By Simon Kaye, CEO, Jaguar Freight In late July, the U.S. and EU reached a provisional trade agreement to avert what could have become a full-blown trade war. A central provision of the agreement was that the U.S. would impose a 15% tariff on most EU exports, which was significantly lower than the previously threatened 30%, but triple the average 4.8 percent that European goods faced before Trump took office in January. In return, the EU pledged significant financial and energy...

Last week, President Trump signed an executive order that extends the suspension of high U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods for another 90 days. Without the extension, tariffs would have returned to the peak levels of 145% on Chinese imports and 125% on U.S. goods that were seen in April. Since May, both sides have maintained reduced rates of 30% for the U.S. and 10% for China. Of course, what this means is uncertainty continues to prevail for now. U.S. containerized imports surged...

In tariffs news… the main story is that many of the long-promised country-specific tariffs went into effect on August 7. Hopefully, supply chains can move forward with more certainty and the true market impacts can begin to be understood. In an important country-specific update, President Trump issued an executive order (click to read) announcing an additional 25% tariff on India as punishment for importing Russian oil. Speaking of market clarity for importers, as part of the U.S. Maritime Administration’s recently introduced...

Key Takeaways • The White House has announced a broader set of country-specific tariffs, with some higher than expected, such as the 39% tariff on imports from Switzerland. • We see announced tariffs as possibly resulting in a 4-percentage-point (pp) drag on 2025 MSCI AC World earnings growth. • Combined with signs of economic slowdown, the tariffs could raise questions about how sustainable continued near-term upside is for equity markets. In a new report from Citi Research, a team of equity strategists led...

Strong trade relationship with the United States The United States has been one of Port of Antwerp-Bruges’ most important trading partners for over two decades. In 2024, the US accounted for approximately 10% of the port’s total maritime cargo traffic, with a trade volume of 28 million tonnes. Both import and export took place on a large scale, with slightly more imports than exports. • Container traffic was the largest segment in transatlantic trade, totaling over 14 million tonnes of goods. Exports...

What happened? Since the Trump administration’s July 7 announcement delaying implementation of reciprocal tariffs from July 9 to August 1, the United States has reached preliminary framework trade agreements with the European Union (EU), Japan, Indonesia, and the Philippines (see PwC's Tax Insights dated July 11, July 18, and July 30). Preliminary trade agreements with China and Vietnam also have been reached and a trade agreement with the United Kingdom has been finalized. Following the release of our July 30...