October 29, 2025—Top Stories:
US and China Say Trade Deal is Close
A trade deal between the United States and China is drawing closer, officials from the world’s two largest economies said Sunday as they reached an initial consensus for President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping to aim to finalize during their high-stakes meeting.
Despite the pathway to a deal, USTR announced the initiation of a section 301 investigation on China’s implementation of commitments under the Phase 1 agreement. In 2019, President Trump Administration concluded an agreement on China’s efforts to resolve the imposition of section 301 tariffs. The initial agreement covered Chinese commitments on IP, forced technology transfer, currency, agriculture and financial services. China also committed to increase purchasing of US goods and services by at least $200 billion over 2020, 2021 compared to a 2017 baseline. USTR notes that China’s purchases fell by more than $217 billion in the aggregate. As a result, the USTR is initiating this investigation and seeking public comments, hearing and post-hearing comments.
Senate Votes Against Trump’s 50 percent Tariff on Brazil
The Senate voted against President Trump’s 50 percent IEEPA tariff on Brazil. Senators voted 52-48 to terminate the national emergency Trump declared to impose 50 percent tariffs on most Brazilian goods in July. Five Republican Senators joined the Democrats in the vote: Thom Tillis (N.C.), Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and Rand Paul (Ky.), the measure’s co-sponsor.
The vote — the first in a series of three expected resolutions aiming to block President Trump’s tariffs on Brazil and Canada as well as his widespread global tariffs — comes amid bubbling tension in the Senate over how Trump’s trade war has affected farmers and small businesses.
But the vote remains largely symbolic: Republican leaders in the House have blocked the chamber from voting to overrule the tariffs until March, protecting Republican members who are facing blowback from home state farmers and small businesses angry over the economic impact.
Next week, the U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments over whether Trump has overstepped his authority by using an emergency law to impose tariffs on nearly every country in the world.
Former Solicitor General Will Lead Plaintiffs’ Case in Supreme Court Tariff Case
Private companies challenging President Donald Trump’s use of emergency legislation to impose sweeping new tariffs have picked former acting U.S. Solicitor General Neal Katyal to argue their case before the Supreme Court on Nov. 5.
Katyal served as principal deputy solicitor general, and later as acting solicitor general, during the Obama administration, when he argued numerous cases before the Supreme Court. Lawyers for all three groups had hoped to participate in next week’s oral argument, but last week the Supreme Court ordered the private companies to select one attorney to present their case.
Ambassador Greer Issues Statement on U.S. Trade Deals with Southeast Asian Countries
Ambassador Jamieson Greer issued the following statement on President Trump securing Agreements on Reciprocal Trade with Malaysia and Cambodia and reaching Frameworks for Agreements on Reciprocal Trade with Thailand and Vietnam.
The United States announced finalized trade deals with two Southeast Asian nations — Cambodia and Malaysia — that contain provisions aimed against China, and further progress with two others in the region, Thailand and Vietnam.
The fast-growing Southeast Asia region is a crucial trading partner for both China and the United States and is caught in the middle of trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies — as evidenced by some terms of the new pacts.
The two final deals and two framework agreements announced Sunday cover about 68 percent of approximately $475 billion in U.S. two-way trade with the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Those new pacts, with differing details, more explicitly obligate Malaysia and Cambodia to cooperate with the United States against targeted “third countries” in areas like investment screening, forced labor, export controls and tariff evasion.
Trade Deals Include Forced Labor Provisions
New US-Malaysia and US-Cambodia trade agreements include a forced labor import ban requirement, potential restrictions on goods subject to a U.S. WRO, knowledge sharing on forced labor. All required within 2 years.
Under the Malaysian agreement, Malaysia shall adopt and implement a prohibition on the importation of goods mined, produced, or manufactured wholly or in part by forced or compulsory labor. Malaysia may acknowledge U.S. government determinations on entities under Section 307 of the Tariff Act of 1930 and shall take appropriate action to prohibit importation of goods from those companies. The Parties shall cooperate by sharing best practices on the development and enforcement of forced labor import prohibitions, as appropriate. Malaysia shall implement the obligations in this paragraph within two years of the date of entry into force of this Agreement.
Malaysia shall protect internationally recognized labor rights.[5] This includes by adopting or maintaining such rights in its domestic law and practice, and effectively enforcing its labor laws, including by creating or maintaining necessary institutions to protect labor rights…”
US-KORUS Trade Deal Close
President Donald Trump said that a trade deal with South Korea is “pretty much finalized” after months of talks. “We reached a deal. We did a lot of different things. Great session,” Trump said after meeting South Korean President Lee Jae Myung for roughly 90 minutes on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in Gyeongju, South Korea. “We came to a conclusion on a lot of very different items,” Trump added.
The United States and South Korea have been working on a key plank of the tentative trade agreement they inked over the summer. Seoul is bridling over Trump’s insistence that South Korea pony up $350 billion in an “upfront” payment to the U.S. government as part of the investments it promised in July. South Korean officials have warned that doing so would crater their economy and potentially destabilize the value of their currency, the won.
Lee’s chief of staff, Kim Yong-beom, and other senior officials said at a briefing that Trump and Lee had resolved some of the key issues around the $350 billion investment pledge Seoul made as part of a preliminary July agreement to avoid higher U.S. tariffs. According to a report in the Seoul-based Yonhap News Agency, South Korea has committed to spending $200 billion in cash, paid in installments not exceeding $20 billion per year. The remaining $150 billion will be directed toward the U.S. shipbuilding industry, according to Lee’s aides, a top manufacturing priority for the Trump administration.
In exchange, the U.S. will lower the tariffs on South Korean goods to 15 percent, Lee’s aides said. While most South Korean goods already face a 15 percent tariff, South Korean automobiles have been hit with a 25 percent duty, a higher rate than the country’s main automaking competitors, Japan and the European Union.
Pharmaceuticals, timber and lumber products will also receive “most-favored nation” tariff treatment, according to Yonhap. Airplane parts, generic drugs and natural resources not produced in the U.S. will be exempt from U.S. tariffs.
The White House did not immediately provide further details on the terms of the deal or return a request for comment. The countries have not released a joint statement, suggesting they could still be grappling with some details of the agreement.
Top EU lawmaker wants to put expiry date on tariff concessions to Trump
The EU should put an expiry date on the tariff concessions it made to the U.S. under their trade deal so it can revisit them once President Donald Trump leaves office, the lawmaker coordinating the passage of enabling legislation through the European Parliament said on Thursday.
“I am not really satisfied with the proposal [of the European Commission],” Bernd Lange, a German lawmaker with the Socialists & Democrats who chairs Parliament’s trade committee.”
According to Politico, in a draft report on the texts implementing the EU side of the agreement, Lange highlighted five areas where changes were needed: “It’s steel, it’s standstill, it’s strong suspension clause, it’s safeguard and it’s sunset clause.” Under normal EU Parliament order, final approval of the U.S.-EU deal could be as late as January 2026.
Ways and Means Committee Republican Leaders Slam French Proposal to Impose Higher Discriminatory Digital Services Tax on U.S. Innovators
As lawmakers in France are considering a proposal to increase its digital services tax (DST) from 3 percent to 15 percent and raise the applicable revenue threshold to levels that specifically target American innovators, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (MO-08), Subcommittee on Tax Chairman Mike Kelly (PA-16), and Subcommittee on Trade Chairman Adrian Smith (NE-03) issued a statement opposing the new tax.
The Department of Commerce Announces American AI Exports Program Implementation
The U.S. Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration (ITA) announced the implementation of the American AI Exports Program, following President Donald J. Trump’s July 23 Executive Order on Promoting the Export of the American AI Technology Stack.
France Moves Forward with Digital Service Tax, Sparking U.S. Retaliatory Threats
France’s National Assembly voted this week in favor of hiking a digital service tax on tech companies including Google, Apple, Meta and Amazon to 6 percent, up from 3 percent. The French government is against the move, with Economy Minister Roland Lescure warning that a “disproportionate” tax would lead to “disproportionate” retaliatory measures.
Lawmakers had initially pushed to hike the levy to 15 percent to hit back at U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff war, sparking strong reactions from across the Atlantic. Industries in France that fear trade retaliation have also called for caution. The amendment has yet to survive a final vote on the country’s 2026 budget law next week, after which it must pass the French Senate.
AAEI Industry Insight: Measuring What Matters: Communicating the ROI of AI and Tech Tools in Global Trade
Artificial intelligence and advanced analytical tools are rapidly transforming how organizations manage compliance, logistics, and supply chain visibility. In this article, Thariq Kara, CEO and Co-founder of BITE Data, outlines practical frameworks for selecting the right tools, measuring their true ROI, and communicating results in ways that resonate with procurement and the C-suite.
