President Donald Trump signed a New Year's Eve proclamation delaying increased tariffs on upholstered furniture, kitchen cabinets and vanities for a year, citing ongoing trade talks, the Associated Press reported. Trump's order signed Wednesday keeps in place a 25% tariff he imposed in September on those goods, but delays for another year a 30% tariff on upholstered furniture and 50% tariff on kitchen cabinets and vanities. The increases, which were set to take effect Jan.

Italy's foreign ministry said on Thursday the United States had sharply lowered proposed duties ​on several Italian pasta makers following a reassessment of ‌their U.S. activities, Reuters reported. In October, the United States said that 13 Italian pasta companies ‌would face an extra 92% duty - on top of the regular 15% rate on most EU imports - from January 2026, accusing two producers in particular, La Molisana and Garofalo, of selling pasta ⁠at unfairly low prices. However, ‌after a review, the U.S.

Mexico's sweeping new tariffs on imports from mostly Asian countries are ​set to take effect on Thursday, in a ‌move that will largely align Mexico with the U.S. as the neighboring countries ‌place significant barriers on Chinese imports, Reuters reported. Approved by Congress in early December, the measure raises tariffs - most up to 35% - on countries without free trade agreements with Mexico, including China, India, South ⁠Korea, Thailand and Indonesia. ‌China is expected to bear the greatest impact.

U.S. President Donald Trump is set to launch a wave of new tariffs based on alternative legislation if the Supreme Court rules against his current levies, diplomats and trade lawyers say, the Financial Times reported. The US Supreme Court is poised to rule as soon as January on the legality of the president’s use of emergency powers to hammer trading partners with tariffs, leaving the centrepiece of his economic policy hanging in the balance.

With just days remaining in 2025, the wave of airline bankruptcies affecting small and mid-sized carriers shows no sign of slowing, AirGuide.info reported. Over the past several months, multiple airlines across Europe and North America have collapsed or entered insolvency proceedings. Icelandic low-cost carrier PLAY Airlines and Sweden’s Braathens Aviation both shut down operations during the fall after filing for bankruptcy within weeks of each other. Flag carrier Air Albania has also suspended all flights since early December, following Turkish Airlines’ decision to sell its 49% stake.

Venezuela started shutting wells in a region that holds the world’s largest deposits of oil in the face of a blockade by the Trump administration meant to financially squeeze the nation, Bloomberg News reported. Petroleos de Venezuela SA began shuttering wells in the Orinoco Belt on Dec. 28 as the state-run refiner ran out of storage space and inventory swelled. PDVSA aims to reduce Orinoco Belt production by at least 25% to 500,000 barrels a day, the people said. The decrease represents a 15% cut of Venezuela’s overall output of 1.1 million barrels a day.

Bankrupt Irish property developer Sean Dunne has filed a fresh objection to the distribution of $3.8 million (€3.24 million) of the remaining assets in his dozen-year-old U.S. bankruptcy case, the Irish Times reported. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Julie A Manning, sitting in Bridgeport, Conn. last week ordered payment of $2.8 million to his two ex-wives and about another $1 million in legal fees to the US bankruptcy trustee and his lawyers.

Azul has received U.S. bankruptcy judge approval for its chapter 11 plan, clearing the way for a balance-sheet overhaul less than seven months after the Brazilian airline sought court protection, the Wall Street Journal reported. Judge Sean H. Lane of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York approved the largely consensual plan, overruling objections from the U.S. Trustee related to third-party releases, exculpation provisions and certain fees.

Gifts, grocery bills, travel expenses: holiday spending can cause many surprises and headaches for Quebec households when credit card bills arrive in January, the Canadian Press reported. The beginning of the year is a busy time for licensed insolvency trustees, as shown by statistics compiled by the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy Canada. In January 2025, the number of consumer insolvency filings in Canada increased by 20 per cent compared to the previous month.