Fijian parliament speaker on China trip, bilateral ties

Fijian Speaker of Parliament Filimone Jitoko said his recent trip to China had been fruitful and expressed his country's willingness to intensify the relationship and cooperation with China.

Jitoko led a delegation to visit China from March 16 to 22 at the invitation of Zhao Leji, chairman of the National People's Congress Standing Committee.

During the trip, Jitoko visited China's financial hub Shanghai, Shaanxi Province in the southwest that is home to the famed Terracotta Warriors, and Beijing, where he learned about China's innovation and exploration in such fields as democracy, the rule of law, rural revitalization, and inheritance of cultural heritage.

"We indeed have been here for six days, and our delegation has been to the three centers that you've spoken right now in Shanghai and Shaanxi, and finally here in the capital. In the process, we've looked at the certain areas of developments in the sectors [in] which they occur, and hopefully learn or take something away and reinforce with our belief that our bilateral assistance between the two countries will help us in realizing those development needs in those areas which we have identified," he said in an exclusive interview with China Media Group in Beijing.

Fiji is the first Pacific island country to establish diplomatic ties with the People's Republic of China. Since the establishment of diplomatic ties 50 years ago, China and Fiji have built political mutual trust, conducted practical cooperation, and carried out people-to-people exchanges with fruitful results.

"We would like to intensify the relationship between our two countries in our bilateral [relationship] in all the sectors which we had started our discussion on. The sectors of all the agricultural, fisheries, infrastructure, road building and all of those are there to be further discussed by our people in the coming months, in the coming year," Jitoko said.

Noting that the one-China principle has always been the cornerstone of China-Fiji relations, Jitoko said Fiji will continue to take it as the guiding principle for bilateral ties.

"We adhere to it. We have confirmed [it] every time. We have a discussion that it is a guiding principle of our bilateral relationship with China. And we have never deviated from it in the past, so that still remains and continues to remain as our guiding foreign policy in our relationship with China," he said.

Fijian parliament speaker on China trip, bilateral ties

Los Angeles is grappling with rising costs and delays in its wildfire recovery process, as tariffs on construction materials imposed during the Trump administration compound the challenges.

The devastating wildfires recently destroyed over 17,000 homes and businesses, leaving communities urgently pushing forward with reconstruction.

The Trump administration has recently rolled out new tariffs on a wide range of construction materials, including steel and aluminum, from the main trading partners of the United States, such as Canada, Mexico, and China. This has significantly driven up costs, further complicating the recovery efforts

"As the city and county of Los Angeles move aggressively to rebuild the wildfire areas in Malibu, Pacific Palisades, and up in Altadena, to build those houses, we need softwood lumber, aluminum, and steel from Canada," said Gene Soroka, executive director of Port of Los Angeles.

While the tariffs aim to boost domestic production, the transition will take time. In the interim, the shortage of materials is creating ripple effects across the construction sector.

"We are still handling a lot of imported steel, despite the tariffs because there's not enough American manufacturing of steel right now. So, one of the unintended consequences that this has done the wrong way is you don't have enough steel. That impacts construction, that impacts economic growth across the board," said Weston Labar, chief strategy office of Waterfront Logistics.

According to the Associated General Contractors of America, housing costs could skyrocket by almost 50 percent, widening the gap between insurance payouts and actual rebuilding expenses. It may force many homeowners to delay or even abandon their reconstruction plans, prolonging the housing shortage in Los Angeles.

Tariffs are also driving up prices for other products, impacting recovery efforts.

"We need appliances from Mexico, furniture from China, and all of those prices are going up, whether anticipatory, or real as these imports are coming across our port complex. So, we've got to have some pretty detailed discussions about this because families who want to rebuild, businesses who want to get back into the office are going to be impacted by these tariffs one way or another," said Soroka.

As Los Angeles strives to recover, the economic uncertainty caused by tariffs presents a formidable obstacle.

Tariffs add strain to Los Angeles wildfire recovery efforts