Good morning from the Financial Times.
Today is Thursday, March 6th, and this is your FT News briefing.
The tariff dance takes yet another step, and BlackRock is getting into the ports business.
Plus, Donald Trump has given new life to Canada's ruling party.
Donald Trump started to kind of ramp up his attacks and hostilities on Canada, And that kind of galvanized the nation.
I'm Mark Filippino, and here's the news you need to start your day.
The U .S. yesterday said some local carmakers will get one month to find their footing before import tariffs from Canada and Mexico kick in.
On Tuesday, these 25 % tariffs started and received a nasty response from investors.
The S &P 500 hit a four -month low, and stocks in American car companies like Ford and GM had pretty big drops.
Car makers breathed a sigh of relief after yesterday's reprieve.
GM's share price finished the day up more than 7%.
Ford jumped more than 5 .5%.
But the tariff war is far from over.
Canada has already announced tariffs in response.
Mexico will announce its own plans on Sunday and Trump says reciprocal tariffs will go into effect on April 2nd.
U .S. President Donald Trump has his sights set on the Panama Canal.
In January, he promised to take back the critical waterway that connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
And before a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night, he gave an update.
Yesterday, a large American company announced they are buying both ports around the Panama Canal.
The American asset manager BlackRock is taking over two key ports.
It comes after a nearly $23 billion deal with a Hong Kong mogul.
My colleague Eric Platt has more.
Hey, Eric. Hey, how's it going?
Good. So do me a favor and walk me through the details of this acquisition.
What exactly has been happening?
Sure. So this was an all -out sprint, it sounds like, from the major parties involved in this.
On one hand, you had C .K.
Hutchison, massive conglomerate in Hong Kong, run by the billionaire Li Ka Shing, which owns these ports on both sides of the canal.
On the other hand, you have BlackRock, Global Infrastructure Partners, and Terminal Investors Limited.
These are big investors in infrastructure and ports.
And right now, it's just an agreement in principle.
They're now setting to work, write out all the contracts, and draft the merger agreement fully, right?
So the deal got sparked after Trump won the election, and he started making increasingly aggressive comments about kind of his plans for Panama.
And why does Trump want more control over the canal to begin with?
He sees this as a crucial infrastructure asset for the U .S., kind of critical to national security, and just the U .S.'s ability to stay at the forefront of global trade.
Now, if this goes through, do we have any nuts and bolts takeaways about what happens next?
Like, are these ports kind of in the hands of BlackRock and these other companies?
So one thing that's important to remember is BlackRock and GIP, all this money that's ultimately going to be getting put up, isn't coming from those firms entirely, right?
They're drawing upon funds that they've raised from hundreds of investors across the globe.
So the ultimate owners of this asset are going to be sovereign wealth funds, pension funds that have invested in BlackRock and GIP funds who are counted as their limited partners.
So it's just a nuance to remember that it's not as if a sprawling American conglomerate has bought control of these outright.
Got it. So it's not exactly like the United States owns these ports, right?
Exactly. And remember, these are just two of the critical ports on each side of the Panama Canal.
The canal itself is owned by the Panama government.
That is not a part of the transaction.
Last question for you, Eric, is what does this deal say about the power of Trump's words on corporate America?
Oh, it's having a tremendous impact.
This deal does speak to the fact that corporate chieftains are moving really rapidly to show that they are on sides with the Trump administration.
I'm thinking of big investments announced by Apple, the semiconductor maker TSMC, even OpenAI, right?
Groups are lining up to show that they are investing in America and that they are on sides with the president.
Eric Platt is the FT's U .S.
investment editor. Thanks, Eric.
Thanks so much. german borrowing costs shot up yesterday after a historic debt deal was announced the yield on the country's 10 -year bund had its biggest one -day move since 1997 investors are betting on a big boost to economic growth it all has to do with something we've talked about on the show before called Germany's Debt Break.
It strictly caps government borrowing.
Incoming Chancellor Friedrich Merz pledged late on Tuesday to allow limitless national borrowing for German defense spending.
Germany and other European countries have been scrambling to unlock more funds for defense after Donald Trump threatened to withdraw military support.
Merz is planning to push the changes through parliament later this month before new lawmakers take their seats.
Canada's Liberal Party is facing a leadership election this Sunday and the outcome will dictate who will become the next Prime Minister, at least for a little bit.
The vote comes after current Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in January that he would resign.
The FT's Ilia Gridneuf joins me to talk about this and how the vote might shake out.
Hey, Ilia. Hi, how you doing?
I'm doing well. Do me a favor, talk me through how people are feeling about the Liberal Party these days.
Only a month ago, it seemed like it was falling apart.
What has changed? Well, if you love a comeback story, this is a really good one.
So at the end of last year, the Liberal Party was really in the doldrums.
They were trailing in the polls.
They were doing very badly, widely disliked.
The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, announced his resignation.
And that sort of sparked a leadership contest as to who would replace him.
But then while that was happening, President Donald Trump started to kind of ramp up his attacks and hostilities on Canada.
And that kind of galvanized the nation and the Canadians became united in a common sort of with a common enemy of that being the US president and his tariffs and his constant sort of jibes about Canada becoming the 51st state.
And that was the new sort of narrative.
That was the new conversation that was happening.
Who would be the best leader to manage or to negotiate with Donald Trump.
And that really kind of took the wind out of the sails of the conservatives who had been leading for the last four years in every poll.
And then overnight, the polls just started going in a new direction.
And that was the Liberal Party was back.
And that momentum is really front and center going into Sunday's leadership election.
Ilya, who are the main candidates for the Liberals?
The two main candidates are probably well known to FT readers.
We have the former Bank of England governor and former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney.
And he's really promoting his economic credentials as the right option and the right man to lead Canada in these uncertain times with President Trump and his kind of economic agenda.
And then on the other hand, we have former finance minister and former foreign affairs minister, Christia Freeland.
And she was involved in the Liberal Party government the previous time that President Trump was in power.
President Trump has called her all sorts of names, I think described her as toxic and a nasty woman.
and she sort of has been leaning into that to sort of show that she's the right leader that, you know, threatens Donald Trump.
So two very different leaders.
And yet at the same time, the main narrative is that they are the best hopeful to manage Donald Trump.
Well, that's a great, that's a great segue to my next question.
Who is the favorite to win?
That's the, yeah, that's the big question.
And the question that we'll have to find out on Sunday.
But if you look at polling that came out yesterday, it is starting to lean a little towards Mark Carney, leaning in definitely to his economic credentials and managing the global financial crisis while the governor of the Bank of Canada, and then also managing the economy for the UK during the sort of Brexit period.
So there is a sense that Carney is in the lead, but you never know.
And where does this all fit into the flow of Canadian politics more broadly?
Because after the leadership vote, Canadians still have to have a general election, right?
Parliament has been prorogued and is not sitting till the end of the month.
So there's still some time before Parliament resumes.
So the thinking is that there might be an announcement on Sunday.
And then shortly afterwards, Canada will be going to an early election in sort of spring, April, May.
Regardless of that, under their constitution, they have to have an election before October.
So there's a lot of change and there's a lot of uncertainty in Canada at the moment.
Ilya Gridnev is the FT's Canada correspondent.
Thanks, Ilya. Thank you.
You can read more on all these stories for free when you click the links in our show notes.
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