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International trade

Grain buyers from Japan check out the corn on Rod Pierce's farm near Woodward, Iowa.

Will Iowa farmers benefit from Trump’s newest deals with China and Japan?

The United States and Japan have signed a tentative trade deal that would open up Japan to more American-grown wheat, pork and beef.

A container ship at the port of New Orleans. China is the US’ largest trading partner — the US imported $540 billion worth of goods from China last year.

Trump says trade wars are ‘easy to win.’ (They’re not.)

Sea Eagle Boats in Long Island, NY has been selling inflatable kayaks since 1968. The small company has manufactured its vessels overseas since the company’s inception, and now imports from China. 

Trump’s tariffs are causing major anxiety for the American boating industry

Business, Economics and Jobs
several house democrats celebrating on a stage after their majority house win

Two economic policies likely to change with Democrats in control of House

President Donald Trump, surrounded by business leaders and administration officials, prepares to sign a memorandum on intellectual property tariffs on high-tech goods from China, at the White House in Washington, March 22, 2018.

Economists to Trump: You’re dead wrong on tariff revenues

Economics
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stands along side European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and European Council President Donald Tusk with EU and Japan flags behind them.

Japan, EU sign free trade pact amid worries about Trump

Japan and the European Union signed a wide-ranging free trade deal on Tuesday that both sides hope will act as a counterweight to the protectionist forces unleashed by US President Donald Trump.

Kenny Fox at his cattle ranch in Belvidere, South Dakota. Fox, who is a third-generation South Dakota rancher, would like his sons to be able to continue in his footsteps, but worries that the economics are making it too difficult.

Two South Dakota cattle ranchers, two opinions on NAFTA

Economics

US beef exports to Canada and Mexico are way up since NAFTA came into effect in 1994. But so are imports to the US.

trade

US announces steel and aluminum tariffs; German cars could be next

Global Politics

US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told reporters on a telephone briefing that a 25 percent tariff on steel imports and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum imports from the EU, Canada and Mexico would go into effect at midnight.

Workers use machines to move containers. The vehicles are dwarfed by tall stacks of containers — piled about six high — on all sides.

Why China can’t meet Trump’s $200 billion trade demand

Business, Economics and Jobs

There are three ways to reduce the $375 billion deficit — but all of them are long shots.

Alabama employs roughly 3,000 people working with farmed catfish. The domestic industry has been cut in about half over the past 15 years, primarily due to competition from Vietnam.

The great catfish war rages on

Economics

We’ve been hearing a lot about tariffs and trade wars. To look at how trade disputes can escalate, look at a 17-year-old skirmish between the US and Vietnam, and their fight over catfish.