The Dow Jones industrial average slumped more than 3% and gave up all of its gains for the year as a surge in virus cases and a worrisome spread of the disease outside the epicenter in China sent investors running for safety.
China’s economy is being rocked by the new virus that has infected more than 75,000 people and forced many businesses and factories to temporarily close.
Goods affected by the latest reduction include industrial components and medical and factory equipment.
Local officials have orders from the ruling Communist Party to get businesses functioning again while still enforcing anti-disease curbs that have shut down much of the world’s second-largest economy.
The new agreement isn’t vastly different from NAFTA, observers say, but does contain new provisions automakers will be paying attention to—even if the impact of these provisions isn’t yet entirely clear.
Among the first tangible impacts in the U.S. is a decline in the number of Chinese tourists. Visitors from China represent a lucrative market for American airlines, hotels, luxury retailers and entertainment venues.
Many U.S. small business owners are facing a shortage of products or components because suppliers, who closed for the weeks-long New Year holiday, remain shut due to the virus that has killed more than 1,100 people.
The cuts follow last month’s signing of a “Phase 1” agreement toward ending a long-running tariff war over Beijing’s technology ambitions and trade surplus.
The Commerce Department said Wednesday that the gap between what the United States sells and what it buys abroad fell 1.7% last year, to $616.8 billion.
If much of industrial China remains on lockdown for the next few weeks, Western retailers, auto companies and manufacturers that depend on Chinese imports will start to run out of the goods they depend on.
The dangerous virus spreading through China threatens a wide range of industries with ties to the world’s second largest economy.
The United Nations health agency defines an international emergency as an “extraordinary event” that constitutes a risk to other countries and requires a coordinated international response.
President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed into law a major rewrite of the rules of trade with Canada and Mexico that he said replaces the “nightmare” of a Clinton-era agreement and will keep jobs, wealth and growth in America.
The U.S. Senate overwhelmingly approved a new North American trade agreement Thursday that rewrites the rules of trade with Canada and Mexico and gives President Donald Trump a major policy victory.
President Donald Trump signed a trade agreement Wednesday with China that is expected to boost exports from U.S. farmers and manufacturers, protect American trade secrets and lower tensions in a long-running dispute between the world’s two biggest economies.
President Donald Trump and China’s chief negotiator, Liu He, are scheduled to sign a modest trade agreement on Wednesday in which the administration will ease some sanctions on China and Beijing will step up its purchases of U.S. farm products and other goods.
The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday that the resumption of the talks was set to be announced on Wednesday when the Trump administration signs a Phase One trade agreement with China in Washington, D.C.
In the first-step agreement, the U.S. dropped its plan to impose new tariffs on $160 billion of Chinese imports and agreed to trim existing import taxes on about $112 billion in Chinese goods. In return, the U.S. said China agreed to buy $40 billion a year in farm products over two years.
America’s trade representative says China has agreed to buy $40 billion per year in agricultural products. The president says it’s more than $50 billion. But the text of the deal hasn’t been made available, and China isn’t talking.
The latest step is intended to “promote the coordinated development of trade and environment,” the official Xinhua News Agency in China said.
