South Korea imports about 45 percent of its naphtha, a critical petrochemical feedstock, with roughly 77 percent of those imports historically arriving from the Middle East. That supply line is now, for all practical purposes, severed.
"I think it surprised me how easily people are swayed by headlines," says Suderman, noting that wartime information flows are often strategic and conflicting. "You have to learn in a wartime to take everything with a grain of salt in the context of what you observe."
U.S. financial markets experienced a volatile week, largely influenced by geopolitical developments in the Middle East and fluctuations in energy prices. Investor sentiment was driven primarily by external events rather than domestic fundamentals.
After Trump ended the de minimis exemption last year, purchasing an item straight from an international vendor, regardless of the item's value, meant incurring International Emergency Economic Powers Act tariffs. Now, thanks to a ruling by the Supreme Court that overturned Trump's IEEPA tariffs, and a ruling by the Court of International Trade ruled that all tariffs paid under IEEPA must be returned, buyers may be able to collect a refund.
The European Commission will "proceed with [the] provisional application" of the Mercosur trade deal with Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, the commission's chief Ursula von der Leyen announced on Friday. The deal was signed in January after over 25 years of negotiations, despite opposition from some European farmers.
Crucially, any refund goes to the importer of record - not the final consumer downstream. Take a simple case: You import a widget directly from overseas, pay the IEEPA tariff to clear customs, and get it released. As the importer of record, you can pursue a refund via PSC.
A moratorium that has protected vital rainforest since 2009 is on shaky ground as several players from Brazil's soy industry say they are pulling out. Specifically, the Brazilian industry association ABIOVE, whose members include global companies such as Cofco International, Bunge, Amaggi and JBS, have said they will no longer refrain from growing soy on deforested land. Environmentalists fear this could fuel a new wave of Amazon logging.
The European Union will on Saturday sign a deal 25 years in the making with the South American trade bloc Mercosur, creating one of the world's largest free trade areas at a time of growing protectionism and volatility. The long-awaited agreement comes amid the sweeping use of tariffs and trade threats by US President Donald Trump's administration, which has sent countries scrambling for new partnerships.
Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The International Monetary Fund has warned mounting geopolitical tensions and an escalation of Donald Trump's tariff war could hit global economic growth and trigger a backlash in financial markets. In an update as Trump threatens to impose tariffs on Nato allies opposed to his ambitions in Greenland, the Washington-based fund said a renewed eruption in trade tensions was among the biggest risks to global growth in 2026.
But what is legally possible could pose a serious political problem. Because, as the European Commission pointed out when remarking on the Parliament's negative vote, the legal formula used to process the ratification of this agreement is the same one used for an agreement reached with Chile that did not raise any questions inside the European Parliament. In other words, the outcome of this vote suggests that the opposition for legal concerns is motivated less by legal reasons than by political ones.
Australia and the EU are on the brink of striking a long sought after free trade agreement, with both sides talking up significant progress during talks in Brussels overnight. Ahead of a planned visit to Australia by European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, due within months, a joint statement issued after the latest talks attended by the trade minister, Don Farrell, signalled major progress. The two sides said they had been able to converge on key differences which have dogged the deal for years.
The deal, which comes as Brussels seeks new markets to offset US tariffs and reduce reliance on China for critical minerals, will open free trade with four South American countries. European Union ambassadors have given a provisional nod to the bloc's largest-ever agreement in terms of erased tariffs, opening the way to free trade with the Mercosur group of South American countries.
Major agreement reached after 20 years of negotiations and during ongoing tensions with the US. New Delhi, India India and the European Union have signed a free trade agreement that both sides have hailed as the mother of all deals. The agreement, announced on Tuesday, came together over nearly two decades of intermittent negotiations and during a geoeconomic crisis triggered by United States President Donald Trump's trade war.