Trump made new trade deals with countries around the world. Here’s how they played out

Just three months after his return to office last year, U.S. President Donald Trump tore up the status quo in global trade, imposing tariffs on almost every country in the world and scrapping longstanding agreements with allies and rivals alike. Since then, the U.S. has been negotiating deal after deal, while Washington’s biggest trading partners, including Canada, have had to grapple with the whiplash of tariffs being introduced, overturned, reintroduced, negotiated away and reimposed. Hours before new, 50-per-cent tariffs were set to come into force on US$20-billion worth of Canadian goods Wednesday, Mr. Trump said a deal had been reached “subject to finalization of documents.” Few details were immediately available, but the President suggested the agreement could involve the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, which he said “may be awoken from the grave!” Five things you need to know about the Canada-U.S. trade talks For all his fondness of tariffs and deal-making, however, Mr. Trump’s trade policy has yet to deliver its promised prosperity for Americans. “Tariffs have not brought home manufacturing jobs and have not eased pressures around inflation, despite the administration’s talking points early in 2025,” said Nick Marro, lead for global trade at the Economist Intelligence Unit. “Broadly speaking, we’ve seen the Trump administration adopt a more cautious approach to trade and tariff policy this year,” he said. “The tariffs threatened against Canada are an exception to this rule, but we still see a pretty strong degree of hesitation in terms of the effects tariffs might have on exacerbating cost of living pressures within the U.S. market.” Mr. Trump’s tariffs amounted to an average tax increase of US$1,000 per household last year, according to the Tax Foundation, a Washington-based policy non-profit. His policies have also slowed economic growth in the U.S., and wiped out hundreds of thousands of jobs. Here are some key deals Mr. Trump has negotiated in the past 18 months, and how they’ve affected trade around the world. Britain Britain was the first country to agree a new trade deal with the U.S. after Mr. Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs of April 5, 2025 (which have since been largely overturned by the Supreme Court). The U.S.-UK Economic Prosperity Deal, announced a month later, set a base tariff of 10 per cent, and a 25-per-cent tariff on British steel and automobile imports past a certain threshold. It also included language on economic security, a term often bandied about by the Trump administration, but one that has yet to be fully defined. Both countries agreed to “strengthen cooperation on economic security, including by coordinating to address non-market policies of third countries,” a clause seen as referring to China, which the U.S. has long complained puts its thumb on the scale in favour of domestic exporters. If London was seeking stability, the deal didn’t provide much. It has language in it that states the deal can be scrapped by either party at any time, and Mr. Trump has repeatedly threatened further tariffs or a change in policy as he sought to cajole British support for his purchase of Greenland or the Iran war. Still, some British commentators were happy when the European Union negotiated a less favourable deal, offering a rare plus point to the massive damage Brexit has done to the British economy. Japan After the Liberation Day tariffs, Mr. Trump said countries were “dying to make a deal” with Washington; indeed, many negotiators expressed frustration at the long queue to try and secure a new agreement with the U.S. before the new levies came into force. One of the countries first through the door was Japan, which in July secured a reduction in tariffs from 24 to 15 per cent, while agreeing to improve market access for U.S. autos, energy and rice. Tokyo also committed to invest US$550-billion in “core American industries,” in projects personally selected by Mr. Trump, and agreed to greater co-operation on critical minerals. European Union One of the most important trade deals secured by Mr. Trump came in July, 2025, with the EU, which is by far Washington’s biggest trading partner when taken as a bloc. (Mexico, Canada and China are the U.S.’s biggest trading partners by individual country.) Like Japan, the EU agreed to a base tariff of 15 per cent, while committing to address non-tariff barriers such as competing standards. The EU also agreed to buy US$750-billion in American liquefied natural gas, oil and nuclear energy products, and invest US$600-billion “across strategic sectors in the United States through 2028.” The deal has been controversial ever since it was struck, with then French prime minister François Bayrou calling it a “dark day” for Europe. Even the bloc’s top trade negotiator, Maros Sefcovic, said it was “the best we could get under very difficult circumstances.” After Mr. Trump threatened further tariffs as he sought to bully Denmark into selling Greenland, the European Parliament paused approval of the deal, but parts of it finally came into force last month. South Korea Few countries were as taken aback by Mr. Trump’s tariff policy as South Korea. In slapping Seoul with a universal levy of 25 per cent, along with further tariffs on auto and steel imports, Mr. Trump claimed South Korea had imposed “colossal trade barriers” against U.S. companies. This was despite the fact of Washington and Seoul having a long-standing free trade agreement, one that was actually expanded during Mr. Trump’s first term. On July 30, 2025, the two sides announced a new deal, whereby tariffs on South Korean goods would be reduced to the standard 15 per cent, and Seoul agreed to expand access to U.S. autos and accept American standards. South Korea also agreed to buy US$36.2-billion in Boeing aircraft, and invest US$350-billion in the U.S., spaced out across the rest of Mr. Trump’s term. “South Korea’s deal shows that the Trump administration does not feel bound by past U.S. trade agreements, even ones that Trump renegotiated in his first term,” Inu Manak, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said at the time. This was proved correct in January this year, when Mr. Trump claimed South Korean lawmakers – who only a year earlier had defied an attempted coup led by president Yoon Suk Yeol – were slow-rolling implementation. He threatened to impose a new tariff of 25 per cent, but this threat was eventually dropped after South Korea’s parliament fast-tracked the trade bill. However, Mr. Trump’s continuing frustrations with Seoul – over both trade and a lack of support for his war in Iran – appear to be behind his decision this week to freeze war games with South Korea and offer an olive branch to the North. China No country pushed Mr. Trump harder than China, which matched the U.S. tariff for tariff in a rapidly expanding trade war that, at one point, threatened to effectively decouple the world’s two largest economies. Both sides stepped back from the edge ahead of a meeting between Mr. Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea in late 2025, and further progress was made during a visit by Mr. Trump to Beijing in May this year. But while Mr. Trump claimed “fantastic deals” had been made in the Chinese capital, the trade war détente is exceptionally fragile, and a comprehensive trade deal of the type that Mr. Trump has been seeking with China since his first term has yet to emerge. Negotiators hope some kind of agreement can be struck during Mr. Xi’s scheduled visit to the U.S. next month. But this may not be so favourable to Washington, with Mr. Trump in a weaker position than ever amid the economic chaos wrought by his Iran war. Nor will China have been charmed by Mr. Trump’s recent (false) allegations that Beijing cost him the 2020 election against Joe Biden.