.S. imports from Pakistan totaled $5.1 billion in 2024, up 4.9% ($238.7 million) from 2023, it said.

There was no immediate comment from the Baloch nationalists and separatist groups. Balochistan has long been the center of violence mostly blamed on groups including the outlawed Balochistan Liberation Army, or BLA, which the U.S. designated a terrorist organization in 2019.

Separatists in Balochistan have opposed the extraction of resources by Pakistani and foreign firms and have targeted Pakistani security forces and Chinese nationals working on multibillion-dollar projects related to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

Oil reserves are also thought to exist in the southern Sindh, eastern Punjab and northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces. Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif welcomed the “long-awaited” deal and thanked Trump for playing a key role in finalizing it.

Pakistan had been pursuing a trade agreement since May, when Trump mediated a ceasefire between Pakistan and India following an escalation triggered by Indian airstrikes on Pakistani territory in response to the killing of 26 tourists in Indian-controlled Kashmir.

Pakistan’s Finance Ministry said in a statement early Thursday the agreement aims to boost bilateral trade, expand market access, attract investment and foster cooperation in areas of mutual interest.

The breakthrough came during a meeting in Washington between Pakistani Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb and senior U.S. officials, including Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Trade Representative Ambassador Jamieson Greer.

The deal includes a reduction in reciprocal tariffs, particularly on Pakistani exports to the U.S., the statement from the ministry said. “The agreement enhances Pakistan’s access to the U.S. market and vice versa,” it said. The agreement is also expected to spur increased U.S. investment in Pakistan’s infrastructure and development projects, it added.

The ministry said the deal reflects both nations’ commitment to deepening bilateral ties and strengthening trade and investment cooperation.

Vehicles for export are parked at a port in Pyeongtaek, South Korea on July 31. (AP)

MANILA, Philippines, July 31, (AP): Asian shares were mostly lower Thursday after U.S. stocks slipped, as doubts rose on Wall Street about whether the Federal Reserve will deliver economy-juicing cuts to interest rates by September. Bucking the trend, Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 1.1% to 41,075.85 after the Bank of Japan kept interest rates steady at 0.5% and raised inflation projections. The move follows Tokyo’s trade deal with Washington.

In Seoul, the Kospi edged down 0.6% to 3,235.83 after South Korea reached a 15% tariff deal with the US, with no levies on American goods like cars, trucks and farm products. The deal also includes South Korea’s purchase of $100 billion US energy imports and $350 billion worth of investments in the U.S. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 1.1% to 24,814.59, while the Shanghai Composite Index slid 0.8% to 3,586.13.

Australia’s S&P ASX 200 shed 0.2% to 8,741.90. India’s BSE Sensex fell 0.4% to 81,169.49. Taiwan’s TAIEX rose 0.3% to 23,542.52 Rabo Bank, citing the U.S. trade deals with other countries, including Bangladesh, said in a commentary that “it appears to be only a matter of time before India agrees to terms to ensure that it retains favorable access to the US market and all of those other markets that (US President Donald) Trump has demonstrated he has the power to direct through economic coercion.”

Rabo added that the terms of a US-India trade deal would almost certainly include Indian purchases of US arms and energy products and preferential access to U.S. agricultural goods. “A potential loser in all of this is Australia. With the US sending more wheat to Indonesia and Bangladesh and more LNG to Japan and South Korea, Australian exports stand to be displaced from their traditional markets,” it added.

Trump on Wednesday announced a 25% tariff on imports coming from India, along with an additional tax because of India’s purchases of Russian oil, beginning Friday. That’s when stiff tariffs Trump has proposed for many other countries are also scheduled to kick in, unless they reach trade deals that lower the rates.

But the US president said the two countries were still in negotiations. On Wall Street on Wednesday the S&P 500 edged down by 0.1%, coming off its first loss after setting all-time highs for six successive days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 171 points, or 0.4%, and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.1%. Stocks felt pressure from rising Treasury yields in the bond market after the Federal Reserve voted to hold its main interest rate steady. The move may upset Trump, who has been lobbying for lower interest rates, but it was widely expected on Wall Street.  

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro, (right), stands with President Donald Trump during a dinner at Mar-a-Lago, Palm Beach, Fla on March 7, 2020. Bolsonaro’s son, Eduardo is pictured in background on right. (AP)

WASHINGTON, July 31, (AP): US President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday to impose his threatened 50% tariffs on Brazil, setting a legal rationale that Brazil’s policies and criminal prosecution of former President Jair Bolsonaro constitute an economic emergency under a 1977 law. Trump had threatened the tariffs July 9 in a letter to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

But the legal basis of that threat was an earlier executive order premised on trade imbalances being a threat to the US economy. But America ran a $6.8 billion trade surplus last year with Brazil, according to the US Census Bureau. A statement by the White House said Brazil’s judiciary had tried to coerce social media companies and block their users, though it did not name the companies involved, X and Rumble.

Trump appears to identify with Bolsonaro, who attempted to overturn the results of his 2022 loss to Lula. Similarly, Trump was indicted in 2023 for his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 US presidential election. Lula left an event about animal rights early on Wednesday after Trump’s move, saying he needed to defend “the sovereignty of the Brazilian people in light of the measures announced by the President of the United States.”

The order would apply an additional 40% tariff on the baseline 10% tariff already being levied by Trump. But not all goods imported from Brazil would face the 40% tariff: Civil aircraft and parts, aluminum, tin, wood pulp, energy products and fertilizers are among the products being excluded. The order said the tariffs would go into effect seven days after its signing on Wednesday.

Also Wednesday, Trump’s Treasury Department announced sanctions on Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes over alleged suppression of freedom of expression and Bolsonaro’s ongoing trial. De Moraes oversees the criminal case against Bolsonaro, who is accused of masterminding a plot to stay in power despite his 2022 defeat. On July 18, the State Department announced visa restrictions on Brazilian judicial officials, including de Moraes.