Good day,
Renegotiations on the U.S.-China trade tariffs are set to happen today at Washington, with the scope of the meeting dramatically different from what it was just a week back. Over this weekend, President Trump tweeted that he would significantly raise tariffs on Chinese goods, accusing China of playing hardball and deliberately slowing down the progress of trade talks.
Following this, the U.S. filed paperwork on May 8 to raise tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods from the current 10 percent to 25 percent from May 10. The Chinese Commerce Ministry has hit back by threatening to retaliate in kind, although it has not outlined any specific countermeasures as yet. For now, the future of deal that was painstakingly put together over months of meetings looks hazy, and it needs to be seen if the meeting held later today can help save it, at least partially.
Did you know?
In March, the biggest oil importers in Asia — China, India, Japan, and South Korea — collectively bought 1.57 million bpd of oil from Iran, a 36 percent surge over February 2019.
Quotable
“The move has the potential to bring significant production and electric vehicle assembly jobs to the plant.”
– General Motors, in a statement on its plans to sell its Ohio assembly plant to electric-truck maker Workhorse Group Inc.
In other news
The biggest catalyst in oil markets is going unnoticed
Oil prices have fallen sharply on fears of a global economic slowdown, but the markets are overlooking the possibility of a serious outage in Libya as civil war drags on. (Oilprice)
What Waymo and Lyft partnership means for transportation
Lyft and Waymo are teaming up to bring the latter’s autonomous vehicles to the former’s network of ride-hailing. (TheStreet)
Bird has a new electric scooter and you can buy it
Bird One will be rolled out in cities soon and available to purchase for $1,299. (The Verge)
How Amazon, scourge of physical retailers, is doubling down on physical retail
Amazon brought its cashier-less Amazon Go store concept to New York City on Tuesday, with a twist—this Go store accepts cash. (Yahoo Finance)
Kargo is disrupting logistics in Myanmar, one of the world’s most challenging countries
Kargo, a company that takes the spirit of Uber and brings it to the disorganized world of trucking, has raised SG$800,000 (US$580,000) in a round of funding. (TechCrunch)
Final Thoughts
Just as Uber contends with Lyft in the U.S. to gain ground across several mobility niches, Uber finds itself in a similar spot in India, tussling with home-grown rival Ola to gain market share in what potentially could be its world’s largest market by ride volume. And like in the U.S., the war for market dominance has reached the micro mobility vertical, with both the companies investing heavily into electric scooter and bicycle startups, that predominantly cater to people in urban settings.
Uber has partnered with Yulu, a bicycle sharing platform, to provide dockless bikes across the city of Bangalore. Uber users can rent Yulu bikes through the Uber app, just by following a few prompts on their screen and going to a nearby location to pick up the bike. Meanwhile, Ola has invested $100 million in electric bike-rental startup VOGO, which currently has around 10,000 bikes running on the Indian roads. Nonetheless, to be listed on the Ola app, VOGO would have to increase its bike strength to 100,000 by the end of this year.
Hammer down everyone!