All the biggest trade deals so far in 2026 don't involve the US
A new trade deal between India and Europe is just the latest pact announced in less than a month's time that doesn’t involve the United States. Long-delayed European plans for increasing trade with a bloc of South American nations also took a step forward, as has a limited trade deal between Canada and China to cut tariffs on electric vehicles and canola oil.
But these new agreements have also shown some of the challenges in global efforts to forge a trading system that circumvents the US.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Tuesday called the EU-India pact "the mother of all deals" to create a free trade zone of 2 billion people between India and Europe.
"This is only the beginning," von der Leyen wrote on X.