President Trump’s planned 15 percent tariff on medicines from Europe has shined a spotlight on Ireland, which sends the United States tens of billions of dollars’ worth of cancer medications, weight-loss drug ingredients and other pharmaceutical products each year. No other country sends more, the New York Times reported. Manufacturing blockbuster medications there offers tax benefits for American drug companies. But the appeal of Ireland for the industry goes deeper: Drugmakers have long shifted their patents and profits there, as well, to avoid billions of dollars in taxes.

In the ongoing trade battles between the United States and China, one besieged front line runs through the factories, warehouses and ports of Thailand, the Washington Post reported. Under pressure to close tariff loopholes, officials in the Southeast Asian country are poring over receipts and cross-checking business registration documents from exporters who want to sell wire rods, steering wheels and hard disks to American buyers. They’re conducting spot checks at factories to verify that products claiming to be made in Thailand are genuinely manufactured in the country.

British goods exports to the United States fell to their lowest level in more than three years in June, according to official data published on Thursday that showed the hit from U.S. President Donald Trump's initial import tariff blitz, Reuters reported. Sales of British goods to the United States fell to 3.9 billion pounds ($5.3 billion) during the month, down by 0.7 billion pounds from May and about 20% lower than a monthly average of 4.9 billion pounds in 2024.

President Trump recently delayed for 90 days raising tariffs on China to give the two sides more time to negotiate a trade deal. Where the sides ultimately end up is an open question: The president hasn’t said how much more he will impose on China beyond the 30% currently in place if a deal isn’t reached, the Wall Street Journal reported. But this much is clear: The U.S.’s reliance on Chinese goods has fallen off since Trump first put tariffs on China in 2018. China now accounts for only about 12% of all U.S.

Mike Chai aims to cut wage costs at his kitchen cabinet factory by about 30% to remain competitive against other Chinese firms, which have stopped selling to the U.S. due to steep tariffs and are now coming after his long-time customers in Australia, Reuters reported. Chai had already halved his workforce to 100 people since the pandemic and says he has no more room to trim. Instead, he is shortening shifts and asking workers to take unpaid leave - an increasingly common practice that has become a hidden deflationary force in the world's second-largest economy.

The scene looked hopeful at first glance. A social media post by President Karin Keller-Sutter of Switzerland showed her smiling and shaking hands with Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington on Wednesday, at a hastily arranged meeting after President Trump had blindsided Switzerland with a punishingly high tariff, the New York Times reported. “We discussed bilateral cooperation, the tariff situation and international issues,” Ms. Keller-Sutter said of the meeting with Mr. Rubio. But what she didn’t have was a trade deal.

India’s growth outlook has been weighed by President Trump’s punitive tariff on the South Asian economy but there’s still hope negotiations will ease the impact, the Wall Street Journal reported. Trump on Wednesday said that Indian imports would be hit with an extra 25% levy as punishment for buying Russian oil, on top of a 25% tariff that had been previously announced. Indian exports to the U.S. now face a hefty 50% tariff, jolting longstanding efforts by both Washington and New Delhi to deepen ties in a bid to counter China’s growing influence in the Indo-Pacific.

The US is working to finalize an announcement that would end the stacking of universal tariffs on Japanese goods, a senior Trump administration official said Friday, Bloomberg News reported. The plans, detailed on the condition of anonymity, would resolve prolonged confusion over how US President Donald Trump intended to impose levies on a key trading partner after striking a deal, and match public comments made by Ryosei Akazawa, Tokyo’s top trade negotiator, after a meeting on Thursday with his counterparts in Washington.

U.S. battery startup Lyten has agreed to buy most of bankrupt Swedish battery maker Northvolt, it said on Thursday, potentially offering a way back for the European company that was once seen as the region's answer to rivals in Asia, Reuters reported. Lyten, a Silicon Valley battery startup developing lithium-sulphur cells as a cleaner alternative to lithium-ion, is backed by Jeep-owner Stellantis and U.S. delivery services provider FedEx.

U.S. trading partners are lobbying the White House for exemptions to sweeping new tariffs that went into force on Thursday, as countries seek ways to muffle the impact on their economies of President Trump’s push to reorder global trade, the Wall Street Journal reported. The diplomatic effort shows months of trade talks are far from over despite the run of agreements trumpeted by the White House in the past month.