Donald Trump was attacked by former US President Barack Obama as a divisive figure who didn’t care about Americans at a campaign rally for Democratic nominee Kamala Harris in Pennsylvania’s heartland.
Obama said in a speech on Thursday evening in Pittsburgh that the United States “needs four more years” of ex-President Trump as president.
“We don’t need four more years of division and arrogance,” he declares. The former Democratic president asserted that “America is ready to turn the page.”
We’re prepared for a different kind of story that encourages cooperation rather than conflict. Pennsylvania, we’re ready for a President Kamala Harris”.
Given that the election campaign is in full swing less than a month before the November 5 election, Obama made his first appearance on the Harris campaign trail.
Recent polls show Harris locked in a neck-and-neck fight with Trump to win the White House, with the outcome likely to come down to how the candidates fare in key swing states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona and North Carolina.
According to a poll released earlier on Thursday by The Hill and Emerson College, Trump had a razor-thin edge over Harris in Pennsylvania.
According to the report, the state’s former Republican president received 49% of support from the state, compared to 48% for the vice president.
Prior to the election in November, Harris has been conducting a media blitz to try to bolster support and reach out to important demographics of the American electorate, including young voters.
Democrats are hoping that Obama, who remains one of the party’s most popular figures, will provide the Harris campaign with a boost.
On Thursday, Obama praised Harris as a “leader who has spent her life fighting for people who need a voice” and who “has served with distinction in every office she has held.”
At the University of Pittsburgh event, Kamala remarked, “Kamala is as prepared for the job as any presidential nominee has ever been.”
Trump gestures at the Detroit Economic Club in Detroit, Michigan, on October 10]Rebecca Cook/Reuters]
Trump has also been campaigning in Pennsylvania recently, going back over the weekend to Butler, where he was shot in the ear in July during an assassination attempt.
He said he came back to Butler to demonstrate that his supporters were standing “stronger, prouder, united, more determined and nearer to victory than ever before”.
On Thursday, the Republican was in Michigan, a second swing state that might have a significant impact on the outcome.
Trump promised to re-establish manufacturing jobs in the state and other regions of the nation while speaking in Detroit, the home of the US automotive industry.
“It’s my goal to get our country on an auto-making path, where, at some point in the near future, it will be bigger and more important than it ever was”, he said.
But Trump also insulted the city, which has faced years of socioeconomic hardship, during his speech.
A greying, slightly bent man asked for a table for two at the Sea Lounge, the iconic coffee shop at the Taj Hotels’ , flagship hotel in Mumbai, a few years ago. Customers were throbbing in the restaurant as they watched the sun set over the Arabian Sea.
There were no free tables, could he give his name for the waitlist? The young hostess asked. Before hotel staff could search for the chairman emeritus of the Tata Group, which also owns Taj Hotels, the man spelled “Ratan Tata” and disappeared into the hotel’s corridors.
Tata, who passed away on Wednesday in Mumbai, was admired for his humility as well as his expansive vision, which led to the group’s more than $ 128 billion in revenue in 2022 and the ownership of well-known brands like Tetley Tea and Jaguar Land Rover.
The 86-year-old was hailed as one of India’s most adored people because of his leadership of Indian businesses, including those operating overseas, making it a symbol of the newly liberal Indian economy.
Soon after Tata’s passing in a Mumbai hospital, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared her “a visionary business leader, a compassionate soul, and an extraordinary human being.”
Tata took over the group’s reins in 1991, just as India began shedding its socialist-era protectionist policies. He set about transforming the more than century-old industrial group into an innovative, cost and labour-efficient, global conglomerate.
Ravi Kant, who was Tata Motors’ chief executive and then vice chairman up until 2014, said, “I think his legacy will be how to think big and bold. He might have an idea of it, but it might not even be there.
When he asked CEAT group chairman Harsh Goenka for advice, he said that the paths to take frequently could be long and laborious, but those would be the ones worth taking. Goenka recalled to Al Jazeera that Goenka once said to him when he asked for advice.
Indeed, Tata navigated India’s fractious politics, its regulatory hurdles and protectionist-era mindsets to chart a new course for the group.
‘ Trying years ‘
At 54, Tata struggled to put his stamp on the fractious and loosely held group of companies when he was appointed chairman of the group.  ,
After studying architecture at Cornell University, he joined Tata Steel in Jamshedpur, one of the flagship units, as a junior executive. Later, he had mixed success at the group’s electronics venture, National Radio and Electronics (Nelco), and Empress Mills.
“Those were trying years, but he was gentle, soft-spoken and he stayed that way even later”, said Jehangir Jehangir, who was Tata’s executive assistant at Nelco.
It meant the group’s senior company heads, such as Tata Steel’s Russi Mody and Indian Hotels ‘ Ajit Kerkar, did not necessarily adhere to Tata in the early years. Each operated their business independently, collecting art from company accounts and flying on company jets for private, individual trips.
“They saw him]Tata] as a bacha]a kid]”, Jehangir recalled.
Tata Sons, the group holding company, had stakes in many group companies as low as 3 percent or 13 percent, opening them up to hostile takeovers. Tata began securing more control of the business without formally limiting his smallholding. He also increased Tata Sons’ shareholding in group companies, established a retirement age of 75, which led to Mody’s departure, and led a dramatic boardroom ouster of Kerkar.
‘ Think global ‘
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh started reviving India’s long-held Licence Raj in 1991, which stifled competition and required domestic partners from foreign businesses. Numerous Indian businesses pleaded for protection from foreign competition.
Tata Motor acquired the celebrated but ailing British carmaker, Jaguar Land Rover]File: Manish Swarup/AP Photo]
But Tata began telling executives the opposite. “We shouldn’t limit our thinking to India,” he said. We should think globally”, said a former senior Tata group executive, who had worked closely with Tata and did not want to be named. “Year after year, I remember writing in his annual reports – think global”.
This perspective enabled group companies to recover from the early 2000s’ economic slump in India.
“We started buying coal globally rather than just mining coal]domestically], as we had done”, said the Tata group executive about Tata Steel. Tata Motors began making dyes for Jaguar, Ford and Toyota. In a few years, Kant recalled about Tata Motors, “We went from a 500 crore rupees loss to a 500 crore rupees profit.”
It also set the stage for the group’s global acquisitions. In 2000, Tata Tea acquired the much-loved British tea brand Tetley for $431m, bringing it to global prominence. But Tata had just begun. Tata Motors paid $ 102 million to acquire South Korean Daewoo Motors’ commercial vehicle division in 2004.
And then, in 2007, Tata Steel acquired the Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus, in what was one of the biggest acquisitions in its time. Making the acquisition a formidable challenge because the British government did not raise money for it in the UK. But Tata’s mind was set. “By then, we had relationships with international bankers, and we were able to raise $10-12bn on our own”, said the former Tata executive.
Months later, Tata Motors acquired the celebrated but ailing British carmaker, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), from Ford Motors. “When we saw the strengths of Tata Motors and the strengths of JLR, we thought we were on to something big”, Kant, who was then the chief executive of Tata Motors, recalled.
In a few years, Tata and other company executives worked to restore the company’s profitability by developing new models and efficient manufacturing. CEAT’s Goenka recalls thinking that Ratan Tata had purchased the Jaguar.
Within months, the waters turned choppy for the group. The Corus acquisition became challenging as a result of the global financial crisis in 2008, which caused a decline in steel demand.
One of Tata’s great dreams was to make the world’s least expensive car at Tata Motors. Jehangir said, “His favorite part of the job was to study car design at Tata Motors,” adding, “.
Ratan Tata launched the world’s cheapest car, but it never found success]File: Saurabh Das/AP Photo]
He was actively involved in the car’s development. However, the project had to be abruptly abandoned in the middle of growing protests over the purchase of land to build the manufacturing plant in West Bengal state. In response to the interreligious riots in his state of 2002, which had damaged his reputation, Tata Motors made the decision to relocate its plant to Sanand in Gujarat in October 2008.
Tata was determined to meet the launch dates while the plant was being moved across the nation.
“We had one factory being dismantled, one being set up and one producing the car”, Tata Motors ‘ Kant recalled. “I don’t think it has ever been done before”.
At the launch of the Tata Nano in March 2009, Tata said, “A promise is a promise”. He had met his launch date and the 100, 000-rupee ($2, 000 then) price tag. In the end, the car was not a success and had to be discontinued.
‘Formidable’
In 2009, India’s Open Magazine leaked tapes of Tata talking to Nira Radia about obtaining telecom licenses for the telecom company owned by the group. He was uninvited about ministers and the auction process on the recordings.
Tata requested an injunction against the courts to stop the tapes from spreading further. Editor Manu Joseph recalled in a piece for HuffPost that Open’s editors contacted dozens of attorneys for advice on the case, but each “would convey his regrets because he did not want to take on Ratan Tata.”
“I am certain of one obvious quality of Ratan Tata, which is that he is formidable”, Joseph wrote in the 2016 piece.
Its quality also served as a reminder of his conflict with Cyrus Mistry, the man he had chosen. Tata had retired in 2012, leaving the group in Mistry’s hands. However, the two’s ties soon started to deteriorate, and N Chandrasekaran was appointed group chairman in 2017 by an executive search team. He had been the chief executive of the group’s software services business, Tata Consultancy Services.
Charitable work
Increasingly frail, Tata switched his focus to charitable work through Tata Trusts, which holds nearly two-thirds of the shares of Tata Sons, and correspondingly, the group. In 2018, he called Jehangir, his former executive assistant, and asked him to join the board of Tata Trusts.
“He wanted to keep up the values and the culture of the group”, Jehangir recalled. When he is not present, “he really wanted the group’s culture to stay.”
The body of Indian business leader Ratan Tata, who died on Wednesday night, is taken for cremation with full state honours, in Mumbai, India]Rafiq Maqbool/AP Photo]
Tata has mostly shied away from the public over the past few years. He assisted research at the Oxford India Centre for Sustainable Development in developing a network of cancer hospitals and a pet hospital.
Over the past few months, Jan Royall, the director of Somerville College, where the center is located, met Tata several times online, including when they were unable to meet in person.
He always displayed deep knowledge of cutting-edge research in this area across a range of disciplines, Royall recalled. “He was particularly interested in research on health and technology. Even through his last months, Tata kept up their meetings. He was both a visionary leader and a genuine academic at heart.
Tata was never married and had no children. He was incredibly fond of dogs. Tata had once responded that it was building a swimming pool for his dogs when Goenka inquired what his greatest luxury was.
Many young people idolized him because of his frugal lifestyle and lofty corporate goals.
Rumors about his ailing health had been circulating in the city days before he was admitted to Breach Candy Hospital in south Mumbai. The ever-self-effacing Tata had tweeted that he was fine, just going through regular medical checkups. “Thank you for thinking of me”, he had tweeted.
After breaking into a university in the state of New Jersey, a man from the United States admitted guilt to a federal hate crime.
The US Department of Justice reported on Thursday that Jacob Beacher, 24, broke into Rutgers University’s Center for Islamic Life during the Eid al-Fitr holiday in April and damaged several religious objects there.
A Palestinian flag and a charity box were also taken from the center by Beacher, according to the DOJ.
According to court documents, Beacher approached the facility shortly after 2:30 am on April 10 when an intruder later discovered him and forced him to enter through the back door.
On April 22, Beacher was detained and charged with making false statements to federal authorities and one count of intentionally or attempting to obstruct religious practice.
In today’s society, “Islamophobic hate crimes have no place.” According to Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, we will continue to enforce the laws that protect people of all faiths while performing religious observance, including at educational institutions.
Beacher’s maximum sentence is three years in prison.
Ferdinand Marcos, president of the Philippines, accused China of “harassment and intimidation” in the waterway and demanded more urgency in the negotiations over a code of conduct for the disputed South China Sea.
All parties must “be earnestly open to seriously managing differences” and reducing tension, according to Marcos Jr., who spoke with ASEAN leaders and Chinese Premier Li Qiang.
“There should be more urgency in the pace of the negotiations of the ASEAN-China code of conduct”, Marcos said on Thursday, according to a statement from his office.
China and ASEAN first agreed on a maritime code in 2002, but substantive negotiations did not begin until 2017.
“It is regrettable that the South China Sea’s general climate is still tense and unchanging. We continue to be subjected to harassment and intimidation”, the statement added.
In recent months, the two countries have been tensely arguing over whether China and the Philippines intentionally rammed boats. Manila accuses the country’s coastguard of using water cannons against its soldiers and engaging in fistfights with spears and knives.
In the disputed waterway, the two nations alone reported six air and sea confrontations in August.
Five of them took place at or near Scarborough Shoal and the Sabina Shoal in the Spratly Islands, an area that is within the Philippines ‘ 200-nautical-mile (about 370 kilometres) Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) but where China claims sovereignty.
Despite Beijing and Manila making fresh efforts to resolve their maritime dispute following a ferocious fight in which a Filipino sailor lost a finger in June, the confrontations have continued.
China claims the Philippines is to blame for the confrontations, accusing Filipino troops of “illegally” intruding into its territory. In September, it said its ties with the Philippines were “at a crossroads” and urged Manila to “seriously consider the future” of their relationship.
The United States, which has a mutual defense agreement with the Philippines, has threatened to draw attention to the escalating tensions if any Filipino troops are attacked by armed third-parties. These include on coastguard personnel, aircraft or public vessels “anywhere” in the South China Sea.
What facts about the tensions in the strategic waterway are essential:
Who claims what?
China claims sovereignty over nearly all of the South China Sea, via a vague, U-shaped nine-dash-line that overlaps with the EEZs of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam. EEZs are areas of the ocean, extending 200 nautical miles beyond a nation’s shore, where that state has the right to explore and exploit resources.
China, Taiwan, and Vietnam assert that they have sovereignty over the Paracel Islands in the northern region of the South China Sea despite Beijing’s ongoing rule since 1974. In the southern areas, China, Taiwan, and Vietnam each claim all of the approximately 200 Spratly Islands, while Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines claim some of them.
In 2016, a United Nations tribunal, following a suit brought by the Philippines, ruled that China’s nine-dash-line had no legal basis. Beijing, however, has ignored the ruling and continued to militarize reefs and submerged shoals in the waterway to advance its expansive claims.
China has 20 outposts in the Paracel Islands and seven in the Spratlys, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a think tank based in the US.
Vietnam, meanwhile, has 51 outposts spread across 27 features, while the Philippines occupies a total of nine features in the Spratly Islands. Thitu Island, the largest, is home to the only Philippine airstrip in the Spratlys.
China’s military build-up in the South China Sea
Although some of the nations in the South China Sea have engaged in reclamation of the areas they occupy, China’s level of artificial island-building and militarisation is much higher than that of other recalcitrants. Since 2013, China has created 3, 200 acres (1, 290 hectares) of new land in the Spratlys, according to the CSIS, and constructed ports, lighthouses and runways on the newly built islands.
China now has four large outposts with 3, 050-metre (10, 000-foot) runways in the South China Sea. In the Spratlys, there are Mischief Reef, Subi Reef, and Woody Island in the Paracels.
According to CSIS, China has deployed substantial military assets to these islands, including anti-air and antiship missiles, sensing and communications facilities, and hangars capable of housing military transport, patrol and combat aircraft.
Why is the South China Sea so important?
One of the most economically significant waterways in the world is the sea, which receives a cargo flown through it every year for an estimated $3.4 trillion.
Additionally, the waters are home to numerous trophy fishing grounds, which millions of people in the area use for their livelihoods.
The South China Sea also contains 190 trillion cubic feet (approximate 5.38 trillion cubic meters) of natural gas, according to the US Energy Information Administration, and about 11 billion barrels of oil that have been proven or probable. Those unexploited hydrocarbons could be worth $2.5 trillion.
Chinese vessels have clashed with or engaged in standoffs with survey ships from other countries, including Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia, disrupting their attempts to exploit those resources.
Anwar Ibrahim, the prime minister of Malaysia, promised in September that his nation would not bow down to Chinese demands to stop explorating waters off Sarawak, the country’s sovereign. In response to Chinese pressure, Vietnam agreed to pay $1 billion in damages and terminated contracts with two Spanish and Emirati oil companies in 2020, according to the Diplomat magazine. And in 2012, Vietnam warned China to stop investing in resources that it had already given to businesses like Exxon Mobil Corp. and OAO Gazprom.
Overall, China’s control of the South China Sea would improve its ability to dominate a significant trade route and boost its energy security. Additionally, it might be able to prevent US troops from entering foreign military installations.
Increasing clashes
In recent decades, tensions have been the greatest between China, Vietnam and the Philippines.
In 1974, the Chinese seized the Paracels from Vietnam, killing more than 70 Vietnamese troops, and in 1988, the two sides clashed in the Spratlys, with Hanoi again losing about 60 sailors. The Philippines ‘ most contentious disputes with China have centred on Scarborough Shoal, Second Thomas Shoal, and most recently, Sabina Shoal.
An aerial view shows the BRP Sierra Madre on the contested Second Thomas Shoal, known in the Philippines as Ayungin]File: Reuters]
Following a two-month standoff, China seized Scarborough Shoal from the Philippines, and in recent years, Chinese coastguard and maritime militia vessels have made attempts to obstruct boats carrying food and water to soldiers stationed on a Filipino ship that was purposefully grounded on Second Thomas Shoal in 1999. The Chinese side has used tactics including boat rammings, military-grade lasers and water cannon, according to the Philippines.
A well-known Palestinian activist from Europe has criticized the US for imposing sanctions on him, calling it “an attempt to deter him from continuing my work for Palestine and defending my people’s rights.”
Majed al-Zeer, a dual British and Jordanian national, also rejected the accusations cited in the sanctions as “absolutely false”.
“It is madness”, he told Al Jazeera on Thursday. “It affects my life socially, my career, for the sake of accusation. There is no proof whatsoever”.
Al-Zeer stated in a statement that earlier this week he learned about the sanctions. On Monday, the US Department of the Treasury identified al-Zeer as one of three individuals sanctioned for alleged ties to the Palestinian group Hamas, which it called a “terrorist” organisation.
The Treasury accused al-Zeer, who lives in the UK and Germany, of being a “senior Hamas representative” who played , “a central role in the terrorist group’s European fundraising”.
But al-Zeer, the chairman of the European-Palestinian Council for Political Relations, refuted that accusation in a press release on Thursday.
He later explained to Al Jazeera that he had never been involved in any financial activities while active in Europe, even when he was the leader of the UK-based Palestinian Return Centre.
“Israel just doesn’t want any activists to work for the sake of Palestine. That’s the whole story”, he said.
A reflection of US-Israel relations?
For al-Zeer, the US’s decision is a reflection of its “broader alignment” with Israel.
Since Israel’s founding in 1948, the US has always supported the country with allegiance. Despite Israel’s ongoing conflict in Gaza, which has raised concerns about human rights violations and casualties for civilians, that support has continued.
In his press release, al-Zeer wrote, “I am deeply perplexed by the approach taken to come up with this decision and announce it by a nation that supposedly prides itself on legal integrity.”
The sanctions were announced on October 7, the anniversary of Hamas’s attack on southern Israel, which killed an estimated 1, 139 people.
Israel’s response in Gaza, meanwhile, has killed nearly 42, 000 Palestinians in the year since.
The Treasury will continue to degrade Hamas and other destabilizing Iranian proxies’ ability to finance their operations and engage in additional violent acts, according to Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen in a statement as we approach the year since Hamas’ brutal terrorist attack.
Al-Zeer, three other people, and nine other businesses, were found guilty of “critical roles” in Hamas’ external fundraising, frequently done under the guise of charitable work, according to the US Treasury.
The two other designated individuals work for Palestinian advocacy organizations in Italy and Austria. Additionally, the Treasury Department designated a former Yemeni politician and his businesses as his residence.
‘ Laughable ‘ evidence
People in the US are preventing them from doing business with them because of the sanctions’ effective freezing of the four men’s US assets.
The Treasury Department will use all of its means of communication, including those who seek to elude attempts to seize additional revenue sources, to hold Hamas and its supporters accountable, according to Yellen.
US sanctions have been put in place against Hamas financial support in recent rounds. Additionally, it has authorized a small number of Israeli settlers and organizations that support illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Monday’s sanctions were not the first time al-Zeer was accused of being a Hamas operative. In 2019, he won a legal case after World-Check, an influential customer-screening database used by banks, categorised him as linked to “terrorism”.
Al-Zeer claimed that the US sanctions referenced a photo of him with late Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who Israel killed in Iran earlier this year.
He claimed, however, that Sir Gerald Kaufman, one of the British Labour leaders, was one of the larger delegations that were assembled in the photo. “It is almost laughable”, he said of the evidence.
Medan, Indonesia – Siti Faiza has run Faiza’s Production House, a traditional women’s wear business, in Solo, Central Java since 2008.
Faiza started her own home business as a university student, designing and sewing clothes herself.
Faiza recruited some of her neighbors to help expand the company as sales began to increase. Today, Faiza’s Production House employs 12 tailors.
Still, Faiza says it is a struggle to compete with cheaper garments imported from overseas, particularly China.
“Sometimes I see imported clothes online at such low prices, like 40, 000 rupiah ($2.65). That would not even cover the cost of my fabric, Faiza told Al Jazeera. “I always wonder how the prices can be so low.”
Indonesia’s government has noted complaints by small-business owners such as Faiza, proposing tariffs of up to 200 percent on Chinese imports.
Zulkifli Hasan, the minister of trade, claims that small businesses are being threatened by “collapse” as a result of the US-China trade war’s surge of Chinese goods entering the country.
Indrawan, Faiza’s husband, told Al Jazeera, “I firmly support the tariffs, and I believe we should reject imports completely because they are destroying local businesses.”
“There is already a sizable local textile market in Indonesia. Why do we have to import anything”?
In June, thousands of workers in Jakarta protested against Chinese imports, prompting Hasan to propose tariffs to protect the country’s estimated 64 million micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).
In remarks made to local media, Zulkifli said, “The United States can impose a 200-percent tariff on imported clothing and ceramics. We can do it as well to ensure our MSMEs and industries will survive and thrive.”
Indonesia’s Trade Minister Zulkifli Hasan attends the launch of social media video sharing app TikTok and Indonesia’s leading e-commerce site Tokopedia’s Buy Local Campaign in Jakarta on December 12, 2023]Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP]
A wide range of goods would be affected by the proposed tariffs, including those for clothing and footwear as well as those for cosmetics and ceramics.
With two-way trade exceeding $ 127 billion last year, Indonesia’s largest trading partner, China, which could have a significant impact on both Jakarta and Beijing’s relationship with the proposed tariffs.
Jakarta has a history of intervening in the economy, the largest in Southeast Asia with a gross domestic product of more than $1.3 trillion, to support local industry.
Under outgoing President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, who set the ambitious goal of raising gross domestic product (GDP) per capita to $25, 000 by 2045, Jakarta has pursued a model of “new developmentalism” that aims to foster rapid economic growth while shielding local businesses from competition, said Ian Wilson, a lecturer in politics and security studies at Perth’s Murdoch University.
According to Wilson, “Southeast Asian style developmentalism is a well-known model that emerged in the 1970s with a significant level of government intervention in the economy to promote a transition of labor, output, and exports from low productivity agriculture to higher productivity manufacturing sector and industrialization.”
“The immediate question, however, is what is the calculation in imposing tariffs of this kind”?
Although many local businesses have praised the proposed tariffs, economists have been cautious about the overall effects of such measures.
Siwage Dharma Negara, a senior fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, said tariffs should be considered carefully.
“It might not be a desirable goal to just reduce imports. We need imports for raw materials and local industrial materials and, if tariffs are imposed, these industries will be affected”, he told Al Jazeera.
Negara argued that in addition to halting imported goods, the government should put more emphasis on supporting the growth of local businesses.
According to him, “businesses need to be helped to become more efficient and stronger, and the government needs to set clear goals.”
In contrast to Jakarta’s generally cordial relations with Beijing, which has spearheaded numerous infrastructure projects in the nation under the banner of its Belt and Road Initiative, the tariffs proposal also stands out.
Beijing was keeping tabs on the situation after the proposed tariffs were made public, according to Lin Jian, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
China will take necessary steps to protect the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies, according to Lin. “China will closely monitor any tariffs Indonesia may impose on specific products.
Dump trucks manoeuvre at Indonesia Weda Bay Industrial Park at Central Halmahera, North Maluku province, Indonesia on June 8, 2024]Achmad Ibrahim/AP]
Trissia Wijaya, a senior research fellow at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, Japan, said she did not think the planned tariffs would have a major effect on Indonesia-China economic cooperation overall.
According to Wijaya, “This can be traced back to the essential mineral trade volume that has been our relationship for the past few years, which is where we have been primarily engaged in our relationship,” Wijaya told Al Jazeera.
“The nickel supply is pivotal for China’s strategic interests. As long as the mainstay is not destroyed, I don’t think it would infuriate Beijing either as it is applicable to textiles, ceramics, and electronics”.
Faiza isn’t optimistic that tariffs will solve her business problems because she’s back in Solo.
We now live in an online world where people can purchase anything they want because the world is a free market today, regardless of whether they want to accept imported goods or not.
