Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and China's Premier Li Qiang have agreed to boost trade and investment ties between the two countries during a meeting on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Brazil,

The US president's tariff regime has up-ended global markets, disrupted businesses and thrown international trade into uncertainty and today's deadline is unlikely to put an end to it.

Its new deal with Vietnam and its fresh tariff threats issued to many other countries seem designed to reduce China’s role in their supply chain. Countries that had hoped to stay out of the new cold war now fear they are being forced to pick a side. To appease the world’s biggest market, they must anger the world’s biggest trader.