President Donald Trump said on social media Jan. 12 that he will, “[e]ffective immediately,” impose a 25% tariff on “any Country doing business” with Iran. The tariffs will cover “any and all business being done with the United States of America,” he said.

House and Senate negotiators unveiled a compromise FY 2026 financial services and general government appropriations bill Jan. 11 that would fully fund the Trump administration’s request for the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. and the Treasury Department’s Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence (TFI) while slightly cutting its request for the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.

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."

The Trump administration could soon turn its attention to the Cuban government after capturing Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro, the former leader of Cuba’s major oil supplier, said Matthew Kroenig, a former U.S. defense and intelligence official.

Reps. Jefferson Shreve, R-Ind., and Sydney Kamlager-Dove, D-Calif., introduced a bill Jan. 9 aimed at bolstering the technical staffing of the Bureau of Industry and Security.

The Bureau of Industry and Security is easing its license review policy for exports of Nvidia H200 chips and their equivalents that are destined to China and Macau, BIS said in a final rule released Jan. 13 and effective Jan. 15. License applications for those chips will be reviewed under a case-by-case policy instead of a presumption of denial as long as the semiconductors set to be exported are commercially available in the U.S. and the exporter can attest to several certifications, including that there is “sufficient supply” in the U.S.; the chip has “sufficient security procedures”; that production of the chip won’t “divert global foundry capacity for similar or more advanced products for end users in the United States”; the chip had undergone third-party testing; and more.

Nathaniel Moulton left his position last week as an information and communications technology specialist within the Commerce Department's International Trade Administration, he announced on LinkedIn. Moulton first joined Commerce in 2024 in the Office of Information and Communication Technologies, where he said he worked to "grow the U.S. quantum computing ecosystem and strengthen U.S. supply chain resilience." He also had a stint in 2021-2022 in policy coordination with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa visited Damascus last week to meet with Syrian officials and discuss “renewed bilateral relations” with the country following the EU’s decision last year to ease sanctions (see 2505290017). The commission said the EU plans to pursue “enhanced trade and economic cooperation” with Syria, and von der Leyen said the EU has “invited” the European Investment Bank to resume activity in Syria. The bloc also has begun discussions on resuming the two sides’ cooperation agreement “so that Syria can start to benefit once again from access to the European economic market,” she said.

A Danish member of the European Parliament from an eco-socialist party called the Red-Green Alliance is pushing for the parliament to halt consideration of a legislative package that would drop tariffs on American industrial goods and give U.S. agriculture more access to the EU market.