Canadian manufacturing activity contracted in April at the steepest rate since shortly after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic as the uncertain nature of U.S. trade policy weighed on production and new orders, Reuters reported. The S&P Global Canada Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) fell to 45.3 last month from 46.3 in March, its lowest level since May 2020. A reading below 50 indicates contraction in the sector.

U.S. tariff negotiators appeared reluctant to lower levies on cars, steel and aluminium in a recent meeting with Japanese counterparts - a stance that made the Japanese side feel that cooperation could be difficult, the Nikkei newspaper reported on Friday, Reuters reported. U.S. negotiators including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent met with Japan's top trade negotiator, Ryosei Akazawa and other Japanese officials in Washington on Thursday and presented a proposed framework for a trade agreement, the paper said.

Small-value packages shipped to the US from China will no longer be exempted from tariffs starting Friday, when President Donald Trump’s move against an exception he called a “big scam” takes effect, Bloomberg News reported. The decision to end the so-called “de minimis” exception is expected to have wide-ranging effects on American consumers who have increasingly purchased cheap clothing, household goods and other products from discount Chinese marketplaces such as Temu and Shein Group Ltd. It could also deal a heavy blow to independent online sellers who rely on Chinese imports.

Brazilian airline Gol on Thursday announced that it has struck a new deal with key creditors, paving the way for the company to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection likely by the end of June, Reuters reported. The agreement, which involves investors holding a portion of the airline's senior secured notes due in 2026, will provide $125 million in financing, according to a regulatory filing. With the new development, Gol has now secured at least $1.375 billion in financing to exit bankruptcy, the filing showed.

Canadian electric bus and truck maker Lion Electric Co. is unlikely to survive as the Quebec government turned down an opportunity to put money into the firm along with local investors, Bloomberg News reported. “We believed in Lion’s potential, but the recovery plan submitted did not justify the re-injection of significant government sums,” provincial Economy Minister Christine Frechette said in a post on X.

The end may very well be near for Li-Cycle Holdings Corp. and its stalled Rochester Hub, the Rochester Business Journal reported. The Toronto-based lithium-ion battery resource recovery firm announced this morning that the business and all assets are for sale, as a whole or any part, and bankruptcy may be necessary if a buyer isn’t found. “Li-Cycle requires additional financing to meet its obligations and repay its liabilities arising from the ordinary course of business operations when they become due in order to continue,” the company statement says.

Vancouver-based real estate developer Landmark Premiere Properties is the subject of a second insolvency proceeding that was initiated earlier this month, according to filings in the Supreme Court of British Columbia obtained by STOREYS.com. The subject properties are 745 W 41st Avenue, 715 W 41st Avenue, and 5693 Heather Street in Vancouver. The parcels are three of the five parcels that make up the block between Baillie Street and Heather Street along W 41st Avenue, right across the street from Oakridge Park.

Mexico’s economy posted a slight expansion in the first quarter, allowing President Claudia Sheinbaum to avoid recession as she steers the nation through an unpredictable US tariff policy, Bloomberg News reported. Gross domestic product grew 0.2% in the three months through March, above the 0.1% median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg, after a 0.6% decline in the prior quarter. From a year before, GDP expanded 0.8%, higher than the 0.7% median estimate, according to preliminary data published Wednesday by the national statistics institute.

A 46-year-old Canadian trucking company has been put into receivership at the request of Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), which said the carrier owes it $6.7 million, FreightWaves.com reported. Kingsley Trucking ceased operations on Thursday, the same day that the British Columbia Supreme Court placed the carrier into receivership due to the company’s being “unable to secure a transaction, financing, or other arrangement to address the defaults or repay the Indebtedness owing to the Bank,” according to court filings. The Vancouver Island-based trucking company was founded in 1979.

Ireland’s economy surged in the three months through March as U.S. pharmaceutical giants based in the country boosted production to build stockpiles back home ahead of threatened tariffs, the Wall Street Journal reported. Ireland’s strong start to the year, alongside a pickup in Belgium, supported eurozone growth as 2025 got underway, with figures for the currency area to be released Wednesday. Spain, which also released figures Tuesday, recorded a slight slowdown, while continuing to grow at a robust pace. However, high levels of production to build reserves of drugs in the U.S.