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US and China take a step back from sky-high tariffs and agree to pause for 90 days for more talks

SUMMARY:

  • U.S. and reduce by 115 percentage points.
  • A 90-day truce was agreed to continue trade talks.
  • Market indices and oil prices surged following the announcement.
  • The agreement aims to avoid a full trade blockade and stabilize .

GENEVA (AP) — U.S. and Chinese officials said on Monday they had reached a deal to roll back most of their recent tariffs and call a 90-day truce in their to allow for more talks on resolving their trade disputes.

Stock markets rose sharply as the globe’s two major economic powers took a step back from a clash that has unsettled the .

U.S. Trade Representative said the U.S. agreed to drop its 145% tariff rate on Chinese goods by 115 percentage points to 30%, while China agreed to lower its rate on U.S. goods by the same amount to 10%.

A deal averts a total blockade
Greer and Treasury Secretary announced the tariff reductions at a news conference in Geneva.

The two officials struck a positive tone as they said the two sides had set up consultations to continue discussing their trade issues. Bessent said at the news briefing following two days of talks that the high tariff levels would have amounted to a complete blockage of each side’s goods — an outcome neither side wants.

“The consensus from both delegations this weekend is neither side wants a decoupling,” Bessent said. “And what had occurred with these very high tariff … was an embargo, the equivalent of an embargo. And neither side wants that. We do want trade.”

“We want more balanced trade,” he said. “And I think that both sides are committed to achieving that.”

The delegations, escorted around town and guarded by scores of Swiss police, met for at least a dozen hours on both days of the weekend at a sunbaked 17th-century villa that serves as the official residence of the Swiss ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva.

At times, the delegation leaders broke away from their staffs and settled into sofas on the villa’s patios overlooking Lake Geneva, helping deepen personal ties in the effort to reach a much-sought deal.

Finally, a deal
China’s Commerce Ministry said the two sides agreed to cancel 91% in tariffs on each other’s goods and suspend another 24% in tariffs for 90 days, bringing the total reduction to 115 percentage points.

The ministry called the agreement an important step for the resolution of the two countries’ differences and said it lays the foundation for further cooperation.

“This initiative aligns with the expectations of producers and consumers in both countries and serves the interests of both nations as well as the common interests of the world,” a ministry statement said.

China hopes the United States will stop “the erroneous practice of unilateral tariff hikes” and work with China to safeguard the development of their economic and trade relations, injecting more certainty and stability into the global , the ministry said.

The joint statement issued by the two countries said China also agreed to suspend or remove other measures it has taken since April 2 in response to the U.S. tariffs.

China has increased export controls on rare earths, including some critical to the defense industry and added more American companies to its export control and unreliable entity lists, restricting their business with and in China.

Markets rally as two sides de-escalate
The full impact on the complicated tariffs and other trade penalties enacted by Washington and Beijing remains unclear. And much depends on whether they will find ways to bridge longstanding differences during the 90-day suspension. Bessent said in an interview with CNBC that U.S. and Chinese officials will meet again in a few weeks.

But investors rejoiced as trade envoys from the world’s two biggest economies blinked, finding ways to pull back from potentially massive disruptions to world trade and their own markets.

Futures for the S&P 500 jumped 2.6% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 2%. Oil prices surged more than $1.60 a barrel and the dollar gained against the euro and the Japanese yen.

“This is a substantial de-escalation,” said Mark Williams, chief Asia economist at Capital Economics. But he warned “there is no guarantee that the 90-day truce will give way to a lasting ceasefire.”

Jens Eskelund, president of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, welcomed the news but expressed caution.

The tariffs only were suspended for 90 days and there is great uncertainty over what lies ahead, he said in a statement.

“Businesses need predictability to maintain normal operations and make investment decisions,” Eskelund said. “The chamber therefore hopes to see both sides continue to engage in dialogue to resolve differences, and avoid taking measures that will disrupt global trade and result in collateral damage for those caught in the cross-fire.”

Trump last month raised U.S. tariffs on China to a combined 145%, and China retaliated by hitting American imports with a 125% levy. Tariffs that high essentially amount to the two countries boycotting each other’s products, disrupting trade that last year topped $660 billion.

The announcement by the U.S. and China sent shares surging, with U.S. futures jumping more than 2%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index surged nearly 3% and benchmarks in Germany and France were both up 0.7%

The Trump administration has imposed tariffs on countries worldwide, but its fight with China has been the most intense. Trump’s on goods from China include a 20% charge imposed because Trump says Beijing has not done enough to stop trafficking in the precursor chemicals used to make the synthetic opioid fentanyl.

Tariff talks begin between US and Chinese officials in Geneva as the world looks for signs of hope

SUMMARY:

  • U.S. and begin high-level trade talks in Geneva
  • as high as 145% threaten global economic stability
  • Trump hints at lowering tariffs, but outcome remains unclear

GENEVA (AP) — The U.S. Treasury Secretary and America’s top trade negotiator began talks with high-ranking Chinese officials in Switzerland Saturday aiming to de-escalate a dispute that threatens to cut off trade between the world’s two biggest economies and damage the global .

Treasury Secretary and U.S. Trade Representative have begun meetings in Geneva with a Chinese delegation led by Vice Premier .

Diplomats from both sides also confirmed that the talks have begun but spoke anonymously and the exact location of the talks wasn’t made public. However, a motorcade of black cars and vans was seen coming and going from the home of the Swiss ambassador to the United Nations delegation in the wealthy city, and a diplomatic source, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the meeting, said the sides met for about two hours before departing for a previously arranged luncheon.

Prospects for a major breakthrough appear dim. But there is hope that the two countries will scale back the massive taxes — tariffs — they’ve slapped on each other’s goods, a move that would relieve world financial markets and companies on both sides of the Pacific Ocean that depend on .

U.S. last month raised U.S. tariffs on China to a combined 145%, and China retaliated by hitting American imports with a 125% levy. Tariffs that high essentially amount to the countries’ boycotting each other’s products, disrupting trade that last year topped $660 billion.

Even before the talks began, Trump suggested Friday that the U.S. could lower its tariffs on China, saying in a Truth Social post that “ 80% Tariff seems right! Up to Scott.″

Sun Yun, director of the China program at the Stimson Center, noted it will be the first time He and Bessent have talked. She doubts the Geneva meeting will produce any substantive results.

“The best scenario is for the two sides to agree to de-escalate on the … tariffs at the same time,” she said, adding even a small reduction would send a positive signal. “It cannot just be words.”

Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has aggressively used tariffs as his favorite economic weapon. He has, for example, imposed a 10% tax on imports from almost every country in the world.

But the fight with China has been the most intense. His tariffs on China include a 20% charge meant to pressure Beijing into doing more to stop the flow of the synthetic opioid fentanyl into the United States. The remaining 125% involve a dispute that dates back to Trump’s first term and comes atop tariffs he levied on China back then, which means the total tariffs on some Chinese goods can exceed 145%.

During Trump’s first term, the U.S. alleged that China uses unfair tactics to give itself an edge in advanced technologies such as quantum computing and driverless cars. These include forcing U.S. and other foreign companies to hand over trade secrets in exchange for access to the Chinese market; using government money to subsidize domestic tech firms; and outright theft of sensitive technologies.

Those issues were never fully resolved. After nearly two years of negotiation, the United States and China reached a so-called Phase One agreement in January 2020. The U.S. agreed then not to go ahead with even higher tariffs on China, and Beijing agreed to buy more American products. The tough issues — such as China’s subsidies — were left for future negotiations.

But China didn’t come through with the promised purchases, partly because COVID-19 disrupted global commerce just after the Phase One truce was announced.

The fight over China’s tech policy now resumes.

Trump is also agitated by America’s massive trade deficit with China, which came to $263 billion last year.

In Switzerland Friday, Bessent and Greer also met with Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter.

Trump last month suspended plans to slap hefty 31% tariffs on Swiss goods — more than the 20% levies he plastered on exports from European Union. For now, he’s reduced those taxes to 10% but could raise them again.

The government in Bern is taking a cautious approach. But it has warned of the impact on crucial Swiss industries like watches, coffee capsules, cheese and chocolate.

“An increase in trade tensions is not in Switzerland’s interests. Countermeasures against U.S. tariff increases would entail costs for the Swiss economy, in particular by making imports from the USA more expensive,” the government said last week, adding that the executive branch “is therefore not planning to impose any countermeasures at the present time.”

The government said Swiss exports to the United States on Saturday were subject to an additional 10% tariff, and another 21% beginning Wednesday.

The United States is Switzerland’s second-biggest trading partner after the EU – the 27-member-country bloc that nearly surrounds the wealthy Alpine country of more than 9 million. in goods and services has quadrupled over the last two decades, the government said.

The Swiss government said Switzerland abolished all industrial tariffs on Jan. 1 last year, meaning that 99% of all goods from the United States can be imported into Switzerland duty-free.

More warning signs emerge for US travel industry as summer nears

SUMMARY:

  • ‘s Q1 revenue missed expectations amid falling U.S.
  • Bookings from Canada to the U.S. dropped nearly 30%
  • Economic concerns and tariffs blamed for slowdown

 

Expedia Group said Friday that reduced travel demand in the United States led to its weaker-than-expected revenue in the first quarter, and Bank of America said credit card transactions showed spending on flights and lodging kept falling last month.

The two reports add to growing indications that the U.S. and may see its first slowdown since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic fueled a period of “revenge travel” that turned into sustained interest in getting away.

Expedia, which owns the lodging reservation platforms Hotels.com and VRBO as well as an eponymous online travel agency, was the latest American company to report slowing business with both international visitors and domestic travelers.

and noted the same trends last week in their quarterly reports. Most major U.S. airlines pulled their full-year financial guidance in April and said they planned to reduce scheduled flights, citing an ebb in passengers booking leisure trips.

The U.S. Travel Association has said that economic uncertainty and anxiety over President Donald Trump’s tariffs may explain the pullback. In April, Americans’ confidence in the economy slumped for a fifth straight month to the lowest level since the onset of the pandemic.

Bank of America said Friday that its credit card holders were willing to spend on “nice to have” services like eating at restaurants in March and April, but “bigger ticket discretionary outlays on airfare and lodging continued to decline, possibly due to declining and worries about the economic outlook.”

Abroad, anger about the tariffs as well as concern about tourist detentions at the U.S. border have made citizens of some other countries less interested in traveling to the U.S., tourism industry experts say.

The U.S. government said last month that 7.1 million visitors entered the U.S. from overseas this year as of the end of March, 3.3% fewer than during the first three months of 2024.

The numbers did not include land crossings from Mexico or travel from Canada, where citizens have expressed indignation over Trump’s remarks about making their country the 51st state. Both U.S. and Canadian government data have shown steep declines in border crossings from Canada.

Expedia Chief Financial Officer Scott Schenkel said the net value of the travel technology company’s bookings into the U.S. fell 7% in the January-March period, but bookings to the U.S. from Canada were down nearly 30%.

In a conference call with investors Friday, Expedia CEO Ariane Gorin said U.S. demand was even softer in April than March.

“We’re still continuing to see pressure on travel into the U.S., but we’ve also seen some rebalancing,” Gorin said. “Europeans are traveling less to the U.S., but more to Latin America.”

Seattle-based Expedia said its revenue rose 3% to $2.99 billion for the quarter. That was lower than the $3 billion Wall Street was expecting, according to analysts polled by FactSet.

Expedia shares were down than 7% in mid-day trading Friday.

Airbnb said last week that foreign travel to the U.S. makes up only 2% to 3% of its business. But within that category, it’s seeing declining interest in the U.S. as a destination.

“I think Canada is the most obvious example, where we see Canadians are traveling at a much lower rate to the U.S. but they’re traveling more domestically, they are traveling to Mexico, they are going to Brazil, they’re going to France, they’re going to Japan,” Airbnb Chief Financial Officer Ellie Mertz said in a conference call with investors.

Meanwhile, Hilton lowered its full-year forecast for revenue per available room, a key industry metric. The company said in late April that it now expects growth of 0% to 2% for the year, down from 2% to 3%.

Hilton President and CEO Christopher Nassetta told stock analysts the company saw international travel to its U.S. hotels fall throughout the first quarter, particularly from Canada and Mexico.

But Nassetta said he remained optimistic for the second half of this year.

“My own belief is you will see some of — if not a lot of — that uncertainty wane over the next couple of quarters, and that will allow the underlying strength of the economy to shine through again,” he said.

Judge pauses much of Trump administration’s massive downsizing of federal agencies

SUMMARY:

  • Judge Susan Illston issued a 14-day halt to large-scale federal
  • Lawsuit challenges Trump’s downsizing agencies
  • Cuts affected , SSA, , and more without congressional approval

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The Trump administration must halt much of its dramatic downsizing of the , a California judge ordered Friday.

Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco issued the emergency order in a lawsuit filed last week by and cities, one of multiple challenges to Republican President Donald Trump’s efforts to shrink the size of a he calls bloated and expensive.

“The Court holds the President likely must request Congressional cooperation to order the changes he seeks, and thus issues a temporary restraining order to pause large-scale reductions in force in the meantime,” Illston wrote in her order.

The temporary restraining order directs numerous federal agencies to halt acting on the president’s workforce executive order signed in February and a subsequent memo issued by the Department of Government Efficiency and the Office of Personnel Management.

The order, which expires in 14 days, does not require departments to rehire people. Plaintiffs asked that the effective date of any agency action be postponed and that departments stop implementing or enforcing the executive order, including taking any further action.

They limited their request to departments where dismantlement is already underway or poised to be underway, including at the the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which announced in March it will lay off 10,000 workers and centralize divisions.

Illston, who was nominated to the bench by former President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, said at a hearing Friday the president has authority to seek changes in the executive branch departments and agencies created by Congress.

“But he must do so in lawful ways,” she said. “He must do so with the cooperation of Congress, the Constitution is structured that way.”

Trump has repeatedly said voters gave him a mandate to remake the federal government, and he tapped billionaire Elon Musk to lead the charge through DOGE.

Tens of thousands of federal workers have been fired, left their via deferred resignation programs or have been placed on leave as a result of Trump’s government-shrinking efforts. There is no official figure for the job cuts, but at least 75,000 federal employees took deferred resignation, and thousands of probationary workers have already been let go.

In her order, Illston gave several examples to show the impact of the downsizing. One union that represents federal workers who research health hazards faced by mineworkers said it was poised to lose 221 of 222 workers in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, office; a Vermont farmer didn’t receive a timely inspection on his property to receive disaster aid after flooding and missed an important planting window; a reduction in Social Security Administration workers has led to longer wait times for recipients.

All the agencies impacted were created by Congress, she noted.

Lawyers for the government argued Friday that the executive order and memo calling for large-scale personnel reductions and reorganization plans provided only general principles that agencies should follow in exercising their own decision-making process.

“It expressly invites comments and proposals for legislative engagement as part of policies that those agencies wish to implement,” Eric Hamilton, a deputy assistant attorney general, said of the memo. “It is setting out guidance.”

But Danielle Leonard, an attorney for plaintiffs, said it was clear that the president, DOGE and were making decisions outside of their authority and not inviting dialogue from agencies.

“They are not waiting for these planning documents” to go through long processes, she said. “They’re not asking for approval, and they’re not waiting for it.”

The temporary restraining order applies to departments including the departments of Agriculture, Energy, Labor, Interior, State, Treasury and Veterans Affairs.

It also applies to the National Science Foundation, Small Business Association, Social Security Administration and Environmental Protection Agency.

Some of the labor unions and nonprofit groups are also plaintiffs in another lawsuit before a San Francisco judge challenging the mass firings of probationary workers. In that case, Judge William Alsup ordered the government in March to reinstate those workers, but the U.S. Supreme Court later blocked his order.

Plaintiffs include the cities of San Francisco, Chicago and Baltimore; labor group American Federation of Government Employees; and nonprofit groups Alliance for Retired Americans, Center for Taxpayer Rights and Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks.

An offshore wind project for New York may be abandoned over Trump administration delays

SUMMARY:

  • may cancel due to Trump’s construction freeze
  • Interior Secretary paused project citing rushed Biden-era approval
  • Equinor losing $50M weekly; over $2.5B already invested
  • NY, other states sue to block Trump’s anti-wind

 

The Norwegian energy company Equinor said Friday it will be forced to terminate an project for New York within days unless ‘s administration relents on its order that stopped construction.

Work on Empire Wind has been paused since April 16, when Interior Secretary Doug Burgum directed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to halt construction. Burgum said it needs further review because it appeared the Biden administration rushed the approval. Equinor went through a seven-year permitting process before starting to build Empire Wind last year, and the project is roughly a third complete.

Trump has been hostile to , particularly offshore wind, and has signed a spate of executive orders aimed at boosting oil, gas and coal. His first day in office, Trump signed an executive order temporarily halting offshore wind lease sales in federal waters and pausing the issuance of approvals, permits and loans for all wind projects.

Empire Wind is fully permitted and the developer has already invested more than $2.5 billion so far in the project, said Molly Morris, president of Equinor Renewables Americas, in an interview Friday.

She said this is an “urgent, unsustainable situation” because each day of uncertainty is extremely expensive: Equinor spends up to $50 million per week on the project and has 11 vessels on standby. The developer has done a significant amount of onshore work already, where the cable from the wind farm will connect to the local grid.

“If no material progress is made toward a resolution within days, Equinor will be forced to terminate the project,” she said. “This is about honoring contracts and financial investments made in the U.S. It could set a dangerous precedent by stopping a project in mid-execution.”

The did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment.

Equinor has over $60 billion in investments across the U.S., including substantial oil, gas and renewable projects. RWE, a German energy company, has stopped its offshore wind work in the United States, citing the political environment. French energy giant TotalEnergies paused the development of its offshore wind project in New York after Trump won reelection.

Equinor is considering options, but rather than getting tied up in the , Morris said the best way forward is a quicker political resolution. The summer construction window for major offshore work began this month, and missing it would set the project back a year, she said.

Morris and Equinor CEO Anders Opedal met with Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, on Wednesday. She said it was helpful, but they’ve asked to meet with Burgum and haven’t gotten a meeting.

Equinor is building Empire Wind to start providing power in 2026 for more than 500,000 New York homes. Equinor finalized the federal lease for Empire Wind in March 2017, early in Trump’s first term. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management approved the construction and operations plan in February 2024 and construction began that year.

New York is leading a coalition of state attorneys general challenging the wind energy executive order in court. They say in the lawsuit filed Monday that Trump doesn’t have the authority to unilaterally shut down the permitting process, and he’s jeopardizing development of a power source critical to the states’ economic vitality, energy mix, public health and climate goals.

The White House says Democratic attorneys general are trying to stop the president’s popular energy agenda instead of working with him to restore America’s energy dominance.

Virginia unemployment claims rise amid federal layoffs


SUMMARY:

  • Over 121,000 federal employees have faced layoffs or have been targeted for layoffs
  • Virginia’s initial claims rose 8.1% in one week.
  • Expert expects to see reduction in the state’s administrative services
  • Weldon Cooper Center predicts rising unemployment in Virginia through 2025

A recent spike in claims can likely be traced to sweeping under the second Trump administration.

For the week ending May 3, the number of individuals filing initial claims for unemployment was 2,720, according to a Thursday news release from the Virginia Department of Workforce Development and Advancement, which is also known as Virginia Works. That’s an 8.1% increase in claims over the previous week and an 8.9% increase over a comparable week in 2024.

“We are starting to see some job losses,” Terry Clower, professor of public policy at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government, said. “It’s not a huge number yet, but it’s starting to add up.”

Since returned to the White House in January, more than 100,000 federal employees have been fired or put on leave as part of a measure to cut federal spending. A CNN tracker puts the number of federal workers laid off or targeted for layoffs at 121,361 as of April 28. More than 321,500 federal workers live in Virginia, according to data from the 2023 Census Bureau’s American Community Survey.

The Trump administration has also cut federal contracts to curb federal spending, which is anticipated to result in layoffs among some government contractors. (For instance, in April, Goldschmitt and Associates, a Sterling-based business management firm, announced plans to lay off 217 employees, citing a reduction in a federal contract as the reason for the cut jobs.)

Along with federal spending cuts, the economy is also responding to Trump’s and its accompanying tariffs, which has grown economic uncertainty,  resulted in $11 trillion in stock market losses in the short term and is expected to result in greater and supply chain problems.

The increase in unemployment claims, Clower said, is a result of a “compounded storm of tariffs hitting parts of Virginia that deal a lot with trade and the supplies that we get in for , and then, of course … dealing with the uncertainty of federal employment and federal contracts at the moment.”

Like Clower, João Ferreira, a regional economist at the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center for Economic and Policy Studies, was not surprised by the state’s increase in unemployment claims.

In April, the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service released an for Virginia, predicting unemployment in Virginia will continue to grow over the course of the year to a level not seen since 2021. “We expect this to be a trend as the federal activity in Virginia is reduced,” Ferreira said.

However, Virginia Labor Secretary Bryan Slater cautioned in a statement Monday that the news might not be as grim as it seems:  “To date, we have only seen approximately 1,700 federal employees and federal contractors file for unemployment, far below any projections that have been made over the past 90 days.”

Slater also noted that Virginia has more than 225,000 open jobs and directed job seekers to the website VirginiaHasJobs.com.

“Virginia’s unemployment rate is 3.2% — a full point lower than the national average and considerably lower than most of our competitors and surrounding states,” Slater said in his statement. “Our initial claims are lower than they were three and four weeks ago and in line with the 10-year average and well below the 30-year average of 5,235. Our continuing claims are well below the 10- and 30-year averages of 20,239 and 33,844.”

About 83% of claimants making initial unemployment claims self-reported their occupations. More than 500 worked in professional, scientific and technical services. Other top fields reported by claimants were administrative and support and waste management (275); retail trade (217); health care and social assistance (208); and manufacturing (145).

Ferreira expects to see a reduction in the state’s administrative services jobs as well as a slowdown in growth of professional, scientific and technical services jobs in 2025.

Also in Virginia, continuing unemployment claims for the week ending May 3 were 1.5% higher than the previous week and 15.1% higher than a comparable week in 2024, according to Virginia Works. Those numbers indicate that “those folks that have lost a job are finding it harder to find one now,” Clower said.

Of the 17,896 continuing claims, nearly 92% of claimants self reported their professions. The top industries were professional, scientific and technical services (3,748); administrative and support and waste management (2,225); health care and social assistance (1,579); retail trade (1,392); and manufacturing (1,161).

But Virginia also has seen major layoff announcements outside of the and government contracting in recent weeks. Earlier this month, Georgia-Pacific told 554 employees they would lose their jobs at its Emporia plywood mill, which the company is closing in response to a 30-year low in existing home sales.

U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, Virginia’s Democratic senior senator, touched on the economy during a Thursday media call.

“I’ve never seen a more self-made economic crisis,” said Warner, “and it is created because of the whim of one individual: Donald Trump.”

Editor’s note: This story was updated May 12 to include Virginia Labor Secretary Bryan Slater’s statement.

Norfolk casino developer pledges $1M to NSU

The gaming company behind the $750 million casino pledged $1 million to Norfolk State University to support its business school’s and management program.

, which is developing the still-unnamed with the , will be the title sponsor of ‘s Boyd Gaming Department of Tourism & Hospitality Management, the company announced Friday.

“We are pleased to enter into this partnership with one of the leading gaming corporations in the United States,” NSU President Javaune Adams-Gaston said in a statement. “Our Department of Tourism & Hospitality is the perfect place to prepare the next generation of gaming professionals.”

Construction began in February on the long-awaited casino, which is expected to create 850 . The resort casino was approved by Norfolk voters in fall 2020, but construction was delayed due to conflicts over design plans between Norfolk City Council and the developers. An earlier partnership between the and Tennessee investor Jon Yarbrough ended last year, and Boyd Gaming entered the picture. At that time, Boyd and the tribe scrapped the casino’s previously announced branding as the HeadWaters Resort & Casino.

In September 2024, Norfolk City Council approved the development agreement between the city, the tribe and Boyd, and since then, the project has moved forward. A temporary casino is expected to be completed late this year, with the permanent casino resort is expected to open in late 2027.

The permanent casino will have 1,500 slot machines, 50 table games, a 200-room hotel, eight food and beverage outlets, a 45,000-square-foot outdoor amenity deck and live entertainment.

Earlier this week, the two casino partners granted Old Dominion University and Tidewater Community College $50,000 each to help develop education and training programs to support the casino’s workforce needs. In October 2024, the casino partners gave $100,000 to NSU.

Boyd Gaming and the Pamunkey Tribe “look forward to working closely with our friends and partners at NSU in the years ahead as we build a best-in-class team and create exciting career opportunities for Norfolk State graduates at our resort,” Ron Bailey, vice president and general manager of the Norfolk casino, said in a statement.

Boyd Gaming operates 28 gaming properties in 10 states, manages a tribal casino in California and owns and operates Boyd Interactive, an online casino gaming business. The company also is a 5% equity owner of FanDuel Group, a sports betting operator.

Virginia has three operating in Danville, Bristol and Portsmouth, and construction on the $1.4 billion Live! Casino & Hotel Virginia in Petersburg began in March.

As US and China begin trade talks in Geneva, Trump’s tariff hammer looks less mighty than he claims

SUMMARY:

  • Trump raises on Chinese imports to 145%, prompting retaliation
  • remains defiant, citing U.S. dependence on its
  • Trade talks in Geneva begin with little hope for immediate resolution
  • Both U.S. and Chinese economies face pressure amid prolonged standoff

WASHINGTON (AP) — The way President Donald Trump sees it, beating China in a should be easy.

After all, his logic goes, the Chinese sell Americans three times as much stuff as Americans sell them. Therefore, they have more to lose. Inflict enough pain – like the combined 145% taxes he slapped on Chinese imports last month – and they’ll beg for mercy.

Trump’s treasury secretary, has confidently compared Beijing to a card player stuck with a losing hand. “They’re playing with a pair of twos,” he said.

Somebody forgot to tell China. So far, the Chinese have refused to fold under the pressure of Trump’s massive tariffs. Instead, they have retaliated with triple-digit tariffs of their own.

“All bullies are just paper tigers,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry declared in a video last week. “Kneeling only invites more bullying.”

The stakes are high between the world’s two biggest economies whose trade topped $660 billion last year. Bessent and Trump’s top trade negotiator, , are heading to Geneva this weekend for initial trade talks with top Chinese officials. Trump suggested Friday that the U.S. could lower its tariffs on China, saying in a Truth Social post that “80% Tariff seems right! Up to Scott.″

While businesses and investors welcome any easing of tensions, the prospects for a quick and significant breakthrough appear dim.

“These are talks about talks, and China may be coming to assess what’s on the table — or even just to buy time,” said Craig Singleton, senior China fellow at the Washington-based think tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “There’s no shared roadmap or clear pathway to de-escalation.”

But if the two countries eventually agree to scale back the massive taxes – tariffs – they’ve slapped on each other’s goods, it would relieve world financial markets and companies on both sides of the Pacific Ocean that depend on .

“The companies involved in this trade on both sides just cannot afford waiting anymore,” said economist John Gong of the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing. In a worst-case scenario, China could walk away from the negotiations if it feels the U.S. side isn’t treating China as an equal or isn’t willing to take the first step to deescalate, Gong said.

“I think if (Bessent) doesn’t go into this negotiation with this kind of mindset, this could be very difficult,” he said.

For now, the two countries can’t even agree on who requested the talks. “The meeting is being held at the request of the U.S. side,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said Wednesday. Trump disagreed. “They ought to go back and study their files,” he said.

Trump’s faith in tariffs meet economic reality
What seems clear is that Trump’s favorite economic weapon – , or tariffs – has not proved as mighty as he’d hoped.

“For Trump, what’s happened here is that the rhetoric of his campaign has finally had to face economic reality,” said Jeff Moon, a trade official in the Obama administration who now runs the China Moon Strategies consultancy. “The idea that he was going to bring China to its knees in terms of tariffs was never going to work.”

Trump views tariffs an all-purpose economic tool that can raise money for the U.S. Treasury, protect American industries, lure factories to the United States and pressure other countries to bend to his will, even on issues such as immigration and drug trafficking.

He used tariffs in his first term and has been even more aggressive and unpredictable about imposing them in his second. He’s slapped a 10% tariff on almost every country in the world, blowing up the rules that had governed for decades.

But it’s his trade war with China that has really put markets and businesses on edge. It started in February when he announced a 10% levy on Chinese imports. By April, Trump ratcheted up the taxes on China to a staggering 145%. Beijing upped its tariff on American products to 125%.

Trump’s escalation sent financial markets tumbling and left U.S. retailers warning that they might run out of goods as U.S.-China trade implodes. U.S. consumers, worried about the prospect of empty shelves and higher prices, are losing confidence in the .

“This was not very well planned,” said Zongyuan Zoe Liu, senior fellow in China studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. “I don’t think he intended to have the tariffs escalate into this chaos.”

China was ready for a rematch

When Trump hit Chinese imports with tariffs during his first term, he charged that Beijing used unfair tactics, including cybertheft, to give its technology firms an edge.

The two countries reached a truce – the so-called Phase One agreement — in January 2020; China agreed to buy more U.S. products, and Trump held off on even higher tariffs. But they didn’t resolve the big issues dividing them, including China’s subsidies of homegrown tech firms.

China was ready for a rematch when Trump returned to the White House. It had worked to reduce its dependence on America’s massive market, cutting the U.S. share of its exports to 15% last year from more than 19% in 2018, according to Dexter Roberts of the Atlantic Council.

Beijing is confident that the Chinese people are more willing than Americans to endure the fallout from a trade war, including falling exports and shuttered factories. “For China, it’s painful, but it’s also imperative to withstand it, and it’s prepared to cope with it,” said Sun Yun, director of the China program at the Stimson Center.

Dependency works both ways

In addition to miscalculating Chinese resolve, the Trump administration may have underestimated how much America relies on China.

For decades, Americans have come to depend on Chinese factories. They produce 97% of America’s imported baby carriages, 96% of its artificial flowers and umbrellas, 95% of its fireworks, 93% of its children’s coloring books and 90% of its combs.

“Without us, what do they have to sell?” Chinese toymaker Cheng Zhengren told Beijing News. “Their shelves would be empty.”

The showerhead company Afina last month reported on an experiment suggesting that American consumers have little willingness to pay more for American-made products. Afina makes a filtered showerhead in China and Vietnam that retails for $129. Making the same product in America would lift the price to $239. When customers on the company’s website were given a choice between them, 584 chose the cheap Asian one; not one opted for the costlier U.S.-made version.

And it’s not just consumers who depend on China. America’s own factories do, too. The National Association of Manufacturers calculates that 47% of U.S. imports from China in 2023 were “manufacturing inputs” – industrial supplies, auto parts and capital equipment that American manufacturers used to make other their own products domestically. So Trump’s tariffs risk raising costs and reducing supplies that U.S. factories rely on, making them less competitive.

Louise Loo, China economist at Oxford Economics, a consulting firm, said that China’s ability to reduce its dependence on the U.S. market in recent years means “they’re probably likely to be able to find substitutes for buyers, much easier than the U.S. side will be able to find suppliers.”

Still, China won’t emerge from a trade war unscathed either. Citing the impact of the trade war, the International Monetary Fund last month downgraded the outlook for the Chinese economy this year and next.

“China needs the United States of America,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at Friday’s news briefing. “They need our markets. They need our consumer base. And Secretary Bessent knows that he’s going to Switzerland this weekend with the full support and confidence and trust of the president here at home.”

Indeed Moon, who also served as a diplomat in China, noted that the tariffs cut both ways: “Both of them are highly dependent on bilateral trade. They have put themselves in a corner.”

Jens Eskelun, president of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China, expressed relief that U.S. and Chinese officials were meeting.

“So good,” he said, pointing to the Vatican conclave that just picked a new pope as inspiration. “Lock them in a room and then hopefully white smoke will come out.”

Two dolls instead of 30? Toys become the latest symbol of Trump’s trade war

In Brief:
  • Trump downplays doll tariff impact, sparking backlash
  • Nearly 80% of U.S. toys are made in
  • Industry warns of holiday shortages and rising prices
  • Toy makers urge quick resolution to U.S.-

NEW YORK (AP) — ‘s tariffs crusade has taken aim at a number of foreign goods, from European wines and car parts from Mexico to films made abroad. Lately, the president’s wandering ire has found another rhetorical poster child: toy .

Trump asserted that children will be fine having two dolls — perhaps three or five — instead of 30 if U.S. increase consumer prices. The response on social media included memes of him portrayed as the Grinch and photos of a young Barron Trump’s child-sized Mercedes convertible.

“COMPLETELY out of touch,” The Loyal Subjects CEO Jonathan Cathey, whose collectible toy company in Los Angeles produces Strawberry Shortcake and dolls, wrote on Linkedin. “If that ain’t a ‘Let them eat cake’ moment shot through the echoes of history? Love how toys and dolls have become THE martyr metaphor for this nonsensical trade war incoherence.”

The president’s comments also touched a nerve with parents, both ones who took offense at the casual way he hypothesized that perhaps “two dolls will cost a couple bucks more” and those who acknowledged their own kids have more toys than they need.

Either way, the U.S. toy industry has a lot riding on a possible deescalation of the tariff standoff between the Trump administration and the government in Beijing. Nearly 80% of the toys sold in the U.S. come from China.

The Toy Association, a trade group, has lobbied for an immediate reprieve from the 145% tariff rate the president put on Chinese-made products. Some toy companies warn the likelihood of holiday shortages increases each week the tariff remains in effect.

Here’s a snapshot of the doll debate and how tariffs are impacting toys:

How much is the US doll market worth?

From Barbie, Bratz and Cabbage Patch Kids to Adora baby dolls, and Our Generation, dolls are a big business in the U.S. as well as beloved playthings.

The doll category, which includes accessories like clothes, generated U.S. sales of $2.7 billion last year compared to $2.9 billion in 2023 and $3.4 billion in 2019, according to market research firm Circana.

Consumers splurged on toys during the height of the COVID pandemic to keep children and themselves occupied, but sales flattened as inflation seized the .

Younger girls becoming more interested in buying makeup and skincare also has cooled the demand for dolls, Marshal Cohen, Circana’s chief retail advisor, said.

What are toy companies doing to navigate tariffs?
The nation’s largest toy maker, Mattel, said this week it would have to raise prices for some products sold in the U.S. to offset higher costs related to tariffs.

The company, whose brands include Barbie and American Girl, said the increases were necessary even though it’s speeding up the expansion of its manufacturing base outside of China.

Smaller toy companies are expected to have a harder time than Mattel and Hasbro, which makes the eating, drinking and diaper-wetting Baby Alive. Cathey said he paused The Loyal Subjects’ shipments from China in April because he couldn’t pay the stratospheric tariff they would have incurred.

“Nobody insulates themselves with that much cash,” he said.

With about four months’ worth of inventory on hand, Cathey said his ability to secure holiday stock depends on a break in the standoff happening in the next two weeks since it would take time for cargo operations to resume.

Cepia, a Missouri company that was behind the 2009 holiday season hit Zhu Zhu Pets, launched a line of 11-inch fashion dolls called Decora Girlz last year. CEO James Russell Hornsby said he was working to relocate some production but the move won’t happen in time to replace the orders he planned to get from China.

Hornsby described himself as a Trump supporter and said he understands the administration’s desire to reduce trade imbalances.

“Let’s just get the deals done and stop all this because (Trump’s) disrupting Christmas,” he said.

What goes into making a doll?

Although American Girl launched in 1986 with a line based on fictional historical characters, the dolls never were domestic products. They were made in Germany before production eventually moved to China.

Toy experts say that in addition to lower costs, Chinese factories have developed techniques and expertise that are not easily replicated.

“We don’t have any capacity in the U.S. to make rooted doll hair. And then you’ve got things like the faces. Some of them are hand-painted, others are done with a Tampo (printing) machine,” James Zahn, editor-in-chief of industry publication The Toy Book, said of doll-making.

Hornsby said rooting the synthetic hair onto the heads of Decora Girlz dolls is carried out by skilled workers at factories in Guangzhou and Dongguan, China.

“It’s not just sticking into a machine and it automatically does it,” he said. ”You have to know what you’re doing in order to make that doll look like it’s got a full set of hair when literally maybe only 60% of the head is filled with hair.”

Are toys from China safe?

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller said last week that he assumes consumers would prefer to pay more for American-made products. Dolls made in China might have lead paint in them, he said.

Teresa Murray, consumer watchdog director at the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, said the picture is more complicated.

Products for children ages 12 and under require third-party testing and certification from labs approved by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, the agency tasked with enforcing lead levels in toys, Murray said.

The rules apply to all products sold in the U.S. Toys by major brands such as Fisher-Price, Mattel, Hasbro and Lego, which have long outsourced manufacturing to China, are usually in compliance, she said.

But the rise of online shopping, including e-commerce platforms that ship directly to U.S. consumers from overseas, has posed a challenge, according to Murray. When valued at less than $800, such parcels entered the U.S. duty-free and were not subject to the same scrutiny as bulk imports, she said.

The White House eliminated the customs exemption starting May 2 for low-value parcels that originated in mainland China and Hong Kong. U.S Customs and Border Protection expects additional oversight will make it easier to flag problems.

Toy companies and industry experts argue the high tariffs on Chinese imports will tempt price-sensitive shoppers to search for cheap that carry higher safety risks.

Can children have too many dolls?

Plenty of people agree American consumer culture has gotten out of hand, in large part due to prices kept low through the labor of foreign factory workers who earn much less than they would in the U.S.

Katie Walley-Wiegert, 38, a senior marketer in Richmond, Virginia, and the parent of a 2-year-old son, agrees there’s too much materialism but thinks parents should have choices when deciding what is best for their children. She found the wealthy Trump’s comments off-putting.

“I think it is a small view of what purchase habits and realities are for people who buy toys for kids,” Walley-Wiegert said.

San Francisco resident Elenor Mak, who founded the Jilly Bing doll company after she couldn’t find an Asian American doll for her daughter, Jillian, now 5, said the president’s remarks upset her because some families struggle to buy even one doll.

The trade war with China “just makes it even more impossible for those families,” Mak said.