Global Pulse

分类： business

  • Founder of China’s Evergrande sentenced to life in prison

    Founder of China’s Evergrande sentenced to life in prison

    In a landmark ruling that closes one of the most high-profile chapters of China’s ongoing property sector crisis, Hui Ka Yan, the founder of embattled real estate giant Evergrande Group, has received a life sentence and an order for the full confiscation of his personal assets. The verdict was handed down by China’s Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court, following a guilty plea entered by Hui in April on multiple corruption charges, including large-scale embezzlement of corporate assets and corporate bribery.

    Alongside the sentence for Hui, the court also imposed heavy financial penalties on the troubled conglomerate itself: Evergrande Group has been fined 8.82 billion yuan, equal to approximately $1.31 billion or £960 million, while the firm’s core real estate subsidiary has been ordered to pay an additional 7 billion yuan in fines, according to official Chinese state media reports.

    The 66-year-old tycoon, who also goes by the name Xu Jiayin, built his business empire from extremely humble origins. Born into a rural family in southern China, he was raised primarily by his grandmother before entering the property development industry and founding Evergrande in 1996. Over the following two and a half decades, Hui guided Evergrande through an extraordinary period of expansion, fueled by an aggressive growth strategy that relied heavily on massive borrowing from domestic banks and global capital markets. At its peak, Evergrande claimed the title of China’s largest residential developer, boasting a public market valuation that exceeded $50 billion, and Hui was for years ranked among the wealthiest people in Asia.

    That meteoric rise came to an abrupt end in 2021, when Evergrande defaulted on more than $300 billion in outstanding debt, triggering a cascading collapse that sent shockwaves through China’s entire $60 trillion real estate industry. The company’s implosion is widely credited with sparking the broader housing market slump that has persisted for three years, and which continues to act as a major drag on China’s overall economic growth, leaving thousands of unfinished residential projects, millions of stranded homebuyers, and billions in losses for domestic and international investors.

    Legal analysts and economic observers describe Hui’s sentencing as a defining turning point in the aftermath of Evergrande’s collapse, wrapping up one of the largest corporate corruption investigations in recent Chinese history and signaling the Chinese government’s continued commitment to cleaning up systemic irregularities in the country’s property sector.

  • Chinese court sentences Evergrande founder to life in prison for fraud

    Chinese court sentences Evergrande founder to life in prison for fraud

    BEIJING – In a landmark ruling that underscores the fallout from one of the world’s biggest corporate debt collapses, the Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court handed down a life prison sentence Thursday to Hui Ka Yan, the flamboyant founder of Chinese property giant Evergrande Real Estate Group. The court’s official statement also issued massive financial penalties, imposing an 8.82 billion yuan ($1.31 billion) fine on Evergrande Group and a separate 7 billion yuan ($1.04 billion) fine on its core real estate arm, Evergrande Real Estate.

    Hui, who is also known by his Chinese name Xu Jiayin, had already entered a guilty plea back in April to a sweeping set of criminal charges, spanning large-scale fraud, illegal absorption of public deposits, and corporate bribery. The conviction and sentencing close a major chapter in a crisis that has shaken global confidence in China’s $60 trillion property sector.

    Once China’s top-selling property developer and a symbol of the country’s explosive infrastructure and housing boom, Evergrande spiraled into insolvency after years of unchecked aggressive expansion fueled by relentless borrowing. By the time a Hong Kong court ordered the firm into liquidation in 2024, it held more than $300 billion in total liabilities, earning it the unenviable title of the world’s most indebted real estate developer.

    The company’s collapse was triggered in large part by a 2020 Chinese government regulatory crackdown designed to rein in reckless leverage and systemic risk across the property sector. But the sudden implosion rippled far beyond Evergrande itself, tipping the entire Chinese real estate market into a prolonged downturn that has hit consumer confidence, halted thousands of construction projects across the country, and spilled over into the broader domestic economy.

  • Oil supertankers in Gulf are renting for $500,000 per day: Report

    Oil supertankers in Gulf are renting for $500,000 per day: Report

    Escalating geopolitical conflict across key Middle Eastern oil chokepoints has sent daily earnings for supertanker operators shipping crude from the Persian Gulf to Asian markets soaring to a multi-month high of $510,000, a dramatic reflection of plummeting available vessel supply and booming demand for seaborne oil transportation amid widespread insecurity.

  • Hong Kong conglomerate seeks $1.5 billion in damages from Panama for takeover of canal ports

    Hong Kong conglomerate seeks $1.5 billion in damages from Panama for takeover of canal ports

    A major Hong Kong-based conglomerate has launched fresh legal action against the Panamanian government, demanding more than $1.5 billion in damages over the state-led seizure of two key ports positioned at opposite ends of the Panama Canal, a move the company frames as an unlawful asset grab tied to escalating U.S.-China geopolitical tensions.

    CK Hutchison, the conglomerate controlled by the family of Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing, announced the new arbitration proceedings in an official statement released Thursday. In the filing, the company accuses the Central American nation of violating a bilateral investment protection agreement through a coordinated “state attack campaign” targeting its long-standing concession to operate the critical ports.

    The dispute traces back to February 2024, when Panama’s national Supreme Court ruled that the operating concession held by CK Hutchison’s local subsidiary, Panama Ports Company, was unconstitutional. Shortly after the ruling, Panamanian authorities moved to seize control of Balboa Port, located at the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal, and Cristobal Port, which sits at the Atlantic opening of the key global trade waterway.

    The two ports have been caught in the middle of fraught geopolitical tensions between Washington and Beijing for months, particularly after former U.S. President Donald Trump returned to the White House in 2024 and made unsubstantiated claims that China effectively “controlled” the strategic canal. It should be noted that the Panama Canal itself has been fully owned and managed by the government of Panama since 1999. CK Hutchison’s subsidiary first secured the concession to operate the two end-of-canal ports in 1997, and renewed the agreement for an additional 25-year term in 2021.

    This latest legal filing marks the third arbitration action tied to the seizure launched by entities linked to CK Hutchison. Back in March, Panama Ports Company initiated a separate international arbitration proceeding seeking no less than $2 billion in compensation for what it calls the unlawful government takeover, and CK Hutchison confirmed this week that those earlier proceedings are moving forward as scheduled. The company noted that Thursday’s new action focuses on violations of investment treaty rights, a distinct legal claim from the contract rights at the center of the March filing.

    The broader dispute is also tied to a stalled large-scale ports deal. In 2023, CK Hutchison unveiled plans to sell its entire global ports portfolio, including the two Panama Canal ports, to a consortium led by U.S. investment giant BlackRock for an initial valuation of $23 billion. The transaction has failed to move forward, however, bogged down by overlapping geopolitical friction between China, the U.S. and Panama, as well as mounting legal challenges to the Panamanian assets. In April of this year, Panama Ports Company launched another arbitration claim against Danish logistics and shipping leader Maersk, which stepped in to take over partial operations at the seized ports after the government takeover. Maersk has publicly stated that it does not believe it holds any legal liability for the claims brought against it.

    Following the Panamanian government’s seizure of the ports in February, both Beijing and Hong Kong’s local government issued formal pushback against the move, condemning the asset seizure as unlawful.

  • US national debt exceeds $40 trillion for first time

    US national debt exceeds $40 trillion for first time

    For the first time in United States history, the country’s total gross national debt has surged past the $40 trillion mark, new federal government data released Wednesday confirmed — a symbolic threshold that has arrived far faster than official forecasters initially projected, fueled in part by the lingering fiscal impact of invalidated tariffs implemented during the Donald Trump administration.

    According to Treasury Department figures, total public debt outstanding hit $40.05 trillion when markets closed on Tuesday. That milestone comes years earlier than the Congressional Budget Office’s prior projection, which forecast total federal borrowing would reach just $39.4 trillion by the end of the 2026 fiscal year.

    Multiple overlapping factors have driven the rapid acceleration of U.S. debt. Long-term mandatory obligations for social safety net programs including Social Security and major health care initiatives have grown steadily alongside an aging national population, while rising interest rates have pushed the government’s interest payment costs sharply higher in recent years. Federal spending on overseas conflicts, paired with across-the-board tax cuts that reduced government revenue, have also widened annual budget gaps that the U.S. funds through new borrowing, as the federal government consistently operates at a deficit.

    The crossing of the $40 trillion threshold comes at a moment of already heightened market uncertainty, with ongoing inflationary pressure, the Israel-Hamas war in the Middle East, and persistent concerns over unconstrained government spending already leaving investors on edge. On Tuesday, yields on long-term U.S. Treasury bonds climbed to their highest level since 2007, as geopolitical risks tied to tensions involving Iran and growing anxiety over deficit spending drove price shifts in bond markets. Higher yields have forced the federal government to refinance existing debt at interest rates not seen since the period leading up to the 2008 global financial crisis, further increasing long-term fiscal costs. Early Wednesday, the Treasury Department took action to stabilize the long-term bond market, pulling yields lower by the end of the trading session.

    Fiscal policy experts have warned that the current trajectory of U.S. government borrowing is on an unsustainable path. “It’s been well known for a while that the United States government was on a pretty unsustainable path with deficits,” explained Jessica Riedl, a budget and tax fellow at the Brookings Institution. “Over the last few years, the United States has moved into roughly $2 trillion deficits, even during peace and prosperity.” Riedl noted that while annual deficits equal to 3% to 4% of gross domestic product were once enough to spark concern among financial market participants, current deficit levels now sit closer to 6% to 7% of GDP — a shift that has left markets increasingly nervous. Beyond discretionary spending choices, rising interest rates driven by persistent inflation have lifted interest costs on the national debt, while age-related program costs for an aging population continue to put upward pressure on annual deficits.

    While analysts point out that there is no specific debt-to-GDP ratio that automatically triggers a fiscal crisis, the $40 trillion mark carries significant psychological weight for markets. “But psychologically, these are the landmarks that warn financial markets that they need to take another look at rising debt,” Riedl said.

    Caleb Quakenbush, director of fiscal policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, noted that federal borrowing first saw a dramatic surge during the 2007–2009 Great Recession, then grew even further after the U.S. government rolled out massive emergency stimulus spending to offset the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. But Quakenbush told AFP that neither Congress nor successive White House administrations have addressed the long-term trajectory of U.S. budget spending in a “meaningful or durable way.” He warned that the current unprecedented levels of borrowing create major uncertainty for the U.S. economy.

    In a crisis scenario, Quakenbush noted, bond markets could face severe disruptive challenges. Even without a full-blown crisis, however, the growing debt burden will translate to higher borrowing costs for American consumers and businesses, creating incremental headwinds that squeeze overall economic growth over time. Prior to the debt milestone, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had set a policy goal of cutting the U.S. deficit down to 3% of GDP, a target that looks increasingly out of reach amid current fiscal trends.

  • India’s Gen Z are driving up a mega boom in its beauty market

    India’s Gen Z are driving up a mega boom in its beauty market

    Over the past several years, India’s domestic beauty and personal care sector has emerged as one of the world’s fastest-growing consumer markets, attracting billions in global investment and on track to nearly double its total value before the end of the 2020s. A wave of high-profile acquisitions by global beauty giants underscores just how much international attention this expanding market has drawn. In March of this year, U.S. luxury beauty conglomerate Estée Lauder completed a full acquisition of Forest Essentials, a homegrown Indian beauty brand rooted in traditional ayurvedic practices. Just three months later, French industry leader L’Oréal Group purchased a controlling majority stake in Innovist, a digitally native personal care brand built for Indian consumers. Unilever, another global consumer goods powerhouse, has added four separate Indian beauty brands to its portfolio through its venture capital division in just the last two years.

    The trajectory of Forest Essentials, one of India’s breakout homegrown beauty success stories, encapsulates the sector’s explosive expansion. Founded at the start of the 21st century by single mother and entrepreneur Mira Kulkarni in a small garage at the foot of the Himalayas, the brand grew from a tiny startup to a billion-dollar global enterprise over just two decades. Its growth mirrors that of the broader Indian beauty industry, which hit a valuation of $23 billion in 2025 and is projected to climb to $40 billion by 2030 — a growth rate twice that of India’s overall GDP and broader retail market.

    Industry analysts point to a confluence of demographic, economic and digital shifts that have combined to create this unprecedented boom. Rising consumer purchasing power is the foundational driver of growth, according to consulting firm Redseer. India’s per capita income crossed the $2,000 threshold in 2019, a key milestone that typically triggers exponential growth in discretionary consumer spending. By 2030, an estimated 155 million Indian households are projected to earn more than $9,500 annually, creating a larger consumer base willing and able to spend on premium beauty and personal care products.

    “Historically we’ve underspent on beauty because there was just no purchasing power for anything other than the very basic stuff – such as all-purpose soap or face powder,” explained Kushal Bhatnagar, a partner at Redseer, in an interview with the BBC. “But now, along with more spending power, there is improved access, distribution and product education. The internet broke these barriers, with brands leveraging the power of social media platforms and influencers to reach consumers directly.”

    Redseer projects that e-commerce will account for roughly 35% of all Indian beauty spending by 2030, a sharp jump from just 8% half a decade earlier. The COVID-19 pandemic acted as an unexpected catalyst for the sector, accelerating digital adoption and shifting consumer attitudes toward self-care, according to Vaishali Gupta, a founder of two fast-growing Indian beauty brands. Gupta co-launched Hyphen, a vegan skincare brand, with Bollywood star Kriti Sanon in 2023, and also leads mCaffeine, India’s first caffeinated personal care brand known for its scrubs, cleansers and lotions. Both ventures have seen explosive growth since their launches.

    “Covid pushed people inward and toward self-care, and it coincided with a massive wave of digital penetration in tier-one, tier-two and tier-three towns,” Gupta told the BBC. “Suddenly Indian consumers had access to beauty and skincare education they’d never had before – such as what was trending in Korea or Europe, or what specific ingredients could do for brightening or acne control. That knowledge base created a consumer who knew exactly what they wanted. And that’s really where the boom in Indian skincare began.”

    Over the last 12 months, Gupta’s brands have recorded 100% growth in top-line revenue, and both now rank among the top 10 brands in their respective categories across India. Gupta forecasts continued strong double-digit growth for the foreseeable future. The sector’s momentum has drawn high-profile participation from across Indian popular culture: A slew of A-list Bollywood stars, including Deepika Padukone, Katrina Kaif and Big Brother alum Shilpa Shetty, have launched their own skincare lines in recent years to capitalize on growing consumer demand.

    Unlike past growth in India’s consumer sector that was concentrated almost exclusively in major metro areas, today’s beauty boom is being driven by consumers across every region of the country. Most notably, Gen Z is leading the surge in spending: Young Indian consumers devote roughly twice as much of their budget to skincare and personal care as millennials before them. Data from Flipkart, India’s largest e-commerce platform backed by Walmart, confirms this trend: 56% of the platform’s beauty and personal care shoppers are Gen Z, 70% of whom discover new products through social media. Two out of every three beauty product searches on Flipkart originate from non-metro towns and cities. Redseer projects that the combined share of beauty spending from Gen Z and Gen Alpha will rise from 32% in 2024 to nearly 50% by 2030.

    For Flipkart’s head of brand strategy Priyanka Bhargav, the current moment marks a clear inflection point for the industry. What was once a niche aspirational category has now become a daily part of self-expression and self-care for millions of young Indians, she says. Moving forward, experts predict consumers will grow increasingly sophisticated, and the next wave of growth will come from niche brands focused on specialized ingredients, dermatologist-backed formulations and evidence-based skin nutrition. While only a small number of domestic Indian beauty brands have achieved large-scale revenue to date, Bhatnagar projects that at the current growth rate, 10 to 15 domestic brands will cross $200 million in annual revenue within the next three to five years. When that milestone is hit, he expects a wave of public listings and increased merger and acquisition activity that will reshape the global beauty landscape. “When that happens, we expect many of them to tap the public markets, and for IPO and M&A activity to really intensify in the sector,” Bhatnagar added.

  • Bega makes ‘pessimistic’ forecast on consumers, posts 35 per cent profit jump

    Bega makes ‘pessimistic’ forecast on consumers, posts 35 per cent profit jump

    One of Australia’s largest food conglomerates, owner of household staples ranging from the iconic Vegemite spread to popular icy treats Zooper Doopers, has posted a sharp annual profit increase even as it warns that ongoing geopolitical unrest in the Middle East will push grocery prices higher and keep consumer sentiment depressed across the country.

    Bega Group, which controls a sprawling portfolio of well-known Australian food and beverage brands including Farmers Union and Yoplait yoghurts, Pura milk, Masters and Dare flavoured milks, and Mildura chilled juices, released its full-year financial results on Thursday. The firm reported a 35.8% surge in net profit to AU$69 million, a gain driven in part by cost-cutting measures following the permanent closure of its underperforming Victorian cheese factory, which eliminated redundant staff and infrastructure expenses.

    Beyond the headline profit gain, the company’s annual report outlines growing headwinds for both consumers and the food manufacturing sector tied to the unfolding oil supply crunch stemming from Middle East conflicts. Disruptions to shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical global chokepoint for oil and petrochemical supplies, have already sent fuel prices soaring across Australia, and the full flow-on effects have not yet reached supermarket shelves, Bega officials warned.

    The report notes that while consumer confidence has edged up slightly from the historic lows hit during last year’s global fuel crisis, overall sentiment remains firmly pessimistic. Australian households have slightly improved their assessment of their own immediate financial positions, but they have grown more gloomy about broader long-term economic outlooks. Bega’s leadership predicts that the delayed impact of Middle East supply disruptions will alter shopping patterns for a large share of Australian consumers, as rising energy and packaging costs push grocery prices higher.

    In addition to fuel cost increases, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz has driven up prices for petrochemical-based food packaging, a core input for nearly all of Bega’s consumer products. To offset these pressures for shoppers, the company says it is doubling down on marketing its value-focused product lines, rolling out more frequent promotional pricing, and continuing internal efficiency overhauls to cut unnecessary operational costs.

    Bega’s bulk dairy ingredients division also outperformed in the past year, posting a 37% rise in earnings, boosted by higher milk intake and growing global demand for its nutritional powder products.

  • Weather, war, inflation hit results at Super Retail Group

    Weather, war, inflation hit results at Super Retail Group

    Australia’s largest diversified retail group, Super Retail Group — which owns popular consumer brands including auto parts chain Supercheap Auto, sports apparel retailer Rebel, outdoor and boating supplier BCF, and outdoor gear brand Macpac — has announced a steep 7.2% decline in full-year after-tax profits, driven by a combination of poor weather, soaring fuel costs, geopolitical instability, and persistent household financial pressure, according to the company’s latest financial results released to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) on Thursday.

    In its annual report, the firm specifically cited unseasonably poor weather across key southern Australian markets of Victoria and South Australia as a major drag on performance at BCF, its boating, camping and fishing division. Bad conditions cut into recreational marine and fishing activity, a core revenue driver for the brand. Compounding that impact, sky-high fuel prices significantly dampened consumer participation in outdoor leisure trips and road travel during the critical Easter trading window, one of the highest-sales periods of the year for outdoor and automotive retail. The combination of these factors kept many Australian consumers away from coastal waterways and long-distance road trips, directly cutting into demand for the group’s outdoor and recreational product lines.

    Geopolitical tension stemming from the ongoing conflict in the Middle East has also added layers of economic uncertainty to the group’s operating environment, alongside broader macroeconomic headwinds including persistent inflation and rising interest rates that have squeezed household discretionary spending across Australia. Even with these challenges, the full-year results showed uneven performance across the group’s brand portfolio: CEO Paul Bradshaw described results at sports retailer Rebel as “pleasing”, and noted that Supercheap Auto recorded resilient trading activity. Sales at Supercheap Auto rose 3.9% year-over-year to hit $1.6 billion for the full financial year, with growth driven largely by higher average transaction volumes.

    Overall, the group grew total full-year sales by 3.2% to reach a record $4.2 billion, even as net profits fell. Total operating costs for the period climbed 5.6%, as the company absorbed higher input and logistics expenses. While gross margins expanded at Rebel and BCF, those gains were entirely offset by modest margin declines at Supercheap Auto and Macpac, pulling down overall profitability.

    Bradshaw acknowledged the persistent challenges facing the broader Australian retail sector in the coming year, but struck an optimistic tone about the group’s positioning. “Super Retail Group delivered a solid FY26 result, achieving record sales in the face of significant headwinds that included geopolitical instability in the Middle East, unfavourable weather and increasing interest rate pressure on households,” Bradshaw told the ASX. “While challenges in the broader retail landscape remain, I’m confident we have the team and strategy in place to meet evolving customer needs and deliver future growth.”

    Looking ahead, the company says ongoing geopolitical uncertainty from the Middle East conflict continues to cloud its near-term outlook, as executives monitor shifts in consumer spending and fuel prices to adjust strategies for the new financial year.

  • US long-term borrowing costs ease after government steps in

    US long-term borrowing costs ease after government steps in

    On Wednesday, long-term borrowing costs across the United States pulled back following a policy adjustment from the US Treasury Department, which announced a significant expansion of its debt buyback program. The intervention comes just one day after 30-year Treasury bond yields hit 5.34% – the highest recorded level in nearly two decades.

    Bond yields, which represent the effective long-term borrowing cost for both public and private sectors, have far-reaching ripple effects across the entire US economy. Beyond raising interest expenses for the federal government and large corporations, elevated yields directly push up consumer borrowing costs for critical products including 30-year fixed mortgages, auto loans, and credit card balances.

    Several interconnected factors have driven the recent sharp surge in long-term bond yields. Escalating geopolitical tensions between the US and Iran have pushed global crude oil prices higher, stoking renewed investor anxiety over persistent inflation. Compounding these inflation concerns are market jitters over the expanding size of US government debt, as well as the massive capital outflows from private markets toward technology firms pouring billions into artificial intelligence research and development – a sector where the timeline and scale of projected returns remain highly uncertain.

    In a public statement, the Treasury clarified that its expanded buyback program is designed to deliver greater liquidity support to the long-term bond market. The department will double its monthly buyback operations from the previous $2 billion level to $4 billion, with the new policy taking effect from September 9 through November 4. Immediately following the announcement, 30-year bond yields retreated to 5.18%, marking a notable near-term easing of borrowing costs.

    John Canavan, lead analyst at Oxford Economics, framed the policy shift as a targeted effort to alleviate acute pressure on long-term borrowing markets, which have been squeezed by three key headwinds: rising energy prices, persistent inflation risk, and a glut of new debt issuance from both sovereign and corporate borrowers globally. However, Canavan struck a cautious note, arguing that the modest increase in buyback volumes is unlikely to deliver sustained long-term relief, given the massive total size of outstanding US Treasury debt.

    Rene Albrecht, senior analyst at German financial institution DZ Bank, noted that long-term yields sustained above 5% pose broad economic pain for both the public and private sectors, giving the US government strong incentive to intervene. Albrecht also pointed to the upcoming midterm elections, just three months away, as an unspoken political driver for the policy move.

    Unlike many other advanced economies such as the United Kingdom, the US mortgage market is dominated by long-term fixed-rate products. Current data from housing finance firm Freddie Mac puts the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate at 6.67%. While this marks a notable rise from recent years, it remains below the 7.7% average recorded in 2023.

    Alongside the Treasury’s announcement, the Federal Reserve released minutes from its most recent monetary policy meeting on Wednesday, revealing that inflation concerns have deepened among central bank policymakers. The minutes noted that several meeting participants supported raising the benchmark interest rate at the last gathering. Despite this internal division, the Federal Reserve chose to hold its key policy rate steady in the 3.50%-3.75% range for the fifth consecutive policy meeting.

    Market analysts broadly expect the Federal Reserve to keep rates unchanged again at its September policy meeting, following recent economic data that showed a modest softening of inflation and an unexpected contraction in private sector payrolls during July.

  • Canada and US say they are finalising a trade deal, but details remain murky

    Canada and US say they are finalising a trade deal, but details remain murky

    After days of intensive negotiations and a last-minute pause to threatened tariffs, Canada and the United States have reached a tentative framework for a new bilateral trade deal, hailed by leaders on both sides as a landmark win for North American economic ties. The breakthrough comes after the Trump administration suspended a planned wave of 50% tariffs on a broad swathe of Canadian goods that was scheduled to take effect Wednesday, pushing negotiations across the finish line just as the deadline loomed.

    US President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney have both publicly touted the tentative agreement as a success for their respective national economies. Trump told reporters the deal will deliver major benefits to American farmers and manufacturers, noting that Canada has agreed to eliminate tariffs on a range of US agricultural products — though he declined to name which specific sectors will gain access. When asked whether the US would reciprocate by rolling back some of its existing tariffs on Canadian imports, Trump confirmed the US would ease tariffs “by a little bit.”

    Carney, in a post on X Wednesday, congratulated negotiating teams led by US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Canadian Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc for the “significant progress” they achieved after more than a week of marathon talks in Washington. The tentative deal will lock in “the best terms” for Canada’s most critical strategic sectors and bring much-needed certainty to the long-strained bilateral trading relationship, Carney added.

    Speaking to reporters shortly after a 45-minute negotiating session with LeBlanc, Greer said US officials are “very happy” with the outcome of the latest talks. He confirmed the agreement eliminates a number of longstanding trade frictions that have complicated US-Canada trade relations for years. “We feel confident that we’ve reached an agreement that will not only continue to protect American workers, American jobs, American supply chains, but really strengthen the North American economy,” Greer said, adding that he will brief Congress and US industry stakeholders on the full details of the deal in the near future.

    LeBlanc, whose team has been stationed in Washington for more than a week to rush a deal before the tariff deadline, moved to reassure domestic audiences that one of Canada’s most sensitive agricultural policies remains untouched. When asked whether the deal included major concessions on dairy access that would undermine Canada’s supply management system — which governs production quotas, fixed pricing, and import limits for dairy, eggs, and poultry — LeBlanc confirmed the program will remain “entirely intact.”

    The core sticking points that dominated negotiations align with longstanding priorities from both countries. Canada has pushed for the US to roll back or eliminate existing tariffs on its key exports including steel, aluminum, automobiles and softwood lumber. For its part, Washington has demanded several key concessions from Ottawa: the removal of Canada’s remaining retaliatory tariffs on American automobiles, expanded access to Canada’s dairy market for US cheese producers, and the elimination of the ban on US alcohol sales that most Canadian provinces implemented last year in retaliation for earlier Trump-era tariffs.

    Public opinion in Canada remains sharply divided over how far Ottawa should go to reach a deal. Recent polling from Leger shows 56% of Canadian respondents favor a hardline negotiating approach, and a majority would oppose the Carney government making significant concessions to the US to avoid new tariffs. However, business groups on both sides of the border have repeatedly pressured negotiators to reach a deal, warning that new tariffs would inflict broad economic harm on two of the world’s largest trading partners, who share more than $2 billion in daily bilateral trade.

    As of Wednesday, many key details of the tentative agreement remain undisclosed: the full scope of policy changes, the specific concessions each side has agreed to, and the remaining outstanding issues that still need to be resolved before the deal can be finalized have not been made public. The threatened 50% tariffs have only been paused until the weekend, giving negotiators a narrow window to iron out the final details of the agreement.