President Trump has signed an order reducing tariffs on goods including beef, tomatoes, coffee and bananas, to lower costs on some everyday goods as consumers grapple with price struggles.

The tariff cuts come alongside a series of new trade deals, which include framework agreements with Argentina, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Ecuador.

US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer claimed the plan fits with Trump's broader strategy.

“Now is the right time to, you know, to release some of these items the president said he was going to release,” Greer said. “This is a natural outgrowth of exactly what the present signaled, and that’s what he’s doing today.”

The push to reduce food prices comes after electoral wins for Democrats across a number of key state and local races where candidates stressed affordability concerns. Trump has also in recent days floated the possibility of a tariff "dividend" for many Americans in the form of a $2,000 check. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News on Sunday that that plan would need congressional approval.

Trump recently acknowledged that US consumers are "paying something" for his tariffs, the bulk of which face a looming verdict from the Supreme Court.

In a closely watched case, a majority of the justices — both the court's three liberal-leaning justices, as well as three more conservative ones — offered skeptical questions regarding the president's authority to impose his most sweeping duties. If the Supreme Court does not side with Trump, it's widely expected that the administration will seek out alternative methods to carry out the US trade agenda.

Read more: What Trump's tariffs mean for the economy and your wallet

The US and Switzerland have agreed to a deal to lower tariffs on Swiss imports to 15%, from a 39% level that had shocked the country over the summer. Switzerland will invest $200 billion in the US, the White House said.

The EU said it will propose a plan to the US that would allow the next phase of the trade agreement to be implemented.

Brazil said it hopes to reach a preliminary trade deal with the US this month, as relations between the two sides improve.

67% of Canadians say it’s unlikely a deal to lower US tariffs will be achieved in the next six months, according to a poll by Nanos Research Group for Bloomberg News.

The US and China reached a trade truce. The thaw means China will suspend additional export controls on rare earth metals and end investigations into US chip companies. As part of the deal, the US will pause some of Trump’s "reciprocal tariffs" on China for another year. (Read more: What are rare earth minerals, and why are they important?)

Trump said that "at some point," he would reduce the tariff rate on Indian goods, and that the US was getting "close" to a trade deal with New Delhi.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said that President Trump's proposal to send $2,000 \\"dividend\\" payments from tariffs to US citizens would need support from Congress.

“We will see,” Bessent said Sunday on Fox News. “We need legislation for that.”

Trump, who has previously boasted of the billions being raised from tariff revenue, told reporters on Friday that the checks will go out sometime next year to “everybody but the rich.”

The latest comments from Trump and Bessent come as public frustration rises over the increasing prices of everyday food items, such as beef, bananas, and coffee. On Friday, Trump signed an executive order to reduce tariffs on goods including beef, tomatoes, coffee, and bananas.

Bloomberg News reports:

“It’s a lot of money,” he said. “But we’ve taken in a lot of money from tariffs. The tariffs allow us to give a dividend.” He added that “we’re also going to be reducing debt.”

The plan could cost the US government double what it’s projected to take in for 2025, according to one estimate. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a centrist watchdog group, estimated a preliminary $600 billion cost for the proposal, if the dividends were designed along the lines of government stimulus payments during the Covid pandemic.

Read more here.

Japan's economic growth slowed to a 1.8% annual contraction in July to September due to President Trump's tariffs, which hit exports and caused private residential investments to plunge.

AP reports:

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.

In the April-June quarter, the Japanese economy grew 0.6% on quarter, while in the January-March period, it grew 0.2%..

Exports fell 4.5% in annual terms in the three months through September.

Read more here.

Vice President Geraldo Alckmin of Brazil said Saturday that despite President Trump's reversal of some of his \\"Liberation Day\\" tariffs, the prices on goods the country exports to the US, including coffee and beef, remain subject to a 40% levy, the Associated Press reports.

In July, Trump imposed a further 40% tariff, citing — among other reasons — the trial of his ally, former President Jair Bolsonaro, which he called a “witch hunt.” Proceedings went ahead regardless and in September Bolsonaro was sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison for attempting a coup.

Alckmin said some products, such as orange juice, would now have a zero tariff as they were not targeted by the additional 40%. But that extra tariff remains in place on products including coffee, beef and tropical fruits, such as mangos and pineapples.

While Brazil’s vice president welcomed Trump’s latest decision, which he called “positive” and a “step in the right direction,” he said there remained a “distortion that needs to be corrected.”

“Everyone got 10% less, but in Brazil’s case, which had 50%, we ended up with 40%, which is very high,” Alckmin told journalists in the capital Brasilia.

Read more here.

Japanese automaker Toyota (TM) announced on Thursday a $10 billion investment in the US over the next five years, just a few weeks after President Trump visited Japan.

The FT reports:

The announcement on Thursday coincided with Toyota’s opening of a battery plant in North Carolina, which it said marked an investment of “nearly $14bn and the creation of up to 5,100 new jobs”.

Toyota’s pledge follows Trump’s trip in late October when he and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi spoke of bringing the security alliance between the two countries into a “new golden age”.

In July, Washington agreed to a deal to impose 15 per cent tariffs on goods imported into America from Japan, the world’s fourth-largest economy.

Read more here.

Farmers in India are hoping the relaxation of some of President Donald Trump's tariffs will revive lost demand for its exports, Reuters reports.

On Friday, Trump rolled back tariffs on some 200 food items including beef and coffee, in an effort to ease rising grocery bills for US consumers.

Unlike EU and Vietnamese suppliers facing 15–20% duties,‌ Indian exporters of tea, coffee, spices and cashew nuts were hit harder after Trump doubled tariffs to as high as 50% on imports of certain Indian goods, including a punitive 25% levy from the end of August on India's Russian oil purchases.

Ajay Sahai, director general of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO), says that between $2.5 billion and $3 ⁠billion of exports will benefit from the tariff ‌exemptions.

\\"This order opens space for premium, speciality and value-added products,\\" he said. \\"Exporters who shift towards higher-value segments will be better protected from ‍price pressures and can tap rising consumer demand.”

Officials involved in trade and farm export policy said the exemptions are also a positive signal for ongoing U.S.–India trade talks and could ease export pressure triggered by this year’s tariff increases.

Exports of Indian goods to the U.​S. fell nearly 12% year on year in September to $5.43 billion after tariffs were raised. Indian ‌farm exports, estimated to account for $5.7 billion of the country's $87 billion of exports to the U.S. in 2024, were among those hit.

Read more here.

Bloomberg News reports:

Canadians have little faith a trade deal with the US will be reached in the next six months, after US President Donald Trump blew up talks over an anti-tariff ad campaign launched by the province of Ontario.

Some 67% of Canadians say it’s unlikely a deal to lower US tariffs will be achieved over the next half-year, according to a poll by Nanos Research Group for Bloomberg News. About 28% say it’s likely and 3% are unsure.

Trump halted all trade talks with Canada in late October over Ontario’s ad, which used excerpts from a radio address by former President Ronald Reagan. Prime Minister Mark Carney said negotiations had been progressing toward a deal on steel, aluminum and energy.

The survey suggests Canadians may be understanding of Carney’s inability so far to reach a deal with the mercurial US president. Still, their patience may wear thin the longer the trade impasse continues and as the economic pain grows.

Read more here.

Just a few weeks after the US and China agreed to a one-year trade truce, which includes the lifting of export restrictions on rare earths by Beijing, the two sides have apparently not yet begun to negotiate the finer details surrounding the deal and come to an understanding on exactly how Beijing will liberalize sales of rare earths.

Bloomberg News reports:

The two sides have given their teams until the end of November to agree on terms for “general licenses” that China pledged to offer for US-bound exports of rare earths and other critical minerals, said the person, who declined to give a reason for the delay.

The White House listed the commitment in its account of the agreement reached between President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping two weeks ago. The US characterized the move as the “de facto removal” of various curbs imposed since 2023, and touted it a major win for the global economy and supply chains.

But while Washington has already rolled back tariffs and paused a number of national security measures as part of the agreement, China has yet to comment on the licensing pledge. Beijing has confirmed other aspects of the truce, including a one-year pause on extra rare-earth controls announced only weeks before the talks in South Korea.

“The deal is far from done,” said Alicia Garcia Herrero, chief Asia Pacific economist at Natixis. “China can use licenses as leverage and decide to grant or withdraw them and exert pressure any time.”

The lack of clarity has left rare-earth exporters in limbo. Several have said they are still awaiting fresh guidance and had yet to see a change in practices on the ground.

Read more here.

Like other industries in the small European nation of Switzerland, watchmakers are celebrating the announcement that the country has reached an agreement with the US to reduce tariffs on Swiss goods, from 39% to 15%, Bloomberg reports:

The reduction can’t come soon enough. Watch exports to the US plunged 56% in September, companies have been cutting costs and putting workers on furlough, and big brands are spending money on small specialist firms to protect key suppliers. In the town of La Chaux-de-Fonds, one of the hubs of Swiss watchmaking, locals say the usual daily hum of activity is almost absent some days, as workshops reduce their hours.

“All of the watch industry in Switzerland right now is heavily affected,” said Christopher Bitterli, chief executive officer of Grovana. “You cannot live without the US market.”

The 39% tariff had compounded an already difficult situation given sluggish demand from China and scorching prices for raw materials such as gold, which hit a record last month and could keep going to $5,000 an ounce, according to J.P. Morgan Private Bank.

And there’s the strong franc, which is up about 14% against the dollar this year, meaning the US currency doesn’t go as far as it used to when buying anything Swiss made.

Read more here.

Bloomberg News reports:

Even if the US Supreme Court strikes down Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs, there still appear to be significant doubts that trades betting on government refunds will ever pay out.

Several Wall Street heavyweights have struck deals with companies that could be eligible for reimbursement if the levies are found to be unlawful — an outcome that betting markets see as more likely after a hearing last week.

Yet investors are still finding the trade can be had for relatively cheap. Depending on the kind of tariff, the claims were quoted around 10 to 25 cents on the dollar this week, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing trades. That’s only a modest increase from before the Nov. 5 hearing, suggesting there are still plenty of questions over whether the gambit will ever deliver.

Funds including King Street Capital Management, Anchorage Capital Advisors and Fulcrum Capital Holdings have bet on tariff-refund claims, the people said. Seaport Global Holdings is among the brokers matching importers with investors, they said, along with Jefferies Financial Group and Oppenheimer & Co., as Bloomberg previously reported.

Read more here.

President Trump signed an order on Friday reducing tariffs on goods including beef, tomatoes, coffee and bananas, Bloomberg reports, to lower costs on some everyday goods that consumers are struggling with.

The exemptions would reduce trade levies on the commodities, which the White House said can’t be produced in the US in sufficient quantity to meet domestic demand. Hundreds of food products, including coconuts, nuts, avocados and pineapples were among the products listed by the administration for exemption from tariffs.

The tariff breaks are backdated to take effect at 12:01 a.m. New York time on November 13.

The move comes as Trump has pivoted to focusing on affordability measures as voters are growing increasingly wary of the economy under his leadership. It is also a tacit acknowledgment that the president’s tariff policies have added to price pressures on US consumers.

A White House official, who requested anonymity to speak about the executive order, said earlier Friday that the president is following through on his pledge to negotiate trade deals and then adjust levies as needed.

US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer teased the plan Friday, saying that it fits in with Trump’s broader strategy to create tariff exemptions for key goods and sectors.

Read more here

After several months of dialogue the US confirmed on Friday that a deal with Switzerland has \\"essentially\\" been reached. This agreement will lead to lower tariffs on Swiss goods from 39% to 15%.

The White House plans to reveal further details and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in an interview with CNBC that more will be posted today.

This latest trade deal will bring some relief to Switzerland, which has been hard hit by President Trump's tariffs.

Bloomberg News reports:

“We’ve essentially reached a deal with Switzerland. So we’ll post details of that today on the White House website,” Greer said.

The 15% levy is inclusive of most-favored-nation rates and certain other existing duties, a similar arrangement to the European Union, Greer told reporters.

In exchange, Switzerland has committed to investing $200 billion in the US during President Donald Trump’s term, including $70 billion next year, in industries such as pharmaceuticals and gold smelting, according to Greer. Switzerland has also committed to buying more Boeing Co. commercial planes, Greer said.

The agreement is the capstone of months of shuttle diplomacy by Swiss government officials and business figures, after the countries’ key industries, including watches, machinery and precision instruments, were punished by the crippling US tariff.

Read more here.

Reuters reports:

Baidu (BIDU, 9888.HK) unveiled two new semiconductors for artificial intelligence on Thursday, saying the ​products can provide Chinese companies with powerful, low-cost and domestically ‌controlled computing power.

Escalating tensions between the United States and China have led to restrictions on exports of ‌advanced U.S. AI chips to Chinese firms, prompting many to develop their own processors or seek domestic alternatives.

The company said at its annual Baidu World technology conference that the M100, an inference-focused chip, is set to be ⁠launched in early 2026. ‌The M300, capable of both training and inference, is slated for early 2027.

Bloomberg News reports:

Brazil hopes to reach a preliminary trade deal with the US as soon as this month, the South American nation’s top diplomat said, as relations between the two countries improve after a months-long feud.

A final Brazil-US trade agreement would come later, according to Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira, who made the announcement following his Thursday meeting with his US counterpart Marco Rubio in Washington.

Vieira told reporters that Rubio reaffirmed a prior proposal stemming from technical talks for a “provisional deal by the end of this month or early next month.” After that, a final deal would be achieved two or three months later that would “definitively” solve all outstanding issues between both countries, he said.

A brief readout from US State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott confirmed that the two diplomats “discussed a reciprocal framework for the US-Brazil trade relationship.”

Since July, Brazilian exports to the US have faced the prospect of 50% tariffs after US President Donald Trump announced the duties, beyond his 10% across-the-board tariffs, though some key products were exempted beginning the following month.

The US leader’s move was part of an ultimately unsuccessful push to stop the trial of Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro on charges he attempted a coup after his narrow 2022 reelection loss.

High-level talks between the two largest countries of the Americas restarted shortly after Trump and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, known as Lula, briefly crossed paths in September at the United Nations.

Read more here.

From beef to bananas, the US consumer is feeling the pinch from high prices on some of these everyday food items. President Trump and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent have been hinting all week about lowering tariffs on some key food groups in a bid to ease rising prices.

A series of new trade deals, which include a framework agreement with Argentina, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Ecuador, aim to address high prices and affordability concerns.

The latest move from the Trump administration comes a week after electoral victories for Democrats across a number of key state and local races, where candidates stressed affordability worries.

Bloomberg News reports:

Trade deals with Latin American countries unveiled Thursday will see the US reduce tariffs and barriers on common grocery items like beef, bananas, and coffee beans in a push to lower grocery bills that have for years frustrated Americans.

Separately, Trump and other senior administration officials have previewed broader tariff exemptions that could cut levies on popular food products across the board. In interviews earlier this week on Fox News, Trump pledged to “lower some tariffs” on coffee while Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suggested fruit imports would receive a break.

“One of the things that people have been talking about, just the last few days, is, you know, thinking about changing tariffs for foodstuffs,” National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said Wednesday in an interview with Bloomberg host and Carlyle Group co-founder and co-Chairman David Rubenstein at an Economic Club of Washington event.

The New York Times reported Thursday that Trump was preparing changes to reciprocal tariffs expected to include carve-outs for beef and citrus products, and extend beyond a previous executive order in which the president tasked administration officials with identifying foodstuffs that were not grown in the US for exemptions.

Read more here.

The European Union is planning to propose a plan to the US that would start the next phase of the trade agreement the two sides reached back in July, according to people familiar with the matter.

EU’s trade chief, Maros Sefcovic, is due to meet with his US counterpart this month and is keen to implement the next phase.

This latest move from the EU follows proposals Washington sent Brussels earlier this year, where a legally binding plan to revise EU regulations it said hurt US businesses was requested.

Bloomberg News:

The deal agreed between European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and US President Donald Trump in August set a 15% tariff on most EU goods entering the US, but also included pledges to keep working on issues like how to deal with steel exports and non-tariff barriers.

The 15% ceiling also applies to cars and the EU is keen to ensure that it will also cover other industries the US might be hit with sectoral duties in future. As part of the accord, a small number of EU goods benefit from lower rates, while the bloc has presented legislation to scrap tariffs on US industrial goods and some non-sensitive agricultural exports.

A commission spokesman declined to comment on the plan but confirmed the EU was engaging at both political and technical level with the US.

Read more here.

Reuters reports:

Switzerland could clinch a deal with the United States to lower U.S. tariffs on Swiss goods to 15% as soon as Thursday or Friday, a Swiss source told Reuters on Tuesday.

The source said ​the deal could also arrive early next week, but cautioned an agreement to lower duties was not certain until U.S. President Donald ‌Trump had given his approval.

Trump announced at the end of July that Swiss exports to the U.S. would be subject to a 39% tariff from August 7, among the highest duties levied ‌in his global trade reset.

The move threatened Swiss access to one of its biggest markets for precision machinery, watches and chocolate by making its products more expensive than rivals from regions with lower import duties.

The Swiss Economic Affairs Ministry, which has been leading the negotiations with Washington, declined to comment on ongoing discussions on Tuesday.

Economy Minister Guy Parmelin was in regular contact with the relevant authorities in the United States, including U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, the government ⁠said.

The pair held a video call on Friday, with Parmelin ‌describing the talks as \\"very constructive\\".

Read more here.

It's been less than two weeks since the US and China agreed on a one-year trade truce, which covers several key areas, including soybeans and rare earths. The two largest economies in the world reached an agreement either to increase purchases or reduce export restrictions. Trade tensions started to simmer down, and investors could once again relax — until now.

Morgan Stanley (MS) has issued a warning to the markets, advising them not to become too complacent and to remain prepared for trade tensions to flare up again.

Business Insider reports:

Economist Jenny Zheng says investors should position for a fragmented global economy and an investing landscape where the US isn't necessarily setting the rules for others to follow. Zheng and her team advised investors to be ready for the US-China trade relationship to quickly deteriorate again in the coming year.

\\"We consider this truce fragile, given persistent US-China competitive confrontation on multiple fronts, which means rolling negotiations, truces and periodic flare-ups will likely be the new norm for the foreseeable future,\\" the economist noted.

The bank laid out three scenarios that could play out.

The base case: In Morgan Stanley's most likely scenario, the truce lasts for a year with occasional flare-ups that lead to more trade tensions.

\\"The agreement of a one-year truce is marginally positive for growth and markets, defying intermittent frictions: The 10ppt fentanyl tariff cut and pause in non-tariff measures could lift China's export growth by ~1ppt, translating into a 10bp boost in real GDP growth.\\"

In this scenario, China makes marginal adjustments to start the process of rebalancing its economy, though the analysts predict that any adjustments will be incremental and won't likely yield a significant impact.

Read more here.

Bloomberg reports:

Top Trump officials indicated the administration would soon reduce tariffs on coffee, bananas and other foods, after voter anger over the cost of living saw Republicans defeated in state and local elections.

“You’re going to see some substantial announcements over the next couple of days in terms of things we don’t grow here in the United States, coffee being one of them, bananas, other fruits, things like that,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Wednesday on Fox News.

Bessent didn’t specify he was referring to tariff reductions, identify which countries’ goods would be affected or say whether the move would apply to categories of products across nations, but another Trump economic adviser confirmed that the administration is discussing cutting levies on food items.

“One of the things that people have been talking about, just the last few days, is, you know, thinking about changing tariffs for foodstuffs,” National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said Wednesday in an interview with Bloomberg host and Carlyle Group co-founder and co-Chairman David Rubenstein at an Economic Club of Washington event. Hassett called Trump’s tariff plans “an ongoing process.”

Read more here.

China has overstocked on soybeans after months of record imports, which could hinder US export hopes despite a trade truce that Washington said included a promise by Beijing to start buying soybeans again.

Reuters reports:

Traders and analysts warn that vast stockpiles at ports and in state reserves, coupled with weak crush margins, limit Beijing's appetite for further purchases.

\\"State firms may be waiting ‌for margins to recover before making large-scale purchases,\\" said Johnny Xiang, founder of Beijing-based AgRadar Consulting. \\"Even with tariff waivers, margins remain negative and Brazilian beans are still cheaper.\\"

After President Donald ‌Trump met Chinese leader Xi Jinping last month officials in Washington said China had agreed to buy 12 million tons of U.S. soybeans by year-end and 25 million tons in each of the next three years.

China has not publicly committed to making purchases, although it suspended retaliatory tariffs on U.S. imports, while state buyer COFCO has booked only a few cargoes for December and January shipment, traders and analysts say.

Read more here.

President Trump said on Monday that the US faced economic and national security disaster if the Supreme Court ruled against his use of emergency powers to impose his \\"Liberation Day\\" tariffs.

Reuters reports:

Trump also took issue with media reports about the amount of duties collected that the U.S. government might ​have to repay if the Supreme Court agrees with a lower court that Trump's sweeping tariffs were illegal.

During last week's oral arguments on the ‌tariff case, Supreme Court justices cast doubt on Trump's authority to impose tariffs under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which contains no references to tariffs.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett suggested it \\"could be a mess\\" for the courts to administer refunds to U.S. importers who have paid tariffs that were declared illegal. It remains unclear exactly when the highest court will rule, and whether companies will be entitled to refunds of more than $100 billion in IEEPA tariffs paid so far if Trump loses.

Trump insisted in a social media post on Monday that those estimates were far too ⁠low, and required repayments would exceed $2 trillion in tariff revenues and investments.

\\"They'​re not giving the right numbers,\\" Trump told reporters. \\"There would be ​an economic disaster. It would be a national security disaster if we lost the case in the Supreme Court.\\"

Trump hailed what he called a decline in inflation since he took office, arguing that food prices and energy prices were coming down and ‍inflation would be down to 1.5%⁠ \\"pretty soon.\\"

Read more here.