10/17/25 Afternoon CommStock Report – China is Pulling Threads as Trade Frameworks Unravel

President Trump and his negotiating team has put together a number of trade framework agreements with several nations including the UK, EU, Japan, and South Korea. He has also imposed tariffs on many other nations while they continue to work on framework agreements. Other countries are waiting in the quiche to negotiate a framework. In the interim, tariff revenue rolls in. A framework agreement is an outline of the big stuff, essentially a term sheet, that will be used to flesh out a full trade agreement. Trade agreements are comprehensive and take time to weave in all the details as negotiation on the more minor issues continues. Mexico and Canada have the USMCA, (Canadians call it CUSMA) that covers 85% of our trade with them. Trump has imposed some crushing tariffs on anything outside of the existing agreement. The USMCA is up for review next year but most expect them to just virtually start over. Both Canada and Mexico are waiting for the other shoe to drop as Trump continues to add random tariffs on additional products such as movies, lumber, furniture, pharmaceuticals and such, to purposely grate on them. President Trump sees our two North American neighbors as competitors…