Economy
US, Canada officials eye potential trade deal next week
Senior U.S. and Canadian trade officials are working to finalize a potential agreement that could be presented to U.S. President Donald Trump as early as Monday, Canada’s CBC reported, citing unnamed sources.
The Tuesday report said that the joint proposal could reach Trump at least a day before an Aug. 19 deadline, giving him time to make a final decision before new 50% tariffs on hundreds of Canadian imports are set to take effect.
Canada-US Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer LeBlanc are meeting in Washington on Tuesday, their third face-to-face meeting in three weeks. LeBlanc’s trip was delayed after his flight was diverted to Montreal on Monday due to severe weather.
Canada’s chief trade negotiator, Janice Charette, also spent Monday in Washington meeting with U.S. trade officials. Neither LeBlanc nor Charette will comment on the negotiations, the report said.
Beyond seeking to prevent new tariffs, Canada wants relief from U.S. tariffs on steel, aluminum, lumber, and autos, and hopes the talks will lead to an extension of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement.
Last month, Washington also announced additional tariffs of 50% on certain Canadian goods, covering products ranging from wine and hockey sticks to cement, according to the White House.
Türkiye’s pharma industry, one of the leading in the region and Europe, has seen a notable increase in R&D spending over the 2020-2024 period, according to a report on Tuesday.
The pharmaceutical industry’s R&D expenditures increased 8.3 times between 2020 and 2024, rising from TL 676.2 million (about $14.2 million in current prices) to TL 5.6 billion.
According to a compilation by Anadolu Agency (AA) from a recent review report published by the Turkish Competition Board (RK), the pharmaceutical industry is identified as a field requiring significant investment capital, employing advanced technology and carrying out intensive R&D activities in recent years.
With the advancement of technology, the pharmaceutical industry is developing products not only to treat diseases but also to improve the quality of life.
Companies that develop new products and market reference drugs protected by patents, and therefore place a strong emphasis on R&D activities, are defined as originator pharmaceutical companies.
Accordingly, the increase in R&D investments contributes to the introduction of new medicines and greater product diversity in the short term, while in the long term it creates the conditions for stronger competition among originator and generic drugs.
Global firms’ increasing share in market
According to the latest data included in the report, companies ranked among the world’s top 50 pharmaceutical companies by sales last year accounted for 88% of the U.S. pharmaceutical market and 49% of the Turkish market.
This indicates that globally operating pharmaceutical companies hold a significant share of the Turkish market, while domestic and other international companies continue to maintain strong positions.
Spending on pharmaceutical development has also been rising steadily, alongside drug sales.
Global pharmaceutical R&D spending increased by 3% in 2025 compared with the previous year, reaching $201.3 billion. The U.S. ranked first in global R&D spending, with $130.1 billion.
Increasing domestic production as key objective
The pharmaceutical sector in Türkiye also stands out for its high value-added production structure, skilled employment capacity and R&D-intensive activities.
Under the 12th Development Plan, the objectives in this area include increasing domestic production capacity, reducing dependence on foreign sources and strengthening the country’s capacity to develop innovative medicines.
The total size of Türkiye’s pharmaceutical market, which stood at TL 56 billion in 2020, reached TL 479 billion last year.
The country’s pharmaceutical R&D expenditures also increased steadily between 2020 and 2024. While the sector spent some TL 676.2 million on research and development activities in 2020, this figure rose by 723% to TL 5.6 billion in 2024.
In other words, the sector’s R&D spending increased 8.3-fold over the five-year period.
Domestically manufactured medicines surpass imported drugs
In addition to R&D, production and foreign trade have also drawn attention in the sector.
During the 2020-2025 period, domestically manufactured medicines accounted for a larger share of the overall market than imported medicines, both in terms of sales value and number of packages sold.
Global footwear brand Skechers has launched a new shoe featuring a hidden compartment enabling the integration of location-tracking technology, allowing parents to follow their children’s location.
The new “Where’s My Skechers?” model incorporates a dedicated compartment under the heel of the insole that has a screw-tight cover that hides the locator tag.
Tracking tags and mini screwdrivers are sold separately.
The feature is designed to help parents monitor their children’s whereabouts in environments where they can easily become separated, such as parks, shopping malls, school trips, airports and other crowded public venues.
Skechers said the product combines comfort with technology, enabling parents to check their child’s location through compatible devices such as Apple’s AirTag when needed while allowing children to move freely throughout the day.
AirTags, introduced in 2021, are primarily designed to help users locate personal belongings but have increasingly been incorporated into various accessories.
Four years after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine triggered an energy crisis, European countries are facing fresh questions about natural gas security as the war in the Middle East grinds on.
Surging prices due to Iran’s closure of the Straits of Hormuz are keeping liquefied natural gas (LNG) stocks unusually low, with winter just months away.
That raises the spectre of both supply difficulties and prices remaining well above pre-crisis levels, just as colder Continental weather drives up demand.
Stockpiles slump
Besides its use in heating and producing electricity, gas also powers many factories across Europe.
Summer is traditionally when energy firms take advantage of lower prices to fill LNG storage tanks, preparing for higher winter demand.
In a typical year, storage sites would be filled to “around 75% to 80%,” said Anne-Sophie Corbeau, a researcher at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy.
Currently, the level is just 58% – the lowest since 2021 – according to Gas Infrastructure Europe, an industry association cited by the resources consulting firm Kpler.
Why?
“The European Union ended last winter with underground gas storage at only 28%, significantly lower than in previous years,” said Ronald Pinto, an analyst at Kpler First.
European imports were curtailed by the U.S. and Israeli strikes against Iran, which led Tehran to effectively close the Strait of Hormuz to Gulf tanker traffic.
That halted gas shipments from Qatar, a key European supplier, driving up prices of contracts for future delivery, the main way of buying LNG on global markets.
“Italy, Poland and Belgium, contracted buyers of Qatari LNG, have borne the direct losses, as they have been unable to import any Qatari LNG volumes since April 2 – the date on which Italy received its last vessel loaded with Qatari LNG,” Pinto said.
Pricing pain
European buyers had hoped prices would ease by summer, allowing them to fill storage tanks later for less.
The Dutch TTF contract – the benchmark for European gas – for September delivery is currently trading between 55 euros ($63.4) and 58 euros per megawatt-hour.
The cost was just 30 euros before the Middle East war, and as low as 15-20 euros before the war in Ukraine.
An EU Commission spokesperson expressed confidence that filling storage tanks to 80% of capacity “is sufficient to secure winter supply and it is technically achievable.”
Europe has significantly ramped up its import capacity since the war in Ukraine, which prompted it to slash its Russian gas supplies.
Russia still supplies around 12% of the bloc’s gas imports, according to the European Council, but by the end of 2027 it will ban them completely.
“It is also worth noting that EU gas demand has decreased by 17% compared to pre-crisis levels” before 2022, the spokesperson added.
Austerity in store?
Analysts are not so sanguine.
“Supply risks to Europe remain elevated amid reduced LNG availability from the Middle East,” Rystad Energy analyst Antonia Syn said in a recent market update.
Gas infrastructure routinely experiences breakdowns or technical disruptions that halt flows.
And severe cold in the United States – now Europe’s biggest single supplier – could divert its supplies to domestic buyers.
Asian countries that usually buy from Gulf suppliers could also turn to U.S. or other sources, driving up prices to painful levels for European buyers.
So the longer Europe waits to fill up storage sites, the bigger the risks.
“We believe this wait-and-see approach has kept TTF prices from reflecting a scenario of extreme gas scarcity during the winter period,” said Pinto at Kpler First.
He expects average monthly prices to remain at 55 to 62 euros per MW/h through the rest of the year.
“For now we’re seeing LNG go more to Asia than to us, because prices are even higher there,” Corbeau said.
“If stocks are down, if the winter is rough and some other problem happens, we’ll have to start thinking about conservation measures,” she warned, as was the case across Europe in 2022.
Türkiye expects to double natural gas output from its flagship gas field in the Black Sea after deploying its first floating production platform later this year, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said Tuesday.
Preparations for the Osman Gazi are nearing completion at Filyos Port on the Black Sea coast, where it is being readied for a send-off, the Energy and Natural Resources Ministry said in a statement.
The reserves Türkiye has discovered in the Black Sea since 2020 are estimated at approximately 785 billion cubic meters (bcm). The Sakarya Gas Field alone accounts for about 710 bcm.
The reserves are key to Türkiye’s push to curb its heavy dependence on imported energy. Natural gas, along with crude oil, constitutes the largest item in its energy import bill, which was $62 billion last year.
The Sakarya field accounted for about 6.6% of Türkiye’s 53 bcm gas consumption last year, according to calculations.
Current production from the field stands at 9.5 million cubic meters per day. Osman Gazi is expected to double that output once it enters service.
The platform is planned to be dispatched to its operating location at the end of September and commissioned in the final quarter of the year, Bayraktar said on the social media platform X.
Final stages
As part of the final outfitting process, engineers completed the installation of Osman Gazi’s flare tower, a critical safety component designed to safely vent and burn excess hydrocarbon gases during emergency situations while maintaining safe operating pressure.
The installation required two heavy-lift cranes with lifting capacities of 3,500 tons and 800 tons.
The completed flare tower stands 96 meters (314.96 feet) high, weighs 260 tons and occupies a base area of approximately 65 square meters.
The ministry described the operation as one of the final major stages before the platform begins offshore operations.
Production targets
Bayraktar said doubling production would enable the Sakarya field to supply natural gas to 8 million households.
Türkiye currently uses production from the Black Sea field to meet the gas needs of around 4 million households.
Bayraktar said Türkiye eventually plans to commission a second, higher-capacity floating production platform by 2028, increasing daily output to 45 million cubic meters.
At that level, domestic production from the Black Sea would be sufficient to meet the natural gas demand of 17 million households, he said.
Natural disasters have incurred economic losses estimated at $100 billion in the first half of this year, reinsurance group Swiss Re said Tuesday, in what is seen as a sharp decline from the same period last year.
Despite severe storms in the U.S. and the deadly earthquakes that struck Venezuela in June, the losses were well below the $152 billion recorded in the first half of 2025, the group said in its latest report.
The losses were also 10% below the 10-year average for the period.
But Swiss Re, which serves as an insurer for insurance companies, noted that losses from natural disasters often increase in the second half of the year, mainly due to hurricanes in the North Atlantic Ocean.
“A less costly first half of the year does not mean the risk has gone away,” said Balz Grollimund, the group’s director of Catastrophe Perils.
“One major hurricane, earthquake, or wildfire can quickly change the picture.”
Severe heat across Europe since June has sparked an early wildfire season in France and Spain that has already destroyed thousands of homes and businesses as well as infrastructure.
“Wildfire risk has so far accounted for only a relatively small share of insured losses in Europe. Yet it is the fastest-growing weather peril globally,” the company said.
It said insured wildfire losses had risen by 8% to 11% per year in Europe since 1970 after adjusting for inflation and other factors.
Looking forward, Swiss Re warned that the El Nino climate pattern, which began in June and is expected to peak later this year, could accentuate the cost from weather-related disasters.
“El Nino may influence tropical cyclone activity in the Central and East Pacific and could alter the risk of floods, wildfires and other weather extremes elsewhere,” it said.
“The long-term drivers of catastrophe losses remain unchanged, including growing exposure in hazard-prone areas and rising reconstruction costs,” it added.
Türkiye’s overall trade sales volume decreased by 4.5% on an annual basis in June, driven by a moderation in most of the subcategories, official data showed on Tuesday.
The drop in sales was driven by the fall in volume of wholesale and retail trade and repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles, which decreased by 13.8%, and wholesale trade sales volume, which was down by 9.4%, the data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) revealed.
In contrast, retail sales volume rose by 11.8% compared to the same month last year.
On a monthly basis, the country’s total trade sales volume was up by 1.9% in June, while retail sales also increased by 0.7%.
Month-on-month, motor vehicle sales volume dropped by 5.7%, while wholesale trade increased by 4%.
Retail sales growth eases
The retail sales have been relatively resilient in recent months, particularly in the first quarter of the year. However, the pace of expansion moderated as June sales were slower than the 12.8% growth recorded in May.
Retail sales track consumer demand for finished goods and serve as a critical economic barometer.
Within the retail sector, non-food sales excluding automotive fuel surged by 17.6% annually in June, according to the institute’s figures.
Data also showed that mail order and internet retail sales expanded significantly, growing by 22.4% year-over-year.
Food, drinks, and tobacco sales grew by 2.9% annually, while automotive fuel retail sales rose by 1.1% during the same period.
Turnover up 25.8%
A separate report shared by TurkStat on Tuesday showed that the total turnover of the Turkish economy increased by 25.8% on an annual basis in June.
Looking at the details of the total turnover index, industry turnover increased by 26.7%, construction surged by 29.9%, trade saw a 23.5% rise, and turnover in the services sector increased by 31.3% on a yearly basis.
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