Nearly five years after Ontario went into lockdown to reduce the spread of COVID-19, small businesses are still struggling to pay back their Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA) loans. Cathy Reid, who's owned Endless Tails Pet Nutrition Centre in Mississauga for 20 years, says she fears she may have to close. "Everybody wants me to stay. But, unfortunately, between this loan, rent being so high and purchasing the food … It's been a little bit difficult," she told CBC Toronto. Reid says she will be "devastated" if she has to leave her regular clientele and declare bankruptcy.

President Trump’s plan to target countries with so-called reciprocal tariffs is “a step in the wrong direction,” the European Commission said on Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported. The European Union’s executive arm said the bloc has some of the lowest tariffs in the world and sees no justification for increased U.S. tariffs on its exports. Such measures amount to a tax on U.S.

President Donald Trump on Thursday said he planned to impose tariffs on Canada and France over their digital services taxes on U.S. technology giants, which has been a long-standing irritant, Reuters reported. Canada, seeking to address the challenge of taxing digital giants like Google parent Alphabet and Amazon.com that can book their profits in low-tax countries, began imposing the tax in June last year. Trump tasked his economics team on Thursday with devising a plan to impose reciprocal tariffs on every country that levied duties on U.S. imports.

India and the U.S. agreed on Thursday to start talks to clinch an early trade deal and resolve their standoff over tariffs as New Delhi promised to buy more U.S. oil, gas and military equipment and fight illegal immigration, Reuters reported. The series of agreements emerged after talks between U.S. President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the White House, just hours after Trump railed against the climate for U.S. businesses in India and unveiled a roadmap for reciprocal tariffs on countries that put duties on U.S. imports.

S&P Global completed the list of top credit rating agencies to warn that an "unprecedented" U.S. withdrawal from the World Bank and other top multilateral lenders would damage their prized triple-A credit ratings, Reuters reported. President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order last week for a six-month review of U.S. support to all international intergovernmental organisations to decide whether it should withdraw from them, or seek their reform. S&P said the current triple-A ratings of the World Bank and other top development banks assume the U.S. remaining in place.

Investment Management Corp. of Ontario has written down its $400 million investment in Northvolt AB, the electric vehicle battery maker that filed for bankruptcy protection last year, Bloomberg News reported. The Canadian pension manager bought Northvolt convertible bonds in 2023, its largest transaction in Europe at the time. IMCO manages about C$77 billion ($53.8 billion) for public-sector groups in the province of Ontario. Northvolt filed for Chapter 11 protection in the US in November after a bid to secure rescue funding fell short, leaving it with little cash and $5.8 billion in debt.

Tokyo has asked the U.S. government to exempt Japanese firms from U.S. President Donald Trump’s newly announced 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum, the Japan Times reported. “We have requested the U.S. government to exclude Japan from the scope of these measures,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said during a news conference Wednesday, adding that the request was made by the Japanese Embassy in Washington via diplomatic channels.

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.