Mexico will start consultations with the US government to explain why it considers the steel and aluminum tariffs ordered by President Donald Trump as “not justified,” said Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard, Bloomberg News reported. First, Mexico imports more steel and aluminum from the US than it exports to that country, Ebrard argued, and also the Latin American country is the main destination for US exports of steel products, “representing 52% of its global exports at the end of 2024,” he added.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Tuesday that Canada would seek to highlight the negative impact of the United States' steel and aluminium tariffs and that - if needed - the response from Canada would be firm and clear, Reuters reported. "Canadians will stand up strongly and firmly if we need to," Trudeau said at the sidelines of the Paris artificial intelligence summit. U.S. President Donald Trump raised tariffs on steel and aluminium imports on Monday to 25% without exemptions, aiming to revive the flagging sector but risking a broader trade war.

Germany's trade surplus with the United States reached a record level, data from the statistics office showed, as countries wait to learn how U.S. President Donald Trump will impose tariffs on imported goods, Reuters reported. Germany's trade surplus with the U.S. expanded to 70 billion euros ($72 billion) in 2024, well above the previous record of 63.3 billion euros reported for the full year 2023. "It would be hard to imagine worse timing," said Holger Goerg, from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW).

Sweden’s state-owned pension fund AP2 has written down its entire stake in bankrupt battery maker Northvolt AB, according to the fund’s annual report, Bloomberg News reported. AP2, which has been a shareholder of Northvolt since 2021, said the stake was worth 1.5 billion kronor ($137 million) at the beginning of 2024, corresponding to 17% of its investments in sustainable infrastructure. Northvolt filed for chapter 11 protection in the U.S. in November after a bid to secure rescue funding fell short, leaving the company with little cash and $5.8 billion in debt.

Mexico's inflationary environment is expected to allow policymakers to keep cutting the benchmark interest rate, the head of the Bank of Mexico told Reuters, as the fight to bring down inflation has entered a new phase, Reuters reported. Banxico, as the Mexican central bank is known, cut the key rate by 50 basis points to 9.50% on Thursday, double the 25-basis-point cuts it had made since it began lowering borrowing costs from a record high of 11.25% in March 2024. "Our work is not over.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday he will introduce new 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports into the U.S., on top of existing metals duties, in another major escalation of his trade policy overhaul, Reuters reported. Trump, speaking to reporters on Air Force One on his way to the NFL Super Bowl in New Orleans, said that he will announce the new metals tariffs on Monday. He also said he will announce reciprocal tariffs on Tuesday or Wednesday, to take effect almost immediately, applying them to all countries and matching the tariff rates levied by each country.

Hong Kong will file a complaint against the U.S.’s additional 10% tariff with the World Trade Organization, claiming the levies violate WTO rules, the Wall Street Journal reported. In a statement released Friday, a spokesman for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government described the tariffs as “unreasonable measures” and “grossly inconsistent with the relevant WTO rules.” The U.S. measures “ignore our status as a separate customs territory as stipulated in Article 116 of the Basic Law,” and recognized by the WTO, the spokesman said.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday signed an executive order delaying tariffs on de minimis, or low-cost, packages from China until the Commerce Department can confirm that procedures and systems are in place to process packages and collect tariff revenue, Reuters reported. Read more.