As the United States marks the 250th anniversary of its founding, it confronts a new world order dominated by its relationship with China. Xinyi Wu examines how changes to Washington’s trade policy have reverberated through the formerly secure international economic order. The first major piece of legislation passed by the U.S. after the adoption of its constitution was the Tariff Act of 1789.
Donald Trump's summer is over. Now it's back to the hard stuff: the conflict in the Middle East, the economy, and the midterm elections, which are less than four months away. Trump's job-approval rating on the economy is in the cellar: thirty-two per cent.
Will Aarons and Asani Sarkar use data from the 2025 edition of the Small Business Credit Survey to explore the impact of tariffs on small businesses. They find that the majority of national firms in the goods and retail sectors reported experiencing financial challenges due to tariffs in 2025. About 80 percent of national and regional firms passed on at least some of the higher costs of imported inputs to customers, while about 60 percent absorbed some of them.
Rising prices pose a challenge for the GOP ahead of the November elections. New York Federal Reserve's report suggests that companies will continue to pass the costs of tariffs on to their consumers, despite the prevailing belief that the duties had already resulted in a "one-time" adjustment. Survey shows that 40 percent of service sector firms and 70 percent of manufacturers reported paying tariffs directly over the past year.
The IEA report explains why oil prices didn't skyrocket during the Iran war. The U.S. and Israeli strikes closed the Strait of Hormuz in February, cutting off a fifth of the world's crude oil supply. Oil producers responded to the shock with increased output and sales.
U.S. exports to Canada and Mexico have moved in opposite directions. Canada's total exports in the first quarter of 2026 fell roughly $5 billion below the 2022-2024 average. Mexico's exports in 2026 rose sharply. Canada placed retaliatory tariffs on a range of American goods in early 2025 and kept them in place even after dropping most of the other counter-tariffs. Mexico moved in the opposite direction with agriculture increasing by 0.7% and industrial goods by 13.1%.
Stephen Miran wrote an op-ed in the WSJ arguing that optimal tariffs should be in the region of 10% to 40%. In a blog post Julia Qin commented on this topic. Stephen is skeptical about the existence of an optimal tariff. Miran argues that recent Trump administration tariffs prove that retaliation by trading partners will be much less than expected.
In June, the Office of the US Trade Representative proposed a new 25 percent tariff on various Brazilian products. This is the latest development in what has been a very up-and-down year for US-Brazil trade. US imports of Brazilian products have declined this year in response to the succession of US tariff measures. However, despite the ongoing trade tensions, US exports to Brazil have continued to grow.
The US government has already paid back tens of billions of dollars in tariffs it collected before the supreme court ruled them illegal. The US has paid out $81bn (£61bn) in tariff refunds so far this fiscal year, which started in October 2025, compared with $5bn during the same period last year. Trump had pitched the tariffs as a catch-all fix for the economy, bringing factories back to the US and getting better trade deals.
This Week in Canada is a weekly look at events in Canada and the United States. This week, we look at a freight train coming from San Diego to Los Angeles and the expansion of Toyota's manufacturing facility in San Antonio, Texas. We also talk about the death penalty and Air Canada.
As the United States marks the 250th anniversary of its founding, it confronts a new world order dominated by its relationship with China. Xinyi Wu examines how changes to Washington’s trade policy have reverberated through the formerly secure international economic order. The first major piece of legislation passed by the U.S. after the adoption of its constitution was the Tariff Act of 1789.
Donald Trump's summer is over. Now it's back to the hard stuff: the conflict in the Middle East, the economy, and the midterm elections, which are less than four months away. Trump's job-approval rating on the economy is in the cellar: thirty-two per cent.
Will Aarons and Asani Sarkar use data from the 2025 edition of the Small Business Credit Survey to explore the impact of tariffs on small businesses. They find that the majority of national firms in the goods and retail sectors reported experiencing financial challenges due to tariffs in 2025. About 80 percent of national and regional firms passed on at least some of the higher costs of imported inputs to customers, while about 60 percent absorbed some of them.
Rising prices pose a challenge for the GOP ahead of the November elections. New York Federal Reserve's report suggests that companies will continue to pass the costs of tariffs on to their consumers, despite the prevailing belief that the duties had already resulted in a "one-time" adjustment. Survey shows that 40 percent of service sector firms and 70 percent of manufacturers reported paying tariffs directly over the past year.
The IEA report explains why oil prices didn't skyrocket during the Iran war. The U.S. and Israeli strikes closed the Strait of Hormuz in February, cutting off a fifth of the world's crude oil supply. Oil producers responded to the shock with increased output and sales.
U.S. exports to Canada and Mexico have moved in opposite directions. Canada's total exports in the first quarter of 2026 fell roughly $5 billion below the 2022-2024 average. Mexico's exports in 2026 rose sharply. Canada placed retaliatory tariffs on a range of American goods in early 2025 and kept them in place even after dropping most of the other counter-tariffs. Mexico moved in the opposite direction with agriculture increasing by 0.7% and industrial goods by 13.1%.
Stephen Miran wrote an op-ed in the WSJ arguing that optimal tariffs should be in the region of 10% to 40%. In a blog post Julia Qin commented on this topic. Stephen is skeptical about the existence of an optimal tariff. Miran argues that recent Trump administration tariffs prove that retaliation by trading partners will be much less than expected.
In June, the Office of the US Trade Representative proposed a new 25 percent tariff on various Brazilian products. This is the latest development in what has been a very up-and-down year for US-Brazil trade. US imports of Brazilian products have declined this year in response to the succession of US tariff measures. However, despite the ongoing trade tensions, US exports to Brazil have continued to grow.
The US government has already paid back tens of billions of dollars in tariffs it collected before the supreme court ruled them illegal. The US has paid out $81bn (£61bn) in tariff refunds so far this fiscal year, which started in October 2025, compared with $5bn during the same period last year. Trump had pitched the tariffs as a catch-all fix for the economy, bringing factories back to the US and getting better trade deals.
This Week in Canada is a weekly look at events in Canada and the United States. This week, we look at a freight train coming from San Diego to Los Angeles and the expansion of Toyota's manufacturing facility in San Antonio, Texas. We also talk about the death penalty and Air Canada.