The United States on Monday demanded that the European Union make its regulation of the tech sector more "balanced" in exchange for a reduction of U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminium imports from the bloc, Reuters reported. At a meeting in Brussels, EU ministers urged U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer to implement their July trade deal, with cuts to U.S. tariffs on EU steel and their removal from EU goods such as wine and spirits.
Read more
A planned $20 billion bailout to Argentina from JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup has been shelved as bankers pivot instead to a smaller, short-term loan package to support the financially distressed government, the Wall Street Journal reported. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and the Trump administration had been seeking to bolster Argentine President Javier Milei’s pro-reform party when they announced a pair of financial lifelines this fall. The package included a $20 billion currency swap with the U.S.
Read more
In an executive order, Trump exempted dozens of Brazilian food products, including coffee and beef, from the 40% increased tariffs he imposed in an ill-fated attempt to help former President Jair Bolsonaro dodge a coup attempt trial, Bloomberg News reported. Together with prior exemptions, the move will leave many of the nation’s major exports free from heightened US duties, a victory for an agricultural powerhouse that ranks as the world’s largest beef and coffee producer and counts the US as its No. 2 trade partner.
Read more
The rise in U.S. taxes on imports has had a lighter impact on the global economy than many policymakers and businesses had feared, but it nonetheless is having an impact that will likely persist through next year and beyond, the Wall Street Journal reported. Figures released on Monday showed the economies of Japan and Switzerland both contracted in the three months through September, in part because of the higher taxes U.S. businesses must pay if they buy goods made in either country.
The U.S. is the biggest recipient of China's lending activities globally, according to a study which tracked Beijing's credit activities and found it is increasingly lending to higher-income countries over developing countries, Reuters reported. The report, published on Tuesday by AidData, a research lab at U.S. university William & Mary, said China's lending and grant giving totalled $2.2 trillion across 200 countries in every region of the world from 2000 to 2023.
Japan’s economy contracted at a 1.8% annual pace in July-September as President Donald Trump’s tariffs hit exports and private residential investment plunged, the Associated Press reported. Data released by the government Monday showed that on a quarter-by-quarter basis, Japan’s gross domestic product, the sum value of its goods and services, slipped 0.4%, the first contraction in six quarters. The annualized rate shows what the economy would have done if the same rate were to continue for a year.
Read more
In the months before the collapse of auto-parts conglomerate First Brands, founder Patrick James was busy creating a new business group in Europe. The entrepreneur spent hundreds of millions of dollars on a large plastic-components provider in France, an interiors business in Austria, and a sealings specialist in Germany, according to people familiar with the deals, even as cash was running out at First Brands, the Wall Street Journal reported. The idea: to replicate the U.S. company’s rapid growth through acquisitions in Europe.
Read more
The United States and Switzerland announced a framework trade agreement on Friday that includes Washington slashing its tariffs on imported Swiss products to 15% from 39% and a pledge by Swiss companies to invest $200 billion in the U.S. by the end of 2028, Reuters reported. The United States and Switzerland, joined by Liechtenstein, aim to conclude negotiations to finalize their trade deal by the first quarter of 2026, the White House said in a statement. U.S.
Read more
The United States said on Thursday that it will remove tariffs on some foods and other imports from Argentina, Ecuador, Guatemala and El Salvador under framework agreements that will give U.S. firms greater access to those markets, Reuters reported. The agreements are expected to help lower prices for coffee, bananas and other foodstuffs, a senior Trump administration official told reporters, adding the administration expected U.S. retailers to pass on the positive effects to American consumers.
Read more
A Chinese-born businessman that the United States and China say ran one of Southeast Asia’s largest scam compounds was extradited to China to face charges of money laundering and other crimes, three years after he was arrested in Thailand, the New York Times reported. The businessman, She Zhijiang, arrived in the Chinese city of Nanjing from Thailand on Wednesday. He would be one of the highest ranking figures linked to the scam industry to face charges in China, which launched a mass crackdown this year to rescue people trafficked to work as scammers in Southeast Asia.
Read more