President Donald Trump described his phone call with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney as "extremely productive," in a social media post, adding "we agree on many things, and will be meeting immediately after Canada’s upcoming Election to work on elements of Politics, Business, and all other factors, that will end up being great for both the United States of America and Canada. Thank you for your attention to this matter!"
The U.S. this week sanctioned Iranian Minister of Petroleum Mohsen Paknejad, along with several entities and ships helping to move Iranian oil, including to China.
The United States is interested in negotiating a new free trade agreement with India, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told an Indian audience on March 8.
The EU and India held the second meeting of the EU-India Trade and Technology Council on Feb. 28, where working groups discussed critical technologies, supply chains, a possible trade agreement and more. The trade working group specifically spoke about “best practices in the screening of Foreign Direct Investments,” and they “strengthened their commitment towards the multilateral trading system as an anchor in the current challenging geopolitical context.” They also spoke about World Trade Organization reform, the EU’s upcoming carbon tax on certain imports and diversifying suppliers. The next meeting will be held in 2026.
Microsoft this week urged the Trump administration to rethink portions of a Biden-era rule that placed global export controls on certain shipments of advanced artificial intelligence chips, saying the rule will have unintended negative consequences on the American technology industry.
The U.K. added 34 people and 33 entries to its Russia sanctions list on Feb. 24, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation announced. In addition to listing Russian companies, OFSI sanctioned companies based in Hong Kong, China, Germany, Thailand, India, Ukraine, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Kyrgyzstan for contributing to Russia's economy or war effort, along with businesspeople and military figures from Russia, Turkey, Kazakhstan, North Korea and Israel for contributing to the destabilization of Ukraine or operating in a sector of strategic significance to Russia.
The U.S. this week sanctioned more than 30 people, entities and ships helping to sell and move Iranian petroleum products, including oil brokers in the United Arab Emirates and Hong Kong, tanker managers in India and China, and Iranian oil officials. The Treasury Department said the newly designated tankers have helped ship tens of millions of barrels of Iranian crude oil worth hundreds of millions of dollars.