President Donald Trump has instructed the Treasury Department to increase sanctions "to bring President [Vladimir] Putin to the table," if necessary, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said. He stated that Trump had "instructed [him] to rethink the sanctions regime" and that the administration is "going for the maximum impact sanctions."
The United States is interested in negotiating a new free trade agreement with India, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told an Indian audience on March 8.
Canada opened a dispute at the World Trade Organization on March 5 to challenge the new U.S.-imposed 25% tariff on all non-energy goods and 10% tariff on energy goods from Canada, claiming that the measure violates the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade "as well as the WTO's Trade Facilitation Agreement." Canada said that the U.S. measures "appear to be inconsistent with the United States' obligations" under GATT and TFA provisions.
China used forced labor from North Korean nationals on its tuna fishing vessels, advocacy group Environmental Justice Foundation said in a report published Feb. 23. EJF found evidence that North Koreans worked on 12 Chinese vessels and were subject to "physical abuse, verbal abuse and excessive overtime."
The U.S. needs to expand its export controls on semiconductor manufacturing equipment to focus on "foundational" chips and not just advanced ones, policy analyst Dmitri Alperovitch said.
The Trump administration may be beginning to favor the use of trade policy tools like tariffs to replace sanctions to compel foreign policy, researchers said on a podcast hosted by the Center for a New American Security last week.
U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan this week called for a rethink of strategic technology controls and suggested that the incoming Trump administration look to build on the Biden administration's export control modernization efforts.