Between 75 percent and 80 percent of Americans who have a Christmas tree now have an artificial one, and the $1 billion market for fake trees is growing at about 4 percent a year.
The U.S. was set to raise tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods on Jan. 1 until President Donald Trump agreed Saturday with Chinese Leader Xi Jinping to hold off for 90 days while the two sides try to settle their differences.
The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement is meant to replace the 24-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement, which Trump has long denigrated as a "disaster."
Vice President Mike Pence said the U.S. wasn’t in a rush to end the trade war and would “not change course until China changes its ways”—a worrying prospect for a region heavily reliant on exports.
According to the American Headwear Alliance, which represents producers such Zionsville-based Lids and Massachusetts-based ’47 Brand, the vast majority of caps sold in the U.S. are imported from overseas.
Overall, economists surveyed by the National Association for Business Economics are slightly more optimistic than they were when last surveyed three months ago.
Canada was back in a revamped North American free trade deal with the United States and Mexico late Sunday after weeks of bitter, high-pressure negotiations that brushed up against a midnight deadline.