The new U.S. ambassador to India, Sergio Gor, said in his first speech in New Delhi that fair trade and mutual respect are at the heart of U.S. diplomacy.

While the Venezuela military action doesn't affect trade substantially, a panel of experts said the fallout with regard to President Donald Trump's comments about Greenland afterward could "blow up the U.S.-EU deal."

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, on the All-In podcast episode hosted by a Canadian-American venture capital billionaire, said India has not gotten a trade deal because the U.S. no longer wanted to offer the terms they'd agreed to when India's prime minister didn't call President Donald Trump within a three-week window.

Switzerland is open to working closer with the U.S. on export controls, sanctions and investment security issues as part of a broader trade framework between the two countries, according to a draft negotiating mandate released by Switzerland’s Federal Council this month.

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, speaking at a business event Dec. 4, said that the U.S. doesn't want to confront China in concert with allies right now.

The Council of the EU, which is made up of government ministers from each EU country, voted last week to eliminate customs duties on industrial products and to grant tariff rate quotas for some seafood and agricultural products. It also voted to extend duty-free treatment for U.S. lobster exports. That tariff treatment had expired in July.

Trade frameworks with Argentina, El Salvador, Guatemala and Ecuador have all those countries pledging to "enhance cooperation with the United States to combat non-market policies and practices of other countries. The ... countries have also committed to identifying tools to align approaches to export controls, investment security, duty evasion, and other important topics."

After a visit from five Central Asian presidents, President Donald Trump posted on social media that Uzbekistan will do a combination of purchases of U.S. exports and investments in the U.S. worth almost $35 billion over the next three years. He said these purchases and investments would be in critical minerals, aviation, auto parts, energy and chemicals, infrastructure, agriculture and information technology.

The U.S. should drop tariffs on EU steel from 50% to 15% and suspend Section 232 investigations targeting EU products as part of the two sides' trade framework announced in August (see 2508200052), said Bernd Lange, the chair of the EU Parliament’s Committee on International Trade. He also said the EU should work in a sunset provision that would end the agreement if the two sides haven’t made progress in 18 months.

President Donald Trump told reporters after his trade talks with China that the U.S. didn't discuss allowing exports of Nvidia's new Blackwell advanced AI chip to China. "We're not talking about the Blackwell," he said Oct. 30 on Air Force One.