Supertanker freight rates surged this week and are set to stay elevated on U.S.-China tit-for-tat hikes in port fees and concerns about the fallout from U.S. sanctions on a major Chinese crude oil terminal, Reuters reported. Chinese retaliatory port fees announced on Friday would add more than $7 a barrel in shipping costs for a Very Large Crude Carrier linked to the U.S., traders estimated. That would be equivalent to a charge of around $15 million - a sum that would put anybody off chartering ships related to the United States.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Wednesday that Brazil and the U.S. will hold negotiation talks on tariffs on Thursday, Reuters reported. Lula's remarks at an event in Rio de Janeiro followed a call between him and U.S. President Donald Trump last week in which Trump designated Secretary of State Marco Rubio to continue tariff negotiations with Brazilian officials. Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira and Rubio agreed on a meeting last week.

The U.S. is one week away from imposing port fees on certain vessels with links to China, a move expected to cost the top 10 carriers $3.2 billion next year as President Donald Trump seeks to address China's growing dominance on the high seas, Reuters reported. "While some observers believe the October 14 deadline may be extended — or even scrapped — as part of broader negotiations, the uncertainty has already unsettled carriers, adding another layer of geopolitical risk to fleet deployment strategies," S&P said in a report this week.

A bankruptcy judge in New York said Oi S.A. can’t withdraw from the chapter 15 proceeding that recognized its Brazilian bankruptcy in the U.S., upending the Brazilian telecommunications company’s plan to pursue a chapter 11 case instead, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Judge Lisa Beckerman of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York on Wednesday denied the company’s requests to terminate her March 2023 order recognizing its Brazilian bankruptcy in the U.S. and to dismiss the chapter 15 petition that led to that recognition order.

China's manufacturing activity shrank for a sixth month in September, an official survey showed on Tuesday, suggesting producers are waiting for further stimulus to boost domestic demand, as well as clarity on a U.S. trade deal, Reuters reported. The official purchasing managers' index (PMI) rose to a six-month high of 49.8 in September versus 49.4 in August. It remained below the 50-mark separating growth from contraction. The prolonged slump underlines the twin pressures on China's economy: domestic demand has failed to mount a durable recovery in the years since the pandemic while U.S.

Germany expects the United States to apply a 15% tariff rate to pharmaceuticals and heavy trucks, a government spokesperson said during a regular press conference on Monday, Reuters reported. U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled sweeping new import tariffs last week, including 100% duties on patented drugs and 25% levies on heavy-duty trucks, triggering fresh trade uncertainty.

Donald Trump faces fresh hurdles in his push to secure major investment pledges from Asian allies, after South Korea said Washington’s terms were unrealistic and a contender to lead Japan’s ruling party hinted at the possibility of reviewing the agreement, Bloomberg News reported. “We are not able to pay $350 billion in cash,” South Korea’s National Security Adviser Wi Sung-lac said in a Channel A News television interview on Saturday evening, referring to Seoul’s investment pledge with Washington.

The U.S. on Monday cracked down on companies in China and other countries that use subsidiaries or other foreign affiliates to get around curbs on chipmaking equipment and other goods and technology, Reuters reported. The Commerce Department issued a new rule expanding its restricted export list, known as the Entity List, to automatically include subsidiaries owned 50 percent or more by a company on the list, according to a posting in the U.S. Federal Register. The action greatly increases the number of companies that require licenses to receive American goods and services.

India said on Friday its officials held “constructive” talks with U.S. counterparts during a visit to Washington this week, and both sides agreed to continue discussions aimed at concluding a mutually beneficial trade deal soon, Reuters reported. "Both sides exchanged views on possible contours of the deal," the commerce ministry said in a statement. Read more.

In the days leading up to his announcement of a new $100,000 fee for H-1B visas, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick summoned to the White House a group of President Trump’s allies from anti-immigration groups to sell them on his idea, the Wall Street Journal reported. Lutnick, who is personally close to Trump, had for months been working on a different pet project: a “gold card” that would provide a path to citizenship to wealthy foreigners willing to pay $1 million.