Trade

Good morning. U.S. and Chinese trade will loom large over talks among Latin American leaders in Peru today, as a heated dispute between the world’s two biggest economies fans fears of a trade war.

Throughout U.S. farm country, where Trump has enjoyed strong support, tariffs on steel and aluminum imports are boosting costs for equipment and infrastructure, according to Reuters’ interviews with farmers, manufacturers, construction firms and food shippers.

A car valve, the size of a thumb - used in car braking systems assembled in U.S. plants - is an example of a product in China’s ‘workshop of the world’ caught up in the storm of trade war fears.

China’s rising investment in research and expansion of its higher education system mean that it is fast closing the gap with the United States in intellectual property and the struggle to be the No.1 global technology power, according to patent experts.

Russia

Russia UN envoy urges #US, allies not to bomb #Syria over suspected chemical weapons attack, says ‘cannot exclude' war between #Russia and #US https://t.co/98o3MWRU7C

8:26 PM - 12 Apr, 2018

The prospect of Western military action in Syria that could lead to confrontation with Russia hung over the Middle East but there was no clear sign that a U.S.-led attack was imminent.
International chemical weapons experts were traveling to Syria to investigate an alleged gas attack by government forces on the town of Douma which killed dozens of people.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said international relations should not depend on the mood of one person when he wakes up in the morning, in apparent reference to Trump.

Russia’s lower house of parliament is to consider draft legislation that would give the Kremlin powers to ban or restrict a list of U.S. imports, reacting to new U.S. sanctions on a group of Russian tycoons and officials.