Talk World

The Unlikely Spark: EU Brandy in the Crossfire While U.S.-China-Europe trade tensions simmer over EVs, chips, and rare earths, an unexpected fuse ignited in July:  French brandy . On July 4, China’s Ministry of Commerce slapped EU brandy with  anti-dumping duties up to 34.9% , effective for five years. Overnight, French giants—Hennessy, Martell, Rémy Martin—scrambled to assess the blow. The stakes? China’s brandy market (worth $2.2B in 2025) imports over 60% from the EU, mostly France. At recent EU-China summits, talks stalled on every front: green tech tariffs, Ukraine policy, market access. Brandy became the glaring symbol of deadlock. Irony Alert: As French Wine Stumbles, Chinese Baijiu Surges Amid France’s anxiety, China’s liquor industry quietly scored a win. Baijiu exports  jumped 15% YoY  (Jan-May 2024), hitting  $400M . Why? A perfect storm: Domestic "Anti-Extravagance" Policies : Government austerity measures crashed internal demand. Export Lifeline : D...

The drama began a few weeks ago. Readers kept writing in: “Washington is on a tariff-winning streak—Japan, Europe, now South Korea. It’s tightening a noose around China. Can you explain?” My answer then was: wait. The moment Seoul showed its hand, the whole illusion would collapse. That moment arrived at dawn today. President Trump took to Truth Social and—speaking only for himself—declared that the U.S. and South Korea had “reached a deal.” The bullet points were vintage Trump: a 15 % tariff on Korean goods, $350 billion in Korean investment in the U.S., and a promise to buy $100 billion of American energy. Now that all three marquee U.S. allies have delivered their lines, we can finally pull back the curtain. What looked like a diplomatic sweep is, in fact, a three-ring circus of empty promises, mutual sabotage, and nervous back-pedaling. Act I: Japan—The Deal That Isn’t Trump’s July 22 announcement read like a surrender document: 15 % tariffs on Japanese products, $550 billion in ne...

Today, we continue our shipbuilding saga. (Quick aside on Thailand-Cambodia tensions: Think Mao’s poem –   "Lone by the pond, a tiger crouches low; Beneath green shade, its spirit starts to grow. When spring arrives and I refuse to sing, What lesser insect dares to make a thing?"   Near us, such flare-ups won’t escalate. They’ll settle soon enough. Now, back to the story!) Summary:  Few would guess that  ordinary sugar  became the bizarre, decisive weapon that propelled Japan to the pinnacle of global shipbuilding. This is how it happened. 1. MacArthur's Grand Entrance: The Actor Takes the Stage Our story opens on  September 2, 1945 , in Tokyo Bay. As detailed previously, the bay was crammed with over 200 US warships – an overwhelming display of power. Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu and Army Chief Yoshijirō Umezu boarded the USS  Missouri  to sign the Instrument of Surrender. Then entered  General Douglas MacArthur . His entrance...