Trade Policy News
Follow developments in American trade policy, from free trade agreements to protectionist measures, with reporting and conservative analysis.
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opinion
Victor Davis Hanson: Canadians Feel Real Pain in Stage 4 of Trade War
Editor’s note: This is a lightly edited transcript of today’s video from Daily Signal senior contributor Victor Davis Hanson. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to see more of his videos. Hello, this is Victor Davis Hanson for the Daily Signal. I’d like to offer an update on the Canadian-American trade spat. Earlier, I had staged it. I… -
opinion
Victor Davis Hanson: The US Has Entered Stage 3 in the Trade War With Canada
Editor’s note: This is a lightly edited transcript of today’s video from Daily Signal senior contributor Victor Davis Hanson. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to see more of his videos. Hello, this is Victor Davis Hanson for the Daily Signal. The philosopher Heraclitus, an ancient Greek philosopher, once said that you don’t step into the same river… -
news
Canada’s Retaliatory Tariffs Take Effect as US Trade Talks Stall
OTTAWA, Sept. 8 (REUTERS)—Canada’s retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods took effect just after midnight on Tuesday as Prime Minister Mark Carney increased economic pressure on his country’s biggest trading partner after negotiations collapsed last month, intensifying an 18-month-old trade war. The counter-tariffs cover $20 billion of U.S. goods, with duties ranging from 15% to 50% across products… -
opinion
Victor Davis Hanson: Carney Picked a Trade War With Trump—But Why?
Editor’s note: This is a lightly edited transcript of the latest edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words” from Daily Signal senior contributor Victor Davis Hanson. Subscribe to Victor Davis Hanson’s own YouTube channel to watch past episodes. Victor Davis Hanson: Canada, everybody likes Canada. Come on. We all have—I have a brother-in-law who’s Canadian… -
opinion
Victor Davis Hanson: Canada Is Picking the Wrong Fight With Trump
Editor’s note: This is a lightly edited transcript of today’s video from Daily Signal senior contributor Victor Davis Hanson. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to see more of his videos. Hello, this is Victor Davis Hanson for the Daily Signal. We’re in another spat with our northern neighbor, Canada, kind of a psychodrama again. We were… -
breaking
Trump Responds to Concerns About Canada Trade War Raising US Prices
President Donald Trump brushed off affordability concerns related to his trade war with Canada in response to a question from the Daily Signal on Thursday. Earlier this week, Trump announced he will impose tariffs on Canadian cars amid his trade war with our neighbor to the north. He has called Canada “one of the worst… -
news
Canada Announces Retaliatory Tariffs; Trump Proposes ‘Lake America’
Canada is retaliating against the United States with new tariffs and President Donald Trump is floating changing the name of Lake Ontario to “Lake America” in the latest salvos in the weekslong trade dispute between Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. “The United States is giving serious consideration to changing the name of Lake… -
news
US Bars Imports From 43 More Companies Over China’s Alleged Forced Labor Involving Uyghurs
REUTERS—The United States on Friday banned imports from 43 more companies over alleged human rights abuses of Uyghur and other minority groups, including Hunan Aihua Group, one of China’s largest capacitor manufacturers, according to a government posting. The companies were added to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List, which restricts the import of goods… -
opinion
Keep Chinese Humanoid Robots Out of US Markets
The United States is about to import the next generation of surveillance technology—not in the form of apps or routers but embodied in humanoid robots built by Chinese companies. These machines could become the next frontier of Chinese Communist Party surveillance, and Washington shouldn’t let them flood the U.S. market. Humanoid robots are programmed to… -
news
America Is ‘LOSING the Ability to Feed Itself’: Senator Proposes Tariff Bill to Save US Agriculture
Amid domestic economic struggles, Sen. Bill Cassidy announced Thursday that he will introduce a bill to raise tariff quotas on food and agricultural products. The Louisiana Republican’s Home Market Restoration Act of 2026 would raise tariff rates to protect products from his home state such as shrimp, rice, honey, and beef—tariff rates that Congress has… -
opinion
Why Are We Arming Our Adversary in the AI Race?
Imagine if, during the space race with the Soviet Union, General Electric and Boeing, storied American giants in the space race, had been selling key components designed for Apollo 11 to the Russians. There would have been a national outcry. Our companies built and fueled NASA’s race to the moon. While national pride was a… -
opinion
Big Business Bows Down in Beijing
Among the $308.37 billion in goods that the United States imported from China in 2025, the No. 1 category was described by the Census Bureau as “cell phones and other household goods.” Americans last year purchased $39,246,893,116 worth of these items manufactured in that communist regime. Not surprisingly, Tim Cook, the chief executive officer of… -
news
WATCH: Colombia’s Sweet Strategy to Defeat the Cocaine Trade
MIAMI—Colombian officials are working to eliminate the nation’s illicit cocaine trade and replace it with chocolate. “We say to the world, ‘Please buy cocoa, not coca,’” Defense Minister Pedro Arnulfo Sanchez told The Daily Signal at the Miami Security Forum. Thousands of acres of farmland in Colombia have been converted from growing coca crops, the… -
opinion
Post-Brexit Britain Gains Prosperity via Trade Freedom, but Tax-and-Spend Policies Threaten These Gains
In the months and years before Britain voted to leave the European Union in 2016, Brexit’s enemies based their case overwhelmingly on economic arguments. That is what they have always done. The reason is simple: The political case for the European Union in Britain is not popular, because it means subordinating the elected House of… -
opinion
Time to Act on a Trade Deal With Taiwan
In a recent joint letter to U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., chairman of the Senate Finance subcommittee on international trade, customs, and global competitiveness, and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, ranking member on the trade subcommittee, made a case for strategic trade reengagement in the Indo-Pacific region. The two senators pointed out,… -
opinion
Biden Administration Should Say No to New Trade Deals With China
In her first media interview since being confirmed United States trade representative, Katherine Tai said last week she is in no rush to lift tariffs associated with the Trump administration’s U.S.-China Phase One trade deal. She should reconsider. Tai’s stated reasoning for maintaining the tariffs is that they provide useful negotiating leverage. Which is kind… -
opinion
On 1st Anniversary, China Phase One Trade Deal Has Not Aged Well
Jan. 15 marks one year since the U.S. and China signed a bilateral agreement, known as the Phase One deal, establishing new rules on trade. After a full year, and as a new administration and Congress assume power, it’s important to evaluate the effectiveness of the deal at achieving its goals. It’s not a pretty… -
opinion
Here’s What China Isn’t Buying as Part of the Phase 1 Trade Deal
There’s a lot of media coverage of what U.S.-made goods China is supposed to be buying as a part of the administration’s trade deal with China (aka the “Phase One” deal). But the deal covers only about two-thirds of U.S. annual exports to China. Last year, the U.S. exported $106 billion worth of goods to… -
opinion
Trump’s Trade Czar Details Monitoring of Chinese Compliance With Phase One Deal
When U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer testified before the House Ways and Means and Senate Finance committees last month on the Trump administration’s trade policies, much of the discussion was focused on the progress of the Phase One Economic and Trade Agreement with China. Lighthizer was able to shed some light on how his agency… -
news
Amid Impeachment Trial, Trump Signs Major Trade Deal With Canada, Mexico
President Donald Trump has signed the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the trade deal replacing the Clinton-era North American Free Trade Agreement, keeping a key campaign promise on trade that strayed somewhat from Republican tradition. “This is something we really put our heart into,” Trump said at the bill-signing ceremony Wednesday on the South Lawn outside the White…