Nutrien’s new export terminal, Hudson’s Bay art auction and U.S. companies push Trump: Business and investing stories for the week of Nov. 23

Getting caught up on a week that got away? Here’s your weekly digest of The Globe’s most essential business and investing stories, with insights and analysis from the pros, stock tips, portfolio strategies and more.

U.S. businesses push Trump to preserve North American free trade

Many U.S. businesses, ranging from airlines to appliance manufacturers, to parcel companies to restaurateurs to cattlemen to miners to tiremakers, are pushing the Trump administration to uphold North American free trade. The U.S. Trade Representative launched a consultation process on the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement in September, opening an online portal for public comment and more than 1,500 submissions have pleaded with the U.S. government to preserve the free movement of goods across the continent.

Nathan VanderKlippe spoke to experts who say support for the USMCA is “widespread and is likely to play an important role” in its review process, which is expected to formally begin next year.

While U.S. President Donald Trump has overseen the largest increase in tariffs in nearly a century, earlier this week, the U.S. quietly opened the door to lowering tariffs on some Canadian steel and aluminum exports. The move signals a shift in how the Trump administration is approaching trade policy, reports Mark Rendell.

At Hudson’s Bay art auction, prospective buyers vie for a piece of history

Hudson’s Bay Co. started selling off art pieces from its collection this week, part of the collapsed company’s insolvency proceedings. The Bay’s full collection comprises of more than 1,700 pieces of art and more than 2,700 artifacts, which Heffel Fine Art Auction House will be selling online in various stages over the coming weeks and months. This week’s in-person sale covered 27 “highlights” of the collection, including large canvases by Canadian painters Frederic Marlett Bell-Smith and William von Moll Berczy.

The painting with the highest estimate in the catalogue was Marrakech by former British prime minister Sir Winston Churchill. It opened bidding at $500,000 and sold for a hammer price of $1.3-million. The sell price for the Churchill piece, including the premium, was $1.56-million. The entire auction of 27 items drew a combined $5.9-million, with fees, Susan Krashinsky Robertson reports.

Decoder: Mexico has jumped past Canada to become the U.S.’s top customer

For decades, Canada has been the largest foreign buyer of U.S. goods, but now Mexico has surpassed Canada to become the U.S.’s top customer. In July and August, Mexico’s imports of U.S. goods soared, topping Canada’s purchases by a combined US$4.9-billion, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. For example, there’s been a large increase in the flow of tech hardware both ways between Mexico and the U.S. since the Trump administration slapped tariffs on China.

The decline in U.S. exports to Canada, however, is partly owing to Ottawa’s countertariffs on certain U.S. goods, which were lifted in September. Consumer boycotts of U.S. products and bans by some provinces of U.S. alcohol are also weighing on demand. Jason Kirby takes a look at the numbers in the latest instalment of the Decoder series.

Nutrien rules out Canada for new export terminal, chooses U.S. site

Saskatchewan-based potash producer Nutrien Ltd. announced Longview, Wash. as the location of its next planned export terminal to Asia, worth up to $1-billion. The Washington terminal will export the critical mineral potash to fast-growing markets in the Indo-Pacific, including China, India and Japan. Nutrien’s chief commercial officer Chris Reynolds told The Globe that the company didn’t consider nationality or politics when choosing the location, and said the Washington site came out on top in its key criteria, including rail rates, freight costs and construction costs.

Ottawa, however, says it is disappointed with Nutrien’s decision and is working to convince the fertilizer giant to change course and invest in Canada, Kate Helmore and Mark Rendell report. Minister of Transport Steven MacKinnon said he has requested a meeting with Nutrien’s project team to “convince them to change their mind.”

A year since Taylor Swift fans lost $300,000 to a ticket scam, little has changed to fix a broken system

Taylor Swift fans looking for tickets to last year’s Eras Tour concert claim they collectively lost more than $300,000 across Toronto and the Halton region, according to estimates provided to The Globe and Mail by Toronto Police, based on an initial review of bank records. Confirmed losses totalled $258,790.

According to figures from police services across Ontario, more than 110 victims filed complaints pertaining to a Facebook profile that used the name Denise Blackhawk that sold them tickets that didn’t exist. The federal Liberals said they would crack down on fraudulent resellers or place stronger penalties for sellers who break the rules, but a year later, not much progress has been made to fix the system, Mariya Postelnyak reports.

Get the rest of the questions from the weekly business and investing news quiz here, and prepare for the week ahead with The Globe’s investing calendar.