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The U.S. is close to a “big deal” with Taiwan, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on Thursday, adding that the administration was focused on agreements with Switzerland and India as well -- while waiting for South Korea to agree to terms on an already announced accord. During a Sept. 11 interview with CNBC , Lutnick offered an update on trade talks with a host of countries. He said the U.S. had “a big deal coming with Taiwan,” adding: “We’ll probably...

The White House has quietly revised a statement it issued last Friday detailing international funding the administration wants to scrap, removing without explanation language that said the U.S. would not fund a “toothless” World Trade Organization. The Aug. 29 statement said President Trump would not allow the expenditure of $29 million that Congress appropriated to cover U.S. contributions to the WTO budget. The White House said the so-called “pocket rescission” would apply to the $521 million State Department “Contribution to...

The European Union made a massive exception to its standard-operating procedure by agreeing to a deal with the U.S. that disregards the World Trade Organization’s most-favored-nation principle -- an exception that one former trade official says condones the Trump administration’s dislike for the international order. But the U.S., other former trade negotiators contend, is a special case because it already has abandoned the multilateral system it was fundamental in creating. In the joint framework reached with the U.S. in July,...

Japan and South Korea appear to be struggling to agree with the Trump administration on key implementation questions about their new trade deals with the U.S., particularly the timing of U.S. tariff reductions and the structure of foreign investment commitments, after high-level talks this week either failed to produce a public result or were put off altogether. “I think the Japanese and Koreans are in a similar position,” David Boling, a former Office of the U.S. Trade Representative negotiator who...

Democrats are pointing to the latest inflation numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to claim that new tariffs imposed by the Trump administration are increasing consumer costs. BLS on Thursday released its Producer Price Index, which showed that wholesale prices increased 0.9 percent, the largest such jump since March 2022. The release followed President Trump’s social media declaration on Tuesday that tariffs “have not caused Inflation, or any other problems for America” after BLS released its monthly Consumer Price...