United States Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent speaks as US President Donald J Trump participates in a Cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, DC on Thursday, January 29, 2026. Photo by Aaron Schwartz/UPI | License Photo
Jan. 29 (Asia Today) — U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Tuesday that Washington does not recognize any trade agreement with South Korea unless it is ratified by the South Korean National Assembly, reaffirming that higher tariffs would remain in place until legislative approval is secured.
In an interview with CNBC, Bessent said the absence of parliamentary ratification meant no valid agreement existed between the two countries.
“Because the South Korean National Assembly has not passed the trade agreement, there is no trade agreement with South Korea until they approve it,” Bessent said, repeatedly emphasizing the need for lawmakers to ratify the deal.
Asked whether South Korea would face 25% tariffs until ratification, Bessent replied, “I think that helps move the situation forward,” a comment widely interpreted as signaling tariff pressure aimed at accelerating legislative action.
His remarks clarified the backdrop to Donald Trump’s announcement Sunday that the United States planned to raise reciprocal tariffs on South Korean exports, including automobiles, timber and pharmaceuticals, from 15% to 25%.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the South Korean legislature had failed to enact what he described as a “historic trade agreement.” No executive order or formal notice has yet been issued to implement the tariff increase.
Trump later suggested negotiations could still resolve the issue, saying Monday that Washington would “work with South Korea to find a solution.”
Pressure from the Trump administration has extended beyond tariffs. The Wall Street Journal reported that Washington has raised concerns over South Korea’s regulatory treatment of U.S. technology companies. According to the report, J.D. Vance told South Korean Prime Minister Kim Min-seok during a White House meeting last week that the administration wanted meaningful de-escalation in how U.S. tech firms are regulated.
South Korea has fully mobilized its trade channels to assess Washington’s intentions. Trade Minister Kim Jeong-kwan is scheduled to travel to Washington later Tuesday after completing meetings in Canada, where he is expected to meet U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Trade Negotiations Commissioner Yeo Han-koo also plans consultations with the U.S. trade representative.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has hailed several new trade agreements, pledging to further diversify Ottawa’s partners while saying he “expects” the United States to respect his country’s sovereignty.
Carney discussed the trade deals during a meeting on Thursday with provincial and territorial leaders.
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“Our country is more united, ambitious and determined than it has been in decades, and it’s incumbent on all of us to seize this moment, build big things together,” Carney said, as he hailed 12 new economic and security accords reached over the last six months.
His comments come amid ongoing frictions with the administration of US President Donald Trump, which has previously pushed to make Canada a “51st state”.
Carney highlighted in particular a new agreement with China to lower trade levies. That deal prompted a rebuke last week from Trump, who threatened to impose a 100 percent tariff on Canada.
In the face of Trump’s accusations that Canada would serve as a “drop-off port” for Chinese goods, Carney clarified that Ottawa was not seeking a free-trade agreement with Beijing.
But on Thursday, he nevertheless played up the perks he said the agreement would offer to Canada’s agriculture sector.
“Part of that agreement unlocks more than $7bn in export markets for Canadian farmers, ranchers, fish harvesters and workers across our country,” Carney said.
Carney added that Ottawa would soon seek to advance “trading relationships with global giants” including India, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and the South American trade bloc Mercosur.
“And we will work to renew our most important economic and security relationship with the United States through the joint review of the Canada-United States-Mexico agreement later this year,” he said, referring to the regional free trade agreement, which expires in July.
‘Respect Canadian sovereignty’
Carney’s pledge to diversify Canada’s portfolio of trade and security partners comes just eight days after he delivered an attention-grabbing speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
During the address, Carney warned that the “rules-based” international order was a fiction that was fading, replaced by “an era of great power rivalry”, where might makes right.
“We knew the story of the international rules-based order was partially false, that the strongest would exempt themselves when convenient, that trade rules were enforced asymmetrically,” Carney told the audience in Davos.
“We knew that international law applied with varying rigour depending on the identity of the accused or the victim.”
He ultimately called for the so-called “middle powers” of the world to rally together in these unpredictable times.
The speech was widely seen as a rebuke to Trump, who has launched an aggressive tariff campaign on global trading partners, including Canada.
In early January, Trump also abducted the leader of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, in what critics describe as a violation of international law.
His pledge to “run” Venezuela was followed by a series of aggressive statements towards the self-governing Danish territory of Greenland, which he threatened to seize.
Those threats have sent shudders through the NATO alliance, which counts both the US and Denmark as members.
Since before the start of his second term, Trump has also pushed to expand US control into Canada, repeatedly calling the country a “state” and its prime minister a “governor”.
In response to Carney’s speech at Davos, Trump withdrew Carney’s invitation to join his so-called Board of Peace.
Carney, however, has publicly stood by his statements, dismissing US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s claims that he “aggressively” walked back his position during a private call with Trump.
In a separate exchange on Thursday, Carney was asked about reports that US officials had met with separatists seeking independence for the oil-wealthy province of Alberta.
The Financial Times reported that State Department officials have held three meetings with the Alberta Prosperity Project, a group that pushes for a referendum on whether the energy-producing western province should break away from Canada.
“We expect the US administration to respect Canadian sovereignty,” Carney replied.
“I’m always clear in my conversations with President Trump to that effect.”
The ‘mother of all trade deals’ comes months after the United States slapped tariffs on India and the European Union.
One of the biggest trade deals in history has been struck by India and the European Union, months after United States President Donald Trump hit both with tariffs.
What’s in the agreement – and how much is driven by Washington’s unpredictable measures?
Presenter: Tom McRae
Guests:
Brahma Chellaney – Professor emeritus of strategic studies at the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi
Remi Bourgeot – Associate fellow at the French Institute for International and Strategic Affairs in Paris
Dhananjay Tripathi – Senior associate professor in the Department of International Relations at South Asian University in New Delhi
China is showcasing itself as a solid business and trading partner to traditional allies of the United States and others who have been alienated by President Donald Trump’s politics, and some of them appear ready for a reset.
Since the start of 2026, Chinese President Xi Jinping has received South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo and Irish leader Micheal Martin.
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This week, United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer is on a three-day visit to Beijing, while German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is expected to visit China for the first time in late February.
Among these visitors, five are treaty allies of the US, but all have been hit over the past year by the Trump administration’s “reciprocal” trade tariffs, as well as additional duties on key exports like steel, aluminium, autos and auto parts.
Canada, Finland, Germany and the UK found themselves in a NATO standoff with Trump this month over his desire to annex Greenland and threats that he would impose additional tariffs on eight European countries he said were standing in his way, including the UK and Finland. Trump has since backed down from this threat.
China’s renewed sales pitch
While China has long sought to present itself as a viable alternative to the post-war US-led international order, its sales pitch took on renewed energy at the World Economic Forum‘s (WEF) annual summit in Davos, Switzerland, earlier this month.
As Trump told world leaders that the US had become “the hottest country, anywhere in the world” thanks to surging investment and tariff revenues, and Europe would “do much better” to follow the US lead, Chinese Vice Premier Li Hefeng’s speech emphasised China’s ongoing support for multilateralism and free trade.
“While economic globalisation is not perfect and may cause some problems, we cannot completely reject it and retreat to self-imposed isolation,” Li said.
“The right approach should be, and can only be, to find solutions together through dialogue.”
Li also criticised the “unilateral acts and trade deals of certain countries” – a reference to Trump’s trade war – that “clearly violate the fundamental principles and principles of the [World Trade Organization] and severely impact the global economic and trade order”.
Li also told the WEF that “every country is entitled to defend its legitimate rights and interests”, a point that could be understood to apply as much to China’s claims over places like Taiwan as to Denmark’s dominion over Greenland.
“In many ways, China has chosen to cast itself in the role of a stable and responsible global actor in the midst of the disruption that we are seeing from the US. Reiterating its support for the United Nations system and global rules has often been quite enough to bolster China’s standing, especially among countries of the Global South,” Bjorn Cappelin, an analyst at the Swedish National China Centre, told Al Jazeera.
The West is listening
John Gong, a professor of economics at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, told Al Jazeera that the recent series of trips by European leaders to China shows that the Global North is listening, too. Other notable signs include the UK’s approval of a Chinese “mega embassy” in London, Gong said, and progress in a years-long trade dispute over Chinese exports of electric vehicles (EVs) to Europe.
Starmer is also expected to pursue more trade and investment deals with Beijing this week, according to UK media.
“A series of events happening in Europe seems to suggest an adjustment of Europe’s China policy – for the better, of course – against the backdrop of what is emanating from Washington against Europe,” Gong told Al Jazeera.
The shifting diplomatic calculations are also clear in Canada, which has shown a renewed willingness to deepen economic ties with China after several spats with Trump over the past year.
Carney’s is the first visit to Beijing by a Canadian prime minister since Justin Trudeau went in 2017, and he came away with a deal that saw Beijing agree to ease tariffs on Canadian agricultural exports and Ottawa to ease tariffs on Chinese EVs.
Trump lashed out at news of the deal, threatening 100 percent trade tariffs on Canada if the deal goes ahead.
In a statement last weekend on his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote that Carney was “sorely mistaken” if he thought Canada could become a “‘Drop Off Port’ for China to send goods and products into the United States”.
The meeting between Carney and Xi this month also thawed years of frosty relations after Canada arrested Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in late 2018 at the behest of the US. Beijing subsequently arrested two Canadians in a move that was widely seen as retaliation. They were released in 2021 after Meng reached a deferred agreement with prosecutors in New York.
In Davos, Carney told world leaders that there had been a “rupture in the world order” in a clear reference to Trump, followed by remarks this week to the Canadian House of Commons that “almost nothing was normal now” in the US, according to the CBC.
Carney also said this week in a call with Trump that Ottawa should continue to diversify its trade deals with countries beyond the US, although it had no plans in place yet for a free-trade agreement with China.
Canadian PM Carney, left, meets President Xi in Beijing, China, on January 16, 2026 [Sean Kilpatrick/Pool via Reuters]
Filling the void
Hanscom Smith, a former US diplomat and senior fellow at Yale’s Jackson School of International Affairs, told Al Jazeera that Beijing’s appeal could be tempered by other factors, however.
“When the United States becomes more transactional, that creates a vacuum, and it’s not clear the extent to which China or Russia, or any other power, is going to be able to fill the void. It’s not necessarily a zero-sum game,” he told Al Jazeera. “Many countries want to have a good relationship with both the United States and China, and don’t want to choose.”
One glaring concern with China, despite its offer of more reliable business dealings, is its massive global trade surplus, which surged to $1.2 trillion last year.
Much of this was gained in the fallout from Trump’s trade war as China’s manufacturers – facing a slew of tariffs from the US and declining demand at home – expanded their supply chains into places like Southeast Asia and found new markets beyond the US.
China’s record trade surplus has alarmed some European leaders, such as French President Emmanuel Macron, who, in Davos, called for more foreign direct investment from China but not its “massive excess capacities and distortive practices” in the form of export dumping.
Li tried to address such concerns head-on in his Davos speech. “We never seek trade surplus; on top of being the world’s factory, we hope to be the world’s market too. However, in many cases, when China wants to buy, others don’t want to sell. Trade issues often become security hurdles,” he said.
South African trade unions and leftist organizations have expressed solidarity with Venezuela. (NUMSA)
Demanding the release of Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores, South Africa’s largest trade union marched to the US consulate in Johannesburg on Saturday, January 24.
“In defending Venezuela, we defend the sovereignty of all nations,” concluded the memorandum read aloud outside the consulate by Irvin Jim, general secretary of the over 460,000 members-strong National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA).
“It is Venezuela today … It will be South Africa tomorrow,” Jim warned in his address to the demonstration. US President Donald Trump, who has bombed parts of Nigeria after concocting a false story about a “Christian Genocide” in the country, has also been spinning tales about a “White Genocide” underway in South Africa.
“This is not a joke,” NUMSA warned in a statement. “Donald Trump can easily use the lie of a White genocide in South Africa to invade South Africa, capture South Africa’s president and transport him to a jail in the US, and declare that he is now in charge of our country and all its natural wealth, whilst controlling all trade and natural wealth … After the US criminal military invasion of Venezuela, it is foolish to ignore” this threat to South Africa.
“There is a madman in the White House”
“There is a madman in the White House. There is a fascist in the White House,” NUMSA’s president, Andrew Chirwa, said in his opening address to the demonstration. “Today, it is Venezuela that was attacked by this international criminal. Tomorrow it is” Cuba, Iran, Nigeria, South Africa. “All over the world this man” is baying “for blood.”
In parallel, the Trump administration is also attempting to strangle South Africa’s economy, threatening to exclude it from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which provides tariff-free access to the US market, on which the country’s automotive sector is heavily dependent.
“Our members and workers across various sectors are losing jobs” because “he has imposed 30% tariffs against South Africa,” Jim added in his speech.
Stressing the need for “an anti-imperialist front to mobilize the workers” across party and union affiliations, Jim said that NUMSA “will soon be convening a political colloquium”, inviting all progressive political parties. “It is about time to unite the working class … behind a revolutionary agenda,” as South Africa faces increasing US aggression.
South Africa punished for taking the genocidal state of Israel to the ICJ
South Africa, the union maintains, “is being punished by Trump for taking the genocidal state of Israel to the International Court of Justice (ICJ).” Reaffirming that “this was the correct position … in defense of the people of Palestine,” NUMSA called on the South African government not to cave in to the pressure by Leo Brent Bozell III, Trump’s new ambassador to South Africa.
At his Senate confirmation hearing, he had stated that if appointed, “I would press South Africa to end proceedings against Israel,” and the ICJ itself to stop what he deemed a “lawfare” against Israel.
“If he continues to insult our national sovereignty … by demanding that South Africa must withdraw its case in the ICJ against Israel,” NUMSA insists, “the South African government must act swiftly, and ensure that he packs his bags and leaves the country.”
Demanding that the football governing body “cancel all World Cup matches in the US this year,” a copy of the memorandum was also sent to the FIFA President.
It further called on the African Union (AU) and the BRICS to urgently convene and formulate a coordinated and collective response to the US imperialist aggression.
“No country is safe from America’s greedy appetite”
Recalling the European leaders defending unipolarity under the cover of “rules-based order” at last year’s G20 summit in South Africa, the US had boycotted Alex Mashilo, spokesperson of the South African Communist Party (SACP) said in his address to the protest: “Little did they know that just after a few weeks, that unipolar power will turn against them and demand Greenland.”
Under “the mad Trump administration”, NUMSA emphasized in its statement, “no country is safe from America’s greedy appetite”.
The US has now even “become extremely dangerous to itself” and “its citizens”, with Trump “brutalizing the American people daily” using “his personal ‘Gestapo’ police commonly known as ICE.”
Expressing “solidarity with American citizens who are being brutalized by ICE,” NUMSA insisted, “This is a moment when all people of the world, including well-meaning US citizens and all South Africans, must unite” against imperialism.
After months of intense negotiations, the European Commission concluded on Tuesday a free-trade deal with India which sharply reduces tariffs on EU products from cars to wine as the world looks for alternative markets following President Donald Trump’s tariff hit.
The announcement was made during a high-level visit by European authorities including Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Both countries hailed a “new chapter in strategic relations” as the two looks for alternatives to the US market.
India is currently facing tariffs of 50% from the Trump administration, which has severely dented its exports. After sealing the Mercosur deal with Latin American countries earlier this month, the EU has said it aims to speed up its trade agenda with new partners.
“We did it – we delivered the mother of all deals,” von der Leyen said after the deal was announced. “This is the tale of two giants who choose partnership in a true win-win fashion. A strong message that cooperation is the best answer to global challenges.”
Talks went down to the wire with negotiators meeting over the weekend and in the early hours of Monday. The deal says it will bolster the “untapped” potential of their combined markets but did not include politically sensitive sectors such as agriculture.
The EU’s powerful trade chief Maroš Šefčovič, who in charge of negotiating on behalf of the 27 EU member states, said Brussels aims for a fast implementation by 2027.
In an interview with Euronews from Delhi after the deal was announced, Šefčovič said the India deal showcases the EU’s new approach when it comes to trade: more pragmatic on deliverables, rather than getting stuck on political red lines.
“We resumed negotiations with a new philosophy, being very clear in saying: if this is sensitive for you, let’s not touch it,” Šefčovič told Euronews, describing the strategy as a gamechanger.
A win for European exports looking to tap Indian market
Under the agreement, the EU aims to double goods exports to India by 2032 by cutting tariffs on approximately 96% of EU exports to the country, saving around €4 billion a year in duties. At its full potential, the deal creates a market of 2 billion people.
Europe’s carmakers emerge as beneficiaries, with Indian customs duties gradually reduced from 110% to 10% under a quota system. Tariffs in sectors including machinery, chemicals and pharmaceuticals will also be almost entirely eliminated.
Wine and spirits, key exports for countries like France, Italy and Spain, will see duties reduced from 150% to around 20 to 30%. Olive oil duties will be cut to zero from 40%.
After years of tensions with EU farmers, the Commission said sensitive agricultural products had been excluded from the agreement, leaving out beef, chicken, rice and sugar.
When it comes to India, the agreement keeps trade terms on dairy and grain untouched in line with the demands of the Indian authorities, which saw it as a red line.
The Commission, which negotiated the deal on behalf of the EU’s 27 member states, said it included a dedicated sustainable development chapter “which enhances environmental protection and addresses climate change.”
The agreement does not cover geographical indications, another contentiousarea for negotiators, which will be addressed in a separate deal aimed at protecting EU products from imitation on the Indian market.
Deal cut under pressure from Trump’s tariffs
The timing of the deal is important as the two sides look to de-risk their economies from the threat of Trump’s tariffs.
The EU saw tariffs triple to 15% last year under a contentious deal and India is currently operating under a 50% tariff regime from Washington.
The Trump administration slapped an additional 25% duty on India last year as punishment for buying Russian oil, which India has defended citing a need for cheap energy to power a country of 1.4 billion people.
Talks between the EU and India first began in 2007 but quickly ran into hurdles.
Negotiations were relaunched in 2022 and talks intensified last year as the two sought to cushion the impact of Trump’s return to the White House.
After the deal was signed during a two-day trip on Tuesday, in which the chiefs of the Commission and the European Council were guest of honour, the EU said the deal showcases that “rules-based cooperation” remains the preferred path for the bloc – and a growing number of partners from Latin America to India.
Before the deal can be implemented, the European Council and the European Parliament will have to ratify it, which can become an arduous process.
The Commission hopes to begin implementing the agreement from January 2027.
This story has been updated with comments by Commissioner Šefčovic to Euronews. Watch online and on television.
India and the European Union have agreed on a huge trade deal creating a free trade zone of two billion people, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi have said.
In a post on X during her visit to New Delhi on Tuesday, von der Leyen said the two parties were “making history today”.
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“We have concluded the mother of all deals. We have created a free trade zone of two billion people, with both sides set to benefit,” she added.
Modi said the landmark agreement, following nearly two decades of on-and-off negotiations, had been reached, hailing its benefits before a meeting with von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa.
“This deal will bring many opportunities for India’s 1.4 billion and many millions of people of the EU,” he said.
The deal will cover about 25 percent of the global gross domestic product (GDP), Modi said, adding that India will get a boost in sectors including textiles, gems and jewellery, and leather goods.
It will pave the way for India, the world’s most populous nation, to open up its huge, protected market to free trade with the 27-nation EU, its biggest trading partner.
The EU views India as an important market for the future, while New Delhi sees Europe as an important potential source of technology and investment.
The formal signing of the deal will take place after legal vetting, expected to last five to six months, the Reuters news agency reported, quoting an Indian government official aware of the matter. The official said the deal was expected to be implemented within a year.
EU exports ‘expected to double’
The EU said it expected its exports to India to double by 2032 as a result of the deal.
Bilateral trade between India and the EU in goods has already grown by nearly 90 percent over the past decade, reaching 120 billion euros ($139bn) in 2024, according to EU figures. Trade in services accounts for a further 60 billion euros ($69bn), EU data shows.
Under the agreement, tariffs on 96.6 percent of EU goods exports to India would be eliminated or reduced, EU officials said. The deal would save up to 4 billion euros ($4.74bn) a year in duties on European products, officials said.
Among the products that would have tariffs all or mostly eliminated were machinery, chemicals and pharmaceuticals.
Tariffs on cars would gradually reduce to 10 percent with a quota of 250,000 vehicles a year, officials said, while EU service providers would gain privileged access to India in key areas such as financial and maritime services. Tariffs on EU aircraft and spacecraft would be eliminated for almost all products.
Tariffs would be cut to 20-30 percent on EU wine, 40 percent on spirits, and 50 percent on beer, while tariffs on fruit juices and processed food would be eliminated.
“The EU stands to gain the highest level of access ever granted to a trade partner in the traditionally protected Indian market,” von der Leyen said on Sunday. “We will gain a significant competitive advantage in key industrial and agri-good sectors.”
Last-minute talks on Monday had focused on several sticking points, including the impact of the EU’s carbon border tax on steel, sources familiar with the discussions told the AFP news agency.
Talks on the India-EU trade deal were launched in 2007, but for many years made little progress. However, Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine led to the relaunch of talks in 2022, while United States President Donald Trump’s aggressive tariff policy spurred rapid progress in negotiations.
India and the EU also announced the launch of a security and defence partnership, similar to partnerships the EU has with Japan and South Korea, as von der Leyen said Brussels and New Delhi would grow their strategic partnership further.
The moves come as India, which has relied on Russia for key military hardware for decades, has tried to reduce its dependence on Moscow by diversifying imports and pushing its domestic manufacturing base, while Europe is doing the same with regard to Washington.
The EU-India deal comes days after Brussels signed a key pact with the South American bloc Mercosur, following deals last year with Indonesia, Mexico and Switzerland. During the same period, New Delhi finalised pacts with the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Oman.
