Symbolic imageCanada is racing to seal an agreement with Washington before the threatened 50% tariff lands, Bloomberg reports, with more than $2bn in goods crossing the border daily. Trump is meanwhile pairing the tariffs with about $3bn in critical-minerals deals to loosen China's grip.
Since last year the Trump administration has attempted three successive versions of a broad tariff on most US trading partners, each time under a different legal authority. The first, reciprocal duties of 10% to 50% justified as a way to shrink the trade deficit, rested on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and was ruled unlawful by the Supreme Court in February, which held that the president cannot bypass Congress in this way. A universal 10% tariff introduced in January to replace it was then struck down by the US Court of International Trade, though the court allowed it to remain in force while an appeal proceeded; it lapsed on 24 July 2026. The latest measures were built on a different statute, Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, and on forced-labour enforcement grounds. The recurring issue across all three rounds is the limit of executive authority over trade policy, and each round has drawn both diplomatic protest from trading partners and lawsuits from US importers.
Prime Minister Mark Carney is offering the United States concessions in trade talks to prevent 50 percent tariffs on many Canadian goods scheduled for this month, the New York Times reported. Ottawa is at the same time demanding a comprehensive agreement.
Trump announced about $3 billion in mining projects and critical-minerals agreements with several mining companies at a roundtable on American mining, part of a push to curb China's dominance over strategic materials. He also ordered a new 15% tariff on imported products made of polysilicon, used in solar panels and microchips, and his administration is to award $2 billion to battery and materials companies.
Chinese rare-earth exports fell 10% between January and July, with shipments to Japan and the United States plunging after new export restrictions, according to Global Times and Nikkei Asia. Beijing plans to raise annual output capacity by 50% at the Bayan Obo mine in Inner Mongolia, the world's largest rare-earth deposit, investing more than $74 million, the South China Morning Post reports.
Donald Trump signed a proclamation on Thursday imposing a 15 per cent tariff and price floors on polysilicon, a key material for solar panels and semiconductors. The tariff is to take effect after 120 days.
China launched a cybersecurity investigation into products made by the US firm Palo Alto Networks. Bloomberg reports the move is part of an expanding legal arsenal that Xi is using to warn Trump ahead of the two leaders' summit.
The Trump administration has refunded importers about $100bn of the "liberation day" tariffs, roughly 60% of what it collected. The Supreme Court ruled the levies illegal in February.
China announced a package of countermeasures on Wednesday against recent US trade and technology restrictions. The package targets American companies, drone-related exports and imported office equipment.
New York, California and 23 other states sued the Trump administration over its new tariffs, El País reported on Tuesday. They accuse the president of using a legal loophole to replace import taxes that the Supreme Court had struck down or that had expired.
The Guardian reported on Tuesday that the Trump administration's Federal Communications Commission is drafting a measure to bar US imports of new models of Chinese datacentre devices, including optical transceivers. An expert cited by Global Times said such a ban would raise costs for US service providers and slow AI infrastructure expansion.
Washington blacklisted 43 Chinese companies over forced labour, among them producers of dumplings and roasted seeds, Global Times reported on Monday. The Chinese state outlet, which calls the forced-labour grounds a pretext, said the selection drew ridicule from Chinese social media users.
Twenty-five mostly Democratic-led US states sued the Trump administration on Monday over tariffs of 10 and 12.5 percent on 60 trading partners. They argue the president exceeded his authority to tax imports.
China has set out 'red lines' around its economic model ahead of trade negotiations with the European Union and the United States, Reuters reported on Sunday. The talks with both partners are still to come.
China intends to defend itself against a new US import ban, Handelsblatt reported on Sunday. The report on the trade dispute was available only as a headline summary, without detail on the goods covered.
China has a way to respond to the new US sanctions bill targeting Russia and its trading partners, Jake Werner, director of the East Asia Program at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, told TASS on Saturday. He said the bill has the potential to trigger a crisis in US-China relations.
The industry association BDI said a 'China shock 2.0' is hitting German industry hard, Handelsblatt reported on Sunday. The report deals with trade relations between the two countries; further detail was not available.
A recent US executive order requires major arms manufacturers to trace their multi-tier supply chains and actively phase out Chinese rare earths, the South China Morning Post reported. The measure is aimed at ending years of reliance on cheap minerals from China.
A Chinese business delegation travelled to the United States after a bilateral trade video call, and a Chinese expert quoted by Global Times urged Washington to show sincerity. US Senator Steve Daines is expected to return to Beijing for another round of talks ahead of Xi Jinping's planned September visit to Washington, the South China Morning Post reports, citing people familiar with the preparations.
The White House on Friday added 43 Chinese companies to the import blacklist meant to block goods made with alleged forced labour in Xinjiang, the third such move that week, according to the South China Morning Post; Global Times put the number at 40. Beijing called the additions economic coercion and vowed countermeasures.
President Donald Trump ordered restrictions on exports of waste containing recoverable critical materials, with the Commerce Department to determine their scope, according to documents published on the White House website and reported by TASS on Friday. The Wall Street Journal reported separately that businesses are treating persistently higher US tariffs as a lasting condition rather than a temporary shock.
Vice-Premier He Lifeng held a video call on Thursday with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and the US trade representative, raising 'serious concern' over recent American economic restrictions. Bessent said Washington urged Beijing to fully meet its commitments on rare earths.
Some US brands are moving factory production back to China because Trump's tariff structure has changed the economic logic that earlier favoured relocation, the New York Times reported, while Le Monde writes that his new tariff architecture may survive court challenges without becoming sound economic policy. In The Guardian, columnist Matt Gurney argues that Trump has singled out Canada for especially harsh treatment and that Mark Carney and Canada's regional leaders cannot give in because doing so would be toxic with voters.
Brazil's government requested consultations with the World Trade Organization over the new tariffs Washington imposed on Brazilian goods, Breitbart reported. India was spared the harshest of the US 'forced labour' tariff action while a broader trade deal remains unresolved, and Trump said he is unwilling to extend the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement he signed in 2018, according to TASS.
China's government released a position paper rebutting US and European claims that its industry is building excess capacity, which experts cited by Global Times called a systematic response to those narratives. A Chinese official called Washington's Section 301 investigation unilateral and said Beijing reserves the right to take measures to defend its interests.
Washington's new Section 301 duties of 10% to 12.5%, imposed on some 60 countries over allegedly weak enforcement of forced-labour bans, are now in force and cover 99.4% of US imports according to the US Trade Representative. Switzerland has rejected the forced-labour accusations used to justify its levy, while the United States is pressing Mexico to copy its steel tariff wall aimed at China. The measures are being challenged in US courts, months after the Supreme Court struck down an earlier round of tariffs.
US President Donald Trump has threatened retaliatory tariff measures against the European Union in response to the bloc's antitrust fine on Google, Le Monde reports. The threat comes a year after the transatlantic trade agreement that was meant to bring stability and dampens European hopes of a lasting de-escalation.
Washington has escalated its trade measures against Canada, and Ontario's provincial leadership is pressing the federal government to retaliate using oil, electricity and potash as leverage, while Ottawa has not yet decided on a response. In parallel, the average weighted US tariff on Chinese goods has remained roughly unchanged despite repeated threats from the White House, according to the New York Times. Both strands sit inside the third US tariff regime in under a year, now built on Section 301 of the Trade Act.
Brent crude has closed above $100 a barrel for the first time since late May, with the Strait of Hormuz blocked by the US-Iran war and the Red Sea disrupted by Houthi attacks on Saudi oil vessels. In the same week the United States began enforcing duties of 10% to 12.5% on more than 60 economies, its third tariff regime in under a year. Analysts warn that the two shocks reinforce each other instead of cancelling out, compounding inflation and growth risks worldwide.
Washington imposed new duties of 10% to 12.5% on more than 60 economies at 12:01 a.m. on Friday, 24 July 2026, the moment its previous universal 10% tariff expired. The White House based the measures on Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 and on allegations that the targeted countries fail to enforce bans on goods made with forced labour. Trading partners from the EU to China, Brazil and Australia objected, and US small businesses filed suit the same day.