President Trump said on Thursday his administration may cut income tax completely over the next two years because of the government revenue generated from tariffs.

"Over the next couple ‍of years, I think we'll substantially be cutting and maybe cutting out completely,‌ but we'll be cutting income tax. Could be almost completely cutting it because the money we'⁠re taking in is going to be so large," Trump told US ⁠military service members on a video call.

On Wednesday, Trump said Chinese leader Xi Jinping "pretty much" agreed to increase the speed and size of the country's agricultural purchases. Trump and Xi held their first call Monday since the US and China struck a trade and tariff truce last month.

"I think he’s going to very much surprise you on the upside,” Trump told reporters.

Trump touted the call as "very good," and said he had accepted an invitation to visit Beijing in April and that Xi would reciprocate with a visit to the US later next year.

The White House is quietly preparing a backup plan as the US Supreme Court is set to decide whether Trump had the authority to issue them in the first place. Trump on Monday claimed the "full benefit" of tariff policies would take effect soon, arguing that foreign buyers who stockpiled inventory would be forced to buy more goods.

"Tariffs will be paid on everything they apply to, without avoidance, Taiwan to new investment and training of US workers in semiconductor manufacturing and other advanced industries

The president invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to levy blanket tariffs on goods from other countries. But Congress is the branch of the US government with oversight of taxation and spending — not the president. It's not clear when SCOTUS will make its ruling.

Meanwhile, Trump further expanded tariff breaks on Brazilian goods, part of moves to lower costs on some everyday goods as consumers grapple with price struggles.

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 weeks floated the possibility of a tariff "dividend" for many Americans in the form of a $2,000 check.

Trump recently acknowledged that US consumers are "paying something" for his tariffs.

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

The Trump administration is also negotiating a deal that would commit Taiwan to new investment and training of US workers in semiconductor manufacturing and other advanced industries.

Meanwhile, friction between the US and EU continues to build as the two nations look to implement the framework agreement struck earlier this year. The EU is seeking lower tariffs on certain goods, but it rejected a demand to ease tech rules.

President Trump announced on Thursday that his administration may be in a position over the next two years to slash income tax due to the revenue generated from tariffs.

The US president made the statement on a Thanksgiving video call to US military service members.

This latest move from Trump follows the idea floated in recent weeks of a tariff \\"dividend\\" for Americans in the form of a $2,000 check. It also comes on the heels of electoral wins for Democrats across several key state and local races, where candidates stressed affordability concerns.

Trump himself has said previously that the American people are \\"paying something\\" for tariffs.

Reuters reports:

\\"Over the next couple ‍of years, I think we'll substantially be cutting and ​maybe cutting out completely,‌ but we'll be cutting income tax. Could be almost completely cutting it because the money we'⁠re taking in ​is going to ​be so large,\\" Trump told U.‍S. ⁠military service members on a video call.

Read more here.

President Trump's tariffs have created chaos for many US small businesses. When Trump threatened 180% tariffs on Chinese imports in April, small businesses scrambled to find cheaper production facilities, with many exploring Thailand. But when rates in China were cut to 20%, the alternative factories proved more costly. As a result, orders were delayed, and many businesses were left short on stock.

Reuters reports:

\\"It's been very difficult to prepare.‌ We have sold down to extremely low stock levels - we probably have about 10% of the inventory we need,\\" he said earlier this week.

For Matt Hassett, founder of New York-based sleep wellness brand Loftie, the year-end holiday rush has always kept him on his toes.

But this time, it has turned chaotic as import tariffs ​on China, from where Loftie sources its sunrise lamps and phone-free alarm clocks, disrupted supply chain.

U.S. President Donald Trump'‌s tariff flip-flop on goods from China, a lifeline for U.S. retailers, have forced small firms such as Loftie to choose between paying steep levies or finding new suppliers at even higher cost.

November and December typically account for a third of U.S. retailers' annual profits.

Other small business owners are ‍also struggling to balance inventory and changes to supplies, risking low stocks in warehouses and shelves during Black Friday.

Brooklyn-based Lo & Sons, which sells travel bags and accessories online, scouted up to eight factories between April and June in multiple countries, including India and Cambodia, before returning to its long-time supplier in China.

Read more here.

The FT reports:

Swiss euphoria at securing lower US trade tariffs has given way to a backlash over “oligarch diplomacy” and the role executives played from companies including Rolex and Richemont.

An outline agreement Washington and Bern announced this month would reduce average US levies on Swiss industrial exports from 39 per cent to 15 per cent. Swiss officials lauded the pact as a significant achievement after months of lengthy negotiations and at times deadlock with the White House.

However, the manner in which the deal was reached has drawn criticism at home that may delay the political process needed to conclude the full agreement and could threaten its ratification.

The agreement on the broad terms of a tariff deal followed a visit to the White House by top executives from watchmaker Rolex, Cartier owner Richemont, commodity trader Mercuria, private equity firm Partners Group, shipping company MSC and refiner MKS PAMP.

The executives met President Donald Trump and gave him a specially engraved gold bar and a Rolex clock as they sought to impress upon the president the damage the 39 per cent tariffs, the highest imposed on any developed economy, were wreaking on the European nation.

The president of Switzerland’s Green party Lisa Mazzone called the deal a “poisoned chalice” and said her country obtained the concessions through “dubious methods and golden handouts”. The Greens argue the pact sacrifices Swiss agriculture by opening up the heavily protected sector to imports of US products such as beef.

Read more here.

Some of China's top companies are training their AI models overseas to access Nvidia's (NVDA) chips and bypass efforts to prevent their development of the powerful technology.

Alibaba (BABA) and ByteDance are among some of the tech groups training their largest language models in data centres across south-east Asia, according to people familiar with the matter.

The FT reports:

These people said there had been a steady increase in training in offshore locations after the Trump administration moved in April to restrict sales of the H20, Nvidia’s China-only semiconductors.

“It’s an obvious choice to come here,” said one Singapore-based data centre operator. “You need the best chips to train the most cutting-edge models and it’s all legally compliant.”

Over the past year, Alibaba’s Qwen and ByteDance’s Doubao models have become among the top-performing LLMs worldwide. Qwen has also become widely adopted outside China by developers as it is a freely available “open” model.

Data centre clusters have boomed in Singapore and Malaysia, fuelled by Chinese demand. Many of these data centres are equipped with high-end Nvidia products, similar to those used by US Big Tech groups to train LLMs.

According to those familiar with the practice, Chinese companies typically sign a lease agreement to use overseas data centres owned and operated by non-Chinese entities. This is compliant with US export controls as the Biden-era “diffusion rule” designed to close this loophole was scrapped by US President Donald Trump earlier this year.

Read more here.

The price of coffee is not going down anytime soon, according to Italian roaster Illycaffe SpA. Coffee lovers hoping for a quick fix with prices will have to wait a little longer as the expected pullback from a reduction in US tariffs will take some time to materialize.

Bloomberg News reports:

The company, known for the high-end espresso sold in silver-and-red cans, plans to raise prices again in January after two increases this year, Chief Executive Officer Cristina Scocchia said in an interview.

The cost of Arabica coffee beans surged to a record last month when US tariffs on top exporter Brazil coincided with lackluster harvests across the globe. Prices have eased slightly since US President Donald Trump expanded tariff breaks for Brazilian coffee, but still remain at historically high levels.

“There is a limit to how much a company can absorb a level of green coffee price, which is so unhealthily high,” Scocchia said, referring to the surge in unroasted bean costs. “We’ll increase the price in all the countries and in all the channels.”

Read more here.

The Trump administration announced on Wednesday that it will extend tariff exemptions on hundreds of Chinese products until November 2026, citing the new trade deal between the US and China as the reason for the extension.

What this means is that the US will continue to let certain Chinese imports skip paying taxes for one year, keeping a temporary break that was already in place due to their disputes over technology and trade secrets.

Reuters reports:

\\"The extension of ​the exclusions follows the ‌historic trade and economic deal reached between President Trump and President Xi Jinping of China announced ⁠by the White ​House on ​November 1, 2025,\\" the Office ‍of ⁠the U.S. Trade Representative said in ⁠a statement.

Read more here.

Reuters reports:

South Korea’s ruling party has proposed a special bill to implement the country’s $350 billion investment pledges to the US, paving the way for American tariffs on Korean automobiles to be lowered to 15% starting this month.

The submission of the bill — which outlines how the pledged investments will be executed — was a prerequisite for reducing the 25% levy on South Korean vehicles to 15%, South Korean officials have said.

“With the introduction of this special bill, the conditions are now in place to retroactively apply the tariff cut on automobiles and auto parts — from 25% to 15% — as of Nov. 1,” South Korea’s Finance Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

South Korea notified the US Secretary of Commerce of the move and requested a prompt publication of a notice in the Federal Register to confirm the modification to the tariffs as agreed, the ministry said. The bill said that a Korea-US strategic investment fund will be established, while a separate entity dedicated to running the fund up to 20 years will be set up to ensure efficient management.

Read more here.

Bloomberg reports:

Canada will add new tariffs to a list of steel derivative products, including many US-made items, as Prime Minister Mark Carney seeks to protect an industry badly hurt by the trade war and a flood of cheap Chinese metal.

Carney announced the new 25% levy Wednesday as part of a suite of measures to help steel and softwood lumber producers. The tariff will apply to products including wind towers, prefabricated buildings, fasteners and wires. About 40% of the items on the list are typically imported from the US, a government official said in a background briefing.

The new tariff will apply starting Dec. 26.

The move marks the first time Carney has added new import taxes to US products since he dropped most of Canada’s retaliatory tariffs in September. A broad 25% tariff on US steel and aluminum remains, and the prime minister has resisted calls to match Trump’s 50% levy on those metals.

Carney has struck a conciliatory tone with Trump for months in an effort to reach a deal to lower the US sectoral tariffs. But Trump called off the talks on Oct. 23 after he was angered by an Ontario government anti-tariff ad, and it appears unlikely the negotiations will resume anytime soon.

Read more here.

President Trump said on Tuesday that China's leader Xi Jinping \\"pretty much\\" agreed to expand Beijing's purchase of US agricultural products.

“I think he’s going to very much surprise you on the upside,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Tuesday. “I think he’s going to — I asked him, ‘I’d like you to buy a little faster, I’d like you to buy a little more.’ And he’s more or less agreed to do that.”

Bloomberg News reports:

Trump and Xi held an hour-long phone call on Monday to discuss trade and ongoing tensions between China and Japan over Taiwan. Trump also spoke with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi to brief her on the conversation, and the US president described that discussion as “great.”

“I think that part of the world is doing fine,” Trump said.

China and Japan have been locked in a row after Takaichi said earlier this month that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could result in a military response from Tokyo. Beijing views the island as its own territory and has denounced Takaichi’s remarks, demanding a retraction.

Read more here.

The Trump administration is in talks with Taiwan on a trade deal that would commit Taiwan to fresh investment and training of US workers in chip manufacturing and other advanced industries, according to Reuters.

Under the agreement, Taiwanese companies, such as TSMC (TSM), the world's largest contract chipmaker, would invest new capital and workers to expand their US operations — and also train US workers.

Reuters reports:

Taiwan's exports to the United States are currently subject to a 20% tariff, and Taipei has been in talks to reduce that figure as part of ‌an overarching deal with Washington. Semiconductors, vital for all kinds of high-tech products, are currently exempt from tariffs while the U.S builds domestic capacity.

One of the people said the total U.S. investment to be pledged by Taiwan would be smaller than that of its main regional economic rivals, and ‌would include support to help Washington build science park infrastructure drawing on Taiwanese know-how. The person and others spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

South Korea and Japan have pledged a total of $350 billion and $550 billion in investment in the U.S., respectively, under deals to trim U.S. tariffs on most of their goods to 15% from 25%.

It was unclear when the Taiwan deal would close or what specifics would make it into the final agreement, according to the people. They cautioned that any deal terms could change until they were finalized in negotiations. The workforce training aspect of the deal has not previously been reported.

Read more here.

President Trump held back-to-back calls with the leaders of China and Japan on Monday, in an effort to maintain ties with allies in Tokyo while also trying to keep the one-year trade truce with Beijing in good standing.

Trump held an hourlong conversation with China's President Xi Jinping, marking the first time the two had spoken since their countries agreed to a trade truce. Tensions between Japan and China have escalated over recent weeks due to statements made by Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi over Taiwan.

Bloomberg News reports:

Japan’s new prime minister enraged Beijing by suggesting her nation’s troops could be drawn into a Taiwan crisis. Xi told his US counterpart Taiwan’s return to China was an “integral part of the postwar international order,” in a call the Chinese Foreign Ministry later said was “initiated by the US.”

“I just had a very good telephone call with President Xi,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, without making mention of Taiwan. The two leaders discussed Ukraine and elements of the pact struck in South Korea, he added: “Now we can set our sights on the big picture.”

Hours later, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi told reporters Trump reached out to reaffirm ties with Tokyo and update her on the situation with China. “We’ve been able to further confirm the close relationship between the US and Japan,” she said. “He told me I’m a very close friend and that I could call him any time.”

Stocks in Hong Kong and China cheered Trump’s efforts to prevent ties spiraling, with a tech rally leading a rise in shares.

The row between Japan and China over Taiwan — the self-ruled island Beijing considers its territory — has injected fresh uncertainty into the Trump-Xi relationship. Any hint Washington is siding with Tokyo could imperil a truce that saw the US lower fentanyl-related tariffs on Chinese goods and Beijing agree to suspend certain restrictions on the export of rare earths.

Read more here.

The Trump administration will announce an aid package for US farmers and a deal on Chinese soybean purchases within two weeks, US Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said on Monday.

Reuters reports:

The administration of President Donald Trump has said for months that it would issue aid for farmers hit by low crop prices and trade disputes, but has not yet issued any plan or amount for the aid. U.S. farmers lost billions in soybean sales this year as top buyer China turned to Brazil and Argentina amid tense trade talks with Washington.

\\"We'll have an announcement probably in the next week or two on what that's going to look like,\\" Rollins, the head of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, told CNBC of the farmer aid.

The American Farm Bureau Federation said on Monday that the aid is \\"urgently needed\\" as farmers face the compounding pressures of higher input costs and lower crop prices.

In October, after Trump met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea, China agreed to buy 12 million metric tons of American soybeans through January, according to the Trump administration. China purchased nearly 1.6 million metric tons of soybeans over three days last week, its largest single-week tally in two years, buoying crop prices.

Read more here.

Reuters reports:

Two cargo vessels were headed for grain port terminals near New Orleans on Monday to load with the first U.S. soybean shipments to China since May, according ‌to a shipping schedule seen by Reuters.

A third vessel was en route to a Texas Gulf Coast grain ‌terminal to be loaded with China-bound U.S. sorghum in the coming days in what will be the first American shipment of the feed grain to China since mid-March, the shipping schedule showed.

U.S. farmers and grain traders have been ⁠awaiting shipments to China to ‌resume after Beijing shunned U.S. crops for months due to a trade war with Washington, costing U.S. farmers ‍billions on lost trade.

China has booked nearly 2 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans and a smaller volume of wheat since a meeting between presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping in ​South Korea in late October, when the White House said Beijing agreed to ‌buy 12 million tons of soybeans by the end of the year. China has not confirmed the deal and questions about the agreement or when any sales would ship have fueled uncertainty in grain markets.

Read more here.

Bloomberg reports:

The European Union’s antitrust chief ruled out easing the bloc’s tech rulebook, after US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Brussels needed to change its digital regulations in order to get a deal to lower steel and aluminum tariffs.

Lutnick said in an interview with Bloomberg on Monday that the US would grant the EU a “cool steel and aluminum” agreement in exchange for rolling back its tech rules. The US imposes a 50% levy on European imports of the metals.

“The European digital rulebook is not up for negotiation,” Teresa Ribera, a vice president at the European Commission, said in a statement late Monday. “We, Europeans, have adopted our rules to ensure fair markets and to protect consumers rights while securing Europe’s digital future.”

Lutnick’s direct linkage between steel duties and tech rules puts the EU in a difficult position as it struggles to win tariff exemptions from the US. President Donald Trump has chided the EU — which he has said was created to “screw” the US — over its trade surplus in goods and perceived barriers to American trade.

Read more here.

President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping spoke Monday for the first time since the US and China agreed to a trade truce. Though the call touched on trade issues, Bloomberg reports the focus was on China's increased tensions with Japan over the self-governing island of Taiwan:

Xi told Trump that the return of Taiwan to China is a key part of the post-World War II international order, according to a statement on the call. The Chinese leader also said the two countries should keep the positive momentum generated during their meeting last month in South Korea and expand cooperation, the statement said. [...]

An ongoing row between Japan and China centered around Taiwan threatens to inject fresh tensions into the Trump-Xi relationship and complicate ties, after the world’s two largest economies reached a trade truce in October.

That deal saw Washington lower tariffs on Chinese goods and Beijing agree to remove certain restrictions on the export of rare earths. Any flare-up between the US and China could cause further uncertainty for markets and business leaders.

New Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said earlier this month that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could result in a military response from Tokyo. Beijing views the island as its own territory and has denounced Takaichi’s remarks, demanding a retraction.

Since then, China has issued a no-travel advisory for Japan, suspended the screening of some Japanese films and banned the import of Japanese seafood. Both countries have also stepped up military drills, with China announcing patrols in the East China Sea and Japan announcing plans to deploy missiles to an area near Taiwan.

Read more here.

US Commerce Secretary Lutnick has told the EU that before the US considers lowering tariffs on steel and aluminum the EU needs to change its digital regulations.

“We are talking to them about” rolling back EU tech rules, Lutnick said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. “In exchange for that, we will come up with a cool steel and aluminum deal.”

Bloomberg News reports:

Lutnick and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer were in Brussels on Monday for their first official visit since reaching a trade deal with the EU in July.

The deal set a 15% US tariff on many EU goods, while the EU pledged to erase tariffs on US industrial products as well as some agriculture and food items. The two sides also vowed to keep working to lower other tariffs, including a 50% levy on EU steel and aluminum, which the bloc has now matched with its own 50% tariff on steel imports above a certain quota.

Read more here.

Bloomberg News reports:

Russia’s flagship Urals crude is being offered to India’s refiners at the cheapest price in at least two years after US sanctions on top producers Rosneft PJSC and Lukoil PJSC upended a lucrative trade.

The price of Urals for Indian refiners has slipped to a discount of as much as $7 a barrel to Dated Brent on a delivered basis, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing sensitive information. The offer is for cargoes loading in December and arriving in January, they added.

Most Indian refiners have skipped placing orders for Russian crude that would arrive after sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil took effect last week, all but ending a trade that flourished after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, as India took advantage of a steady flow of cheaper oil.

Read more here.

Contrary to earlier reports, the European Union said that no discussions to lower tariffs on steel and other products will take place with US officials on Monday.

“Today it’s not about negotiations, it’s about the stock-taking exercise,” EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic told reporters before the bloc’s trade ministers met with senior US officials.

US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer are in Brussels for the first time since the EU and US reached a trade agreement in July.

Earlier reports had indicated that the EU was preparing to urge the US to implement more of the July trade deal, such as reducing US tariffs on EU steel and removing them from EU goods, such as wine and spirits.

EU ministers plan to discuss pressing issues such as Chinese rare earth and chip export restrictions. Under the trade deal agreed between the US and EU in July, the US decided to set 15% tariffs on most EU goods. But while insisting the process is on course, there are some key items on which it wants to see progress.

Bloomberg News reports:

The deal set a 15% US tariff on many EU goods, while the EU pledged to erase tariffs on US industrial products as well as some agriculture and food items. The two sides also vowed to keep working to lower other tariffs, including a 50% levy on EU steel and aluminum, which the bloc has now matched with its own 50% tariff on steel imports above a certain quota.

Lutnick and Greer will discuss the pact over lunch with EU trade ministers.

“This is also about the political assessment of the EU-US bilateral relations,” Sefcovic said.

EU officials are expected to press Lutnick and Greer over Washington’s decision to expand its 50% steel and aluminum tariff to more than 400 EU products, which prompted concerns the trade deal is being hollowed out.

The US has expressed its own concerns that the EU is not implementing the deal fast enough, given the European Parliament has not even formally ratified the pact. Washington is also pushing to dilute the bloc’s digital and environmental regulations.

Read more here.

At the G-20 summit in South Africa, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said the world can make progress on issues without the US, which is boycotting the gathering at President Donald Trump's direction.

Bloomberg reports:

The summit “brought together nations representing three-quarters of the world’s population, two-thirds of global GDP and three-quarters of the world’s trade, and that’s without the United States formally attending,” Carney told a press conference in Johannesburg on Sunday. “It’s a reminder that the center of gravity in the global economy is shifting.”

Carney took office earlier this year after running a campaign that pushed back against Trump’s imposition of tariffs on its northern neighbor and suggestions it could become part of US territory. Carney has focused on reducing the Canadian economy’s reliance on the US.

At the press conference, he detailed his attempts to strengthen ties with nations ranging from South Africa to India and China.

Carney emphasized that he won’t have his agenda dictated by Trump.

“I’ll speak to him again when it matters,” he said. “I don’t have a burning issue to speak with the president about right now. When America wants to come back and have the discussions on the trade side, we will have those discussions.”

Read more here.

As the US Supreme Court rules against President Trump's tariffs, the White House is quietly working on a backup plans, Bloomberg reports, which would aim to quickly replace the tariffs.

Both the Commerce Department and the Office of the US Trade Representative have studied Plan B options if the court rules against the administration, according to US officials familiar with the planning. Those include Section 301 and Section 122 of the Trade Act, which grant the president unilateral ability to impose duties.

The replacements come with risks — they tend to be either slower or more limited than the wide-ranging powers Trump has asserted so far and could face their own legal challenges. The administration is holding out hope that it will win the case outright. Trump has repeatedly urged the justices to uphold his country-based tariffs, which he imposed by citing an economic emergency.

Still, the preparations are the latest signal the administration is bracing for a potential unfavorable outcome, after the court appeared skeptical of Trump’s global tariffs during this month’s oral arguments. They also show Trump’s commitment to imposing tariffs, including through untested means. One administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that tariffs will remain a core part of Trump’s economic agenda regardless of the court’s decision.

“We’re waiting for a decision. We hope it’s going to be good, but if it’s not, we’ll do — we always find ways, you know, we find ways,” Trump said Wednesday.

The White House declined to comment on the specifics of its preparations but acknowledged it’s seeking “new ways” to maintain Trump’s trade policy.

It's not clear when the court will rule.

Read more here.