Things To Do In SW Florida

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER, AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s expansive new tariffs flips on its head a decades-long global trend of lower trade barriers and is likely, economists say, to raise prices for Americans by thousands of dollars each year while sharply slowing the U.S. economy.

The White House is gambling that other countries will also suffer enough pain that they will open up their economies to more American exports, leading to negotiations that would reduce the tariffs imposed Wednesday. Or, the White House hopes, more companies — both American and foreign — will reverse their moves toward global supply chains and bring more production to the United States to avoid higher import taxes.

But a key question for the Trump administration will be how Americans react to the tariffs. If prices rise noticeably and jobs are lost, voters could turn against the duties and make it harder to keep them in place for the length of time needed to encourage companies to return to the U.S. read more

By ROB GILLIES

TORONTO (AP) — Prime Minister Mark Carney said Thursday that Canada will match U.S. President Donald Trump’s 25% auto tariffs with a tariff on vehicles imported from the United States.

Trump’s previously announced 25% tariffs on auto imports took effect Thursday. The prime minister said he told Trump last week in a phone call that he would be retaliating for those tariffs.

“We take these measures reluctantly. And we take them in ways that is intended and will cause maximum impact in the United States and minimum impact in Canada,” Carney said.

Carney said Canada won’t put tariffs on auto parts as Trump has done, because he said Canadians know the benefits of the integrated auto sector. The parts can go back and forth across the Canada-U.S. border several times before being fully assembled in Ontario or Michigan.

Carney said Canadians are already seeing the impact.

Related Articles

Creating and sharing deceptive AI-generated media is now a crime in New Jersey

Trump’s tariff push is a race against time, and potential voter backlash read more

By KEVIN FREKING

WASHINGTON (AP) — An obscure but consequential bookkeeping matter has become the latest flashpoint in Congress as Republicans labor to enact President Donald Trump’s sprawling tax cut agenda.

Related Articles

• 
  These are the places affected by Trump’s tariffs

• 
  Trump’s tariff push is a race against time, and potential voter backlash

• 
  Trump’s changes to the federal government aren’t yet a clear political winner or loser: AP-NORC poll

• 
  Trump ordered to pay legal bill of UK firm he sued over Russia dossier

• 
  Analysis: Elections in Florida and Wisconsin confirm changed political environment

Senate Republicans are looking to change how extending many of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts would be scored when it comes to future federal deficits. The Congressional Budget Office has projected that extending the cuts would increase deficits by nearly $4 trillion over the coming decade.

Democrats accuse Republicans of violating Senate norms with the move. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., says Republicans are going “nuclear,” blowing up the institution’s rules. read more

By ALEX VEIGA, AP Business Writer

The average rate on a 30-year mortgage in the U.S. edged lower for the second week in a row, a modest but welcome boost for prospective home shoppers in the midst of the spring homebuying season.

The rate fell to 6.64% from 6.65% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. A year ago, the rate averaged 6.82%.

The average rate has mostly trended lower since reaching just over 7% in mid-January. When mortgage rates decline, they boost homebuyers’ purchasing power.

Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, popular with homeowners refinancing their home loans, also fell this week, pulling the average rate down to 5.82% from 5.89% last week. A year ago, it averaged 6.06%, Freddie Mac said.

Mortgage rates are influenced by factors including bond market investors’ expectations for future inflation, global demand for U.S. Treasurys and the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policy decisions.

The overall decline this year in the average rate on a 30-year mortgage loosely follows moves in the 10-year Treasury yield, which lenders use as a guide to pricing home loans. read more

By ALEXANDRA OLSON and CLAIRE SAVAGE, AP Business Writers

ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) — The acting chief of the top federal agency for protecting worker rights has signaled a pivot toward prioritizing President Donald Trump’s campaign to stamp out diversity, equity and inclusion programs in the private and public sectors.

The initial steps taken by Andrea Lucas, acting chief of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, have earned her strong backing from the Trump administration, which has moved against DEI through embattled executive orders that dismantled programs at federal agencies and threatened investigations and stiff financial penalties for federal contractors that engage in “illegal” diversity-related practices. Trump recently nominated Lucas, who has long been an outspoken critic DEI practices she argues result in discriminatory employment preferences, to a new five-year term as commissioner.

But former Democratic EEOC officials and prominent civil rights groups have accused Lucas of taking shortcuts that supersede her authority and they have urged employers to be wary of her directives and guidance, if not altogether ignore them. read more