U.S. import prices rose in February, driven by higher prices for both fuel and nonfuel imports, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed on Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported. Overall import prices rose 1.3% in February, higher than the upwardly revised 0.6% increase in January, the data showed. Year-on-year prices were up 1.3%, the BLS said. Import prices exclude duties, such as tariffs imposed on imports by the Trump administration, as well as transportation costs.

U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Andrew Puzder warned the bloc should expect more tariffs if it doesn’t approve a stalled trade deal with Washington, Bloomberg reported. “If the trade deal goes away, you guys get hit with the increased tariffs, and for us, nothing changes,” Puzder told Bloomberg News on Monday. “It’s economic malpractice not to pass this,” he added.

Business activity in the U.S., Europe and parts of Asia slowed this month as energy prices and uncertainty were driven higher by the war in the Middle East, while a cooling of new orders pointed to longer-lasting harm if the conflict continues or escalates, the Wall Street Journal reported. Data firm S&P Global said Tuesday that its U.S. composite purchasing managers index fell to an 11-month low of 51.4 in March, compared with 51.9 in February.

The United States has extended a license that protects Venezuela-owned refiner Citgo Petroleum ​from creditors through May 5, according to a posting on ‌Thursday on the Treasury Department's website, Reuters reported. The extension comes a day after Washington issued a general license broadly authorizing U.S. companies to do business with Citgo's ultimate parent, ​Caracas-headquartered Venezuelan state-run oil company PDVSA. The general license is seen ​as a key step to encourage investment and further ⁠oil output in Venezuela, and also reinforces U.S.

The Trump administration has issued a 60-day waiver of the Jones Act in an attempt to lower gasoline prices that have surged since the U.S. and Israel launched a war against Iran, NPR.org reported. The Jones Act is a century-old maritime law requiring that goods shipped between U.S. ports be transported on U.S.-built and flagged vessels. Temporarily waiving this act opens up domestic shipping routes to foreign-flagged vessels, possibly reducing shipping costs and speeding up deliveries.

Battered by Iranian strikes and the disruption of the Strait of Hormuz, the United Arab Emirates and some fellow Persian Gulf states have come to view Iran’s theocracy as an existential enemy. They now want the regime they once courted to be neutered, if not dismantled, when the conflict ends—so the ordeal is never repeated, the Wall Street Journal reported. The U.A.E. has borne the brunt of Iranian attacks: More than 2,000 drones and missiles have been fired at the country since the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Feb. 28.

U.S. private credit firm Blue Owl Capital triggered the recent collapse of a UK mortgage lender after discovering irregularities in its financial reporting and demanding repayment, the Financial Times reported. Blue Owl, which manages more than $300bn, has become a focal point for concerns about the private credit sector and its stock has shed more than 40 per cent so far this year. It tipped bridging loan specialist Century Capital Partners into administration last month after discovering the UK group had dismissed a director because of financial discrepancies.

The U.S. Trade Representative's office said late on Thursday it had begun a second set of Section 301 unfair trade practices probes of 60 economies in relation ​to what it called failures to take action on forced labor, Reuters reported. President Donald Trump's administration has sought to rebuild tariff ‌pressure on countries around the world after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down his global tariffs as illegal on February 20.

The European Union should only accept new U.S. ​tariffs that recreate the ‌substance of the deal agreed between the two sides in Scotland ​last year, the chair of ​the European Parliament's trade committee ⁠said on Thursday, Reuters reported. Bernd Lange ​said that Washington's launch of new 'Section 301' investigations ​into unfair trade practices had been expected, but they provided no clear ​commitment from the U.S. ​administration to uphold the terms of the ‌agreement ⁠struck at U.S. President Donald Trump's Turnberry golf course.

The Trump administration on Wednesday announced a new trade investigation into unfair trading practices by 16 of America’s largest trading partners, as it works to resurrect a system of tariffs recently struck down by the Supreme Court, the New York Times reported. The trade investigation will look into what the administration called “excess capacity” in the factory sectors of foreign countries, which it said had resulted in overproduction and large and persistent U.S. trade deficits with those nations.