Rio Tinto's Mongolian comfort zone is shaken www.afr.com

President: Mongolia is utilizing its resources, but not effectively www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ President Kh.Battulga has stressed the growing need for optimizing Mongolia's natural resource management policy.

Prime Minister U.Khurelsukh arrives in Beijing www.montsame.mn

Beijing/MONTSAME/ Mongolia’s Prime Minister U.Khurelsukh arrived in Beijing yesterday evening, April 8, to pay an official visit to the People’s Republic of China at the invitation of Li Keqiang, Premier of the State Council.

Czech to provide assistance for winter sports palace www.theubpost.mn

Member of Parliament B.Javkhlan received Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary from Czech Republic Jiri Brodsky and exchanged opinions on cooperation in the development of winter sports and the establishment of a winter sports palace in Mongolia.

Russia and Mongolia elaborate new military cooperation program www.armyrecognition.com

Russia and Mongolia are elaborating a new military and technical cooperation program for 2019-2024, Mongolian Defense Minister Nyamaagiin Enkhbold said. According to the Mongolian defense minister, the Mongolian government regards relations with Russia as a priority and is pursuing a policy to establish strategic partnership with Russia.

List of Russian businessmen & companies added to US sanctions www.rt.com

The Trump administration issued an expanded list of sanctions on Friday against Russian businessmen and companies. In all, the Treasury Department included 12 businessmen and the companies they control.

Mongolia to open embassy in Kyrgyzstan www.xinhuanet.com

ULAN BATOR, April 6 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia's State Great Khural, or the parliament, said Friday that it had passed a draft resolution to expand its consulate general into an embassy in Bishkek, capital of Kyrgyzstan.

President receives UK Trade Envoy Julian Knight www.president.mn

President of Mongolia Khaltmaagiin Battulga received today Mr. Julian Knight, the UK Trade Envoy to Mongolia and MP.

Upon welcoming the latter, the President congratulated Mr. Knight for being appointed the Trade Envoy at the order of the UK Prime Minister Teresa May, and wished success. “I do not doubt that your appointment as the Trade Envoy to Mongolia will be a strong impetus to deepening and broadening economic and commercial cooperation of the two countries,” President Battulga highlighted.

Mr. Julian Knight thanked the President for his time and said “Our PM Teresa May is placing a great importance on the 55th anniversary of diplomatic relations of Mongolia and the UK and offered me to work as a Trade Envoy yo Mongolia. I accepted this offer with pleasure. It is a common practice for a Trade Envoy to manage trade relations with 2-3 countries. As a trade envoy, managing the relations with only Mongolia indicates a great gesture.”

He pledged to put maximum effort to broadening bilateral trade and economic cooperation. Mr. Knight shared that he met with the affiliated Minister and discussed cooperation in mining sector, as “the sector takes up a major position in bilateral relations”. Mr.Knight underlined the two countries have full potential to collaborate in diversifying Mongolia’s economy, while mentioning that he is familiar with the President’s commitment to economic diversification.

President confirmed that the two countries have potential to cooperate in mining. However, he said, “it is not preferable to emphasize mining. There is now a big gap between rich and poor, in other words, “resource curse” has befallen of Mongolia. In order to tackle this problem, we have been turning to our other major economic sectors such as tourism and agriculture. Mongolia has more than 60 million heads of livestock, and nearly 10 thousand tons of cashmere is “exploited” every year. This is 60 percent of the world cashmere market. If you are willing to cooperate with us in this area, we have the raw material. In a presence of processing industry and well-managed marketing, the sector is promising enough to become as large as Oyu Tolgoi. It’s safe to say we do not have a competitor in this,” the President said and wished the Envoy to pay more attention to this sector.

Mr. Knight accepted the President’s suggestion and mentioned the possibilities of selling Mongolian-made cashmere products in Great Britain. The sides further touched upon the impacts of the latest trade deals of the US and the People’s Republic of China on Mongolia.

Trade turnover between Mongolia and UK reached USD 689.9 million in 2017, in which exports made up 660.5 million and imports, 29.4 million. This represents 24 percent increase against the previous year’s performance. Between 1990-2014, UK investments worth USD 116.8 million were registered. The amount constitutes for 0.82 percent of total foreign investment in Mongolia. Thus, UK is ranking at 14th place out of 112 countries investing in Mongolia.

Julian Knight was appointed Trade Envoy of the United Kingdom to Mongolia last January. It is a custom for the British Government to appoint a Trade Envoy to represent the Prime Minister in order to activate commercial and economic interaction with another country. The United Kingdom has appointed 30 Trade Envoys, thus far, to manage trade relations with 59 countries.

Trump threatens further $100bn in tariffs against China www.bbc.com

US President Donald Trump has instructed officials to consider a further $100bn (£71.3bn) of tariffs against China, in an escalation of a tense trade stand-off.

These would be in addition to the $50bn worth of US tariffs already proposed on hundreds of Chinese imports.

The proposal comes after China retaliated to that by threatening tariffs on 106 key US products.

The tit-for-tat moves have unsettled global markets in recent weeks.

Analysts have said a full blown trade war between the US and China would not be good for the global economy or markets - and that ongoing behind-the-scenes negotiations between the two giants were crucial.

But market reaction in Asia trade on Friday suggested investors were not too troubled by the latest twist, and that trade war fears were somewhat exaggerated.

In China, Hong Kong's Hang Seng was in positive territory, up 1.3%. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 was also trading higher in the afternoon session.

How has this unfolded?
Earlier this year, the US announced it would impose import taxes of 25% on steel and 10% on aluminium. The tariffs would be wide ranging and would include China.

China responded this month with retaliatory tariffs worth $3bn of its own against the US on a range of goods, including pork and wine. Beijing said the move was intended to safeguard its interests and balance losses caused by the new tariffs.

Meanwhile, there had been rumblings the US was preparing to slap between $50bn and $60bn worth of tariffs on Chinese-made goods in response to unfair Chinese intellectual property practices, such as those that pressure US companies to share technology with Chinese firms.

The draft details of those import taxes were released last week when Washington set out about 1,300 Chinese products it intended to hit with tariffs set at 25% worth some $50bn.

China responded swiftly by proposing retaliatory tariffs, also worth some $50bn, on 106 key US products, including soybeans, aircraft parts and orange juice. This set of tariffs was narrowly aimed at politically important sectors in the US, such as agriculture.

In Mr Trump's Thursday statement he branded that retaliation by Beijing as "unfair".

"Rather than remedy its misconduct, China has chosen to harm our farmers and manufacturers," he said.

"In light of China's unfair retaliation, I have instructed the USTR (United States Trade Representative) to consider whether $100bn of additional tariffs would be appropriate... and, if so, to identify the products upon which to impose such tariffs."

He said he had also instructed agricultural officials to implement a plan to protect US farmers and agricultural interests.

The threats sound strident but the actual impact is far from clear or straightforward - and will vary dramatically from product to product.

To get a sense of how things might play out, let's take soybeans as an example.

China, which is a big producer of soybeans itself, also buys about 60% of all soybeans exported by the US.

It uses the product to feed farmed animals, including pigs and chickens, as well as fish. Those animals are in turn used to help feed China's enormous population.

China's demand for soybeans and soybean products has buoyed the price of US soybeans for some time.

But Beijing's tariffs against US soybeans will mostly likely see sales to China fall off, which will in turn hurt American farmers.

Many of US farmers could then be forced to switch to other crops - very few of which are as lucrative.

Soybean producing areas in the US are filled with famers who voted for Mr Trump, and so some of them are now less than happy with their president.

Meanwhile, China will need to set about sourcing the extra soybeans it needs from other countries.

India is one of the world's biggest soybean producers, and analysts there have already pointed to a potential trade war between the US and China as an opportunity for its economy.

Other big soybean producers are Argentina and Brazil, and some studies suggest that is where China will turn to should the current set of proposed tariffs come into force.

But it could end up paying more than it currently does, ultimately forcing up the price of those animals which eat soybean products. So that would mean pork, for example, China's most popular meat, could get more expensive. And food price inflation is something that will worry Beijing.

Beijing Deals
What China sells to the US
$462.6bn

The value of of goods bought by the US from China in 2016.

18.2% of all China's exports go to the United States

$129bn worth of China-made electrical machinery bought by US

59.2% growth in Chinese services imported by US between 2006 & 2016

$347bn US goods trade deficit with China

How long could this last?
China has initiated a complaint with the World Trade Organisation over the US tariffs, in what analysts say is a sign that this will be a protracted process.

The WTO circulated the request for consultation to members on Thursday, launching a discussion period before the complaint heads to formal dispute settlement process.

Meanwhile, under US law, the proposed set of tariffs against about 1,300 Chinese products must now go under review, including a public notice and comment process, and a hearing.

The hearing is scheduled at the moment for 15 May, with post-hearing filings due a week later.

So, it could be some months before the USTR will announce its final findings or any decision on whether or not it will move ahead with the proposed tariffs.

Turkish PM arrives in Mongolia www.aa.com.tr

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim arrived in the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar early Friday for a two-day visit.