France is a great trading nation. France is the world's sixth largest food exporter. Why are French farmers and French politicians so viscerally hostile to trade? French farmers get over 9 billion a year in subsidies from Brussels, more than any other country. And yet they oppose any EU trade agreement which would help other industries but might provide limited competition to farmers.
President Donald Trump said on Monday that countries that do business with Iran will face a new 25% tariff. The announcement appears to mean goods from China, a major trading partner of both Iran and the United States, would become significantly more expensive to import. "Effective immediately, any Country doing business with the Islamic Republic of Iran will pay a Tariff of 25% on any and all business being done with the United States of America," Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday. "This Order is final and conclusive," he added.
The European Commission, which concluded negotiations a year ago, and countries such as Germany and Spain argue it is a vital part of an EU push to unlock new markets to offset business lost from U.S. tariffs and to reduce reliance on China by securing access to critical minerals. Opponents led by France, the European Union's largest agricultural producer, say the agreement will jack up imports of cheap food products, including beef, poultry and sugar, undercutting domestic farmers.
The biggest macro factor for DRIV isn't consumer demand or battery costs. It's trade policy: tariffs and industrial incentives that determine where EVs get built and sold. DRIV holds $340 million in assets split between US tech giants and global automakers. When tariff threats emerge or federal EV tax credits shift, the fund's diverse holdings react differently. Watch for announcements from the Office of the US Trade Representative on Chinese EV and battery component tariffs. These typically surface quarterly or around major trade negotiations.
There's great news for home chefs who prefer imported Italian pasta over American brands. Amid concerns that tariffs could kick favorite Italian pasta brands out of grocery stores, the United States has reversed course after completing an initial review of the alleged U.S. pricing practices of 13 Italian pasta brands. Higher pasta tariffs were initially passed by Congress in September, with the U.S. imposing a 92% anti-dumping duty on top of the existing 15% tariff on products imported from the EU, citing concerns that Italian pasta prices were too low.
A tariff is a tax paid by consumers, and if there's one thing the past four years have taught us, it's that the public will not forgive a politician who presides over a period of rising prices, no matter what the cause. Luckily for the political fortunes of the world's leaders, there is a better way to respond to tariffs. Tit-for-tat tariffs are a 19th-century tactic, and we live in a 21st-century world
The Notice is the result of an investigation into China's semiconductor industry that the Biden administration commenced in December 2024, and which focused on "foundational semiconductors (also known as legacy or mature node semiconductors), including to the extent that they are incorporated as components into downstream products for critical industries like defense, automotive, medical devices, aerospace, telecommunications, and power generation and the electrical grid."
Around the world, CBAM has faced strong criticism. India and China describe it as "green protectionism," arguing that it puts unfair pressure on developing economies. At the same time, the EU has not yet created dedicated funding to help exporters in lower-income countries adapt. Without this support, the mechanism may not achieve the desired results. What about consumers? Although CBAM is mainly aimed at industry, its ripple effects will reach consumers in the EU.
Federal data belatedly released Tuesday shows that the US unemployment rate rose to the highest level in four years last month as President Donald Trump's administration continues its assault on the government's workforce and American corporations lay off workers at a level not seen in decades.
I began the year with a blunt reality check: leadership today is forged in public, under pressure, and in real time. With Donald Trump already installed as US president for his second term, markets have moved faster than at any point in my career, reacting not to speculation but to executive action, rhetoric, and resolve. The first lesson this year has burned itself into my thinking: certainty beats comfort.
Donald Trump has cleared the way for Nvidia to begin selling its powerful AI computer chips to China, marking a win for the chip maker and its CEO Jensen Huang, who has spent months lobbying the White House to open up sales in the country. Before Monday's announcement, the US had prohibited sales of Nvidia's most advanced chips to China over national security concerns.
N early seven months after an election that returned a minority Parliament and a government led by the Liberal Party with Prime Minister Mark Carney at the helm, Canadians would be forgiven for asking what they're meant to be doing with their elbows. During the election, the Liberals ran on elbows-up nationalism, striking a defiant posture in the face of tariff and sovereignty threats from United States president Donald Trump. Carney never promised to solve
These are trying times for corporations. The marketplace is rife with unpredictability, especially when it comes to economic and trade policy. The 2025 World Economic Forum's Chief Economists Outlook report concluded that "uncertainty has become a defining feature of the global economic landscape," with 82% of chief economists gauging uncertainty as "very high." This year, the Economic Policy Uncertainty Index, which tracks data from around the world, spiked to its highest level in three decades.
In a prime time television appearance last night, President Donald Trump addressed coffee prices, saying, "we're going to lower some tariffs." Amid a series of freewheeling remarks about Democrats on Fox News' "The Ingraham Angle," Trump turned to the economy, describing it as "the greatest economy we've ever had." "By the way, the only thing is beef," Trump said before host Laura Ingraham interjected with one word: coffee.
The consolidated cases, Learning Resources v. Trump and Trump v. VOS Selections, challenge Trump's claim that he has the power to issue tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977, which permits the president to regulate transactions involving any property in which any foreign country or national thereof has any interest, in order to deal with an unusual and extraordinary threat.
