business 
The Senate on Tuesday voted 51 to 45 to confirm Howard Lutnick to be President Trump’s commerce secretary, putting in place one of the administration’s top economic officials who will help oversee an agenda around tariffs and protectionism. Mr. Lutnick, who was the chief executive of the financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald, became a central … Read more
As President Trump’s efforts to restructure the global trade system with expansive tariffs begin to take shape, one question continues to dog officials at the Federal Reserve: How will these policies impact the central bank’s plans to lower interest rates? One influential Fed governor made clear on Monday that he did not expect Mr. Trump’s … Read more
Amazon workers voted overwhelmingly against a bid to unionize their North Carolina warehouse, the National Labor Relations Board said on Saturday, the latest setback in labor organizing efforts at the e-commerce giant. Workers at the RDU1 fulfillment center in Garner, outside of Raleigh, voted 2,447 to 829 against unionizing with Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity … Read more
It is an axiom heard countless times in business school lecture halls and on corporate earnings calls: Uncertainty is bad for business. The U.S. economy is about to test that proposition like never before. The first weeks of the second Trump administration have been a dizzying whirlwind of economic policy moves: A spending freeze was … Read more
President Trump on Thursday ordered his advisers to determine new tariff rates on America’s trading partners, a move that he said would “correct longstanding imbalances in international trade.” As part of his plan, Mr. Trump has taken aim at the value-added tax, a system used widely in Europe and elsewhere to tax the consumption of … Read more
A pillar of President Trump’s policies has been tariffs, which are taxes on products imported from other countries. He has imposed or threatened to impose them as a way to influence global supply chains, raise revenue and extract concessions from other countries. But what can often be lost amid proclamations targeting other countries is who … Read more
Liquor lobbyists gathered in a ritzy private club on a recent rainy evening in Brussels to swill cocktails with names like “Toasts Not Tariffs” and fret over the potential disaster confronting their industry. Again. Seven years ago, the spirits industry found itself a casualty in a worldwide trade war as President Trump unleashed tariffs on … Read more
President Trump is pursuing a far more aggressive trade policy than he embraced in his first term, allowing his unfettered instincts about how to put America at the forefront to guide him with little pretense of investigations or extended deliberations. Since taking office, Mr. Trump has threatened punishing tariffs on goods from every global trading … Read more
Rows of white concrete buildings near the Pearl River in southern China house one of the world’s fastest-growing industries: Gritty workshops are churning out inexpensive clothing that is exported straight to homes and small businesses around the world. No tariffs are paid, and no customs inspections are conducted. The laborers who make these goods earn … Read more
President Trump on Thursday set in motion a plan for new tariffs on other countries globally, an ambitious move that could shatter the rules of global trading and is likely to set off furious negotiations. The president directed his advisers to come up with new tariff levels that take into account a range of trade … Read more