The sulfur trade still runs one way. The United States places no condition on who buys American sulfur, including Chinese state-owned enterprises, while Beijing bars its phosphate fertilizer and most sulfuric acid from world markets.
Since September, there have been at least six surveys showing a general disagreement with the Trump administration’s tariff policy. The main takeaways are that the public is against the recent, new tariff impositions on Canada – and that tariffs are contributing to the rising cost of living. That these new polls are coming out during an election cycle is no surprise. But regardless of the timing, tariffs and their impacts on the rising cost of living could use some better explaining.
In one month, between mid-September and mid-October, Chinese technology attached to new cars – mostly EVs, but not all – were called out in two European countries for essentially being data vacuums for China. In some cases, the data is collected for the companies to understand how the driver uses their product, and to make adjustments over time. But in other cases, they were used as on-board recording devices.
As Capitol Hill debates what the future of the U.S. generic drugs industry will look like, another alarm bell has rung at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This time, imported semaglutide generics – similar to Ozempic – sold by a company called the Cheap Medicine Shop were issued an FDA Warning Letter for marketing a drug that had not been approved for sale in the U.S.
AI data center demand for semiconductors, computers and telecommunications equipment drove the goods deficit to its highest level of the year – coming in at $136.57 billion for August, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis on Tuesday.
Chairman Rick Scott (R-FL) of the Senate Aging Committee made a prediction during a hearing on domestic generic drug manufacturing on Wednesday, saying that his CLEAR Labels Act will become law this year.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says the United States and China are considering lowering tariffs on “noncritical” items — the consumer goods that fill American shopping carts — as part of the package being assembled around this week’s Trump-Xi summit.
A Sept. 2 House Ways & Means Committee hearing on critical minerals had both members and witnesses suggesting that countries the U.S. relies on for these hard-to-mine, harder-to-process minerals be granted trade preferences.
Late on Friday, August 21, the tentative U.S.–Canada trade agreement collapsed, shortly before new tariffs took effect. Market reporting centered on cutting the Section 232 tariff on Canadian primary aluminum to 25 percent, and the concession was poised to reach fabricated aluminum products as well.
The collapse of the U.S.-Canada trade deal is providing a rare glimpse into the secret world of international trade negotiations. Beyond just the insider view, we are being given hope that the mirage of “Fortress North America” can be put to rest.
