Bob James’ Spanish News Headlines – Visual format – Dateline: 03/04/25 – Latest
World leaders began responding after U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled global reciprocal trade tariffs last night.
Trump said he would impose a 10% baseline tariff on all imports to the United States and higher duties on some of the country’s biggest trading partners, in a move that ratchets up a trade war that he kicked off on his return to the White House.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said “Spain will protect its companies and workers and will continue to be committed to an open world.”
The Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo said his government is ready to take action to protect the country’s companies and consumers from the effects of the new tariffs .. he said they are “unfair and unjustified,” in an interview.
The European Union is eager to negotiate to avoid a trade war though would have to retaliate if there is no room for negotiation, Cuerpo said.
And European shares slumped to a two-month low this morning with Germany hit the hardest.
The pan-European STOXX 600 dropped 1.7% with German equities shedding 2.4%,.
Euro zone banks, sensitive to the economic outlook, dropped 3.1% as traders ramped up bets of interest rate cuts from the European Central Bank.
Stockpiles of wine in the Rioja region have swelled since the pandemic, but producers’ hopes of offloading their reds into the U.S. market were dimming ahead of Donald Trump’s “liberation day” tariffs announcement.
Sales of Rioja both domestically and abroad, increased 0.6% last year from the previous year.
Given that worldwide consumption of wine has fallen, that was a significant performance so a spokesperson for the Rioja regulator council said.
The U.S. is the second largest export market for Rioja wines after the UK with sales there representing 4% of overall production.
Well-known Spanish climber Carlos Suarez, 52, died yesterday in a wingsuit accident. He was performing a stunt for a film about his own life of solo climbing and extreme BASE jumping.
The film “The Wild Beast” was also supposed to document the adventurous lives and premature deaths of a group of close friends.
The accident took place during the pre-production phase while Suarez and other wingsuit pilots were filming some scenes.
They reportedly made a group jump from a hot-air balloon.
Suarez’s parachute and his reserve didn’t open properly, and he crashed to the ground..
An investigation into the accident is ongoing. The production was scheduled to start in May, and Disney was to distribute it next year.
Spain’s service sector’s activity kept expanding in March albeit at its slowest pace since November so a survey showed this morning.
The Services PMI Business Activity Index fell to 54.7 in March from 56.2 in February, according to S&P Global. The index was still above the 50 threshold which signals growth.
That’s the latest from TRE, I’m Bob James.
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