A summary of today's developments
Donald Trump on Saturday doubled down on the sweeping tariffs he unleashed on countries around the world, warning Americans of pain ahead, but promising historic investment and prosperity. “We have been the dumb and helpless ‘whipping post’, but not any longer. We are bringing back jobs and businesses like never before,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “This is an economic revolution, and we will win,” he added. “Hang tough, it won’t be easy, but the end result will be historic.”
Trump’s 10% tariff on UK products came into force on Saturday, as global stock markets continued to fall in response to the imposition of import taxes. The FTSE 100 plummeted on Friday in its worst day of trading since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, while markets on Wall Street also tumbled. Australia, Colombia, Argentina, Egypt and Saudi Arabia are among the countries also hit with the 10% tariff.
The initial 10% “baseline” tariff took effect at US seaports, airports and customs warehouses at 12.01am ET (0401 GMT). Many other countries will see their tariff rates increase above that next week – including the EU, which will be hit with a 20% rate. A 25% tariff imposed on all foreign cars imported into the US came into effect on Thursday.
Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has confirmed it will “pause” shipments to the US in April as it works to “address the new trading terms” of Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron discussed their “concerns about the global economic and security impact, particularly in South East Asia” in the wake of Donald Trump’s tariffs, Starmer’s office said. In a post on X, Macron, said: “A trade war is in no one’s interest. We must stand united and resolute to protect our citizens and our businesses.”
Elon Musk said he hoped in future to see complete freedom of trade between the US and Europe. He spoke via video-link at a congress in Florence of Italy’s right-wing League party, which is part of the ruling coalition, Reuters reports. “At the end of the day, I hope it’s agreed that both Europe and the United States should move, ideally, in my view, to a zero tariff situation, effectively creating a free trade zone between Europe and North America,” said Musk.
Ralph Goodale, the high commissioner for Canada in the UK, told the BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme on Saturday that the “action taken by the US government is completely illogical”. He added: “It will damage the United States itself.”
The Italian economy minister, Giancarlo Giorgetti, warned on Saturday against the imposition of retaliatory tariffs on the US in response to Trump’s announcement of sweeping tariffs on trade partners. Speaking at a business forum near Milan, Giorgetti said Italy was aiming for a “de-escalation” with the US. “We should avoid launching a policy of counter-tariffs that could be damaging for everyone, and especially for us,” Giorgetti said.
The stock market plunge has more to do with the emergence this year of China’s DeepSeek artificial intelligence tool than with Trump’s policies, the US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said in an interview released on Friday that signalled little concern about the ongoing nosedive. “For everyone who thinks these market declines are all based on the president’s economic policies, I can tell you that this market decline started with the Chinese AI announcement of DeepSeek,” Bessent told former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
Bangladesh’s interim leader called an emergency meeting on Saturday after textile leaders in the world’s second-largest garment manufacturing nation said US tariffs were a “massive blow” to the key industry. Trump on Wednesday slapped punishing new tariffs of 37 % on Bangladesh, increasing duties from the previous 16% on cotton and 32% on polyester products.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is expected to visit the White House on Monday to discuss recently announced tariffs with Trump, three Israeli officials said on Saturday. As part of a sweeping new tariff policy announced by Trump, unspecified Israeli goods exports to the US face a 17% tariff.
China has taken and will continue to take resolute measures to safeguard its sovereignty, security and development interests, its foreign ministry said on Saturday, citing a Chinese government stance on opposing US tariffs. The US should “stop using tariffs as a weapon to suppress China’s economy and trade, and stop undermining the legitimate development rights of the Chinese people”, the ministry said.
Nissan Motor is considering shifting some domestic production of US-bound vehicles to the US, the Nikkei reported on Saturday. As early as this summer, Nissan plans to reduce production at its Fukuoka factory in western Japan and shift some manufacturing of its Rogue SUV to the US to mitigate the impact of Trump’s tariffs, the business newspaper said, without citing the source of its information.
The president of Taiwan, Lai Ching-te, met tech executives on Saturday to discuss how to respond to new US tariffs, promising to ensure Taiwan’s global competitiveness and safeguard its interests. Lai met the executives at his official residence to discuss the response to “the global economic and trade challenges brought about by the reciprocal tariff policy”, his spokesperson, Karen Kuo, said in a statement. She did not say which companies were present, only that there were several representatives from the information and communications technologyindustry.
“Today, America is not only humiliating Iran, but also the world,” the Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, said on Saturday, in an apparent reference to recent policies adopted by Trump, including imposing tariffs on imported goods. Pezeshkian said his country was willing to engage in dialogue with the US as equals, without clarifying whether Tehran would participate in direct talks.
China has said “the market has spoken” in rejecting Trump’s tariffs, and called on Washington for “equal-footed consultation” after global markets plunged in reaction to the trade levies that drew Chinese retaliation. Trump introduced additional 34% tariffs on Chinese goods as part of steep levies imposed on most US trade partners, bringing the total duties on China this year to 54%.
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Keir Starmer is preparing to rethink key elements of the government’s economic policy in an emergency response to Donald Trump’s tariff blitz, amid growing concern in Downing Street that the US president’s trade war could do lasting damage to the UK, writes Toby Helm and Phillip Inman.
The prime minister believes, say allies, that “old assumptions should be discarded” in the UK’s response, suggesting he and the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, may be preparing to raise taxes again – despite having promised not to do so – or even possibly change their “iron clad” fiscal rules to allow more borrowing and fire up economic growth at home in the event of recession.
Almost $5tn (£4tn) was wiped off the value of global stock markets after Trump launched his tariff offensive last Wednesday on the rest of the world, including a 10% base tariff on imports into the US from the UK.
On Friday, the FTSE 100 closed more than 7% lower than last Monday, after what was its worst week since the height of panic over the Covid pandemic in March 2020.
Underlining the potential impact on UK businesses of a global trade war, Britain’s luxury carmaker Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) said on Saturday that it would “pause” shipments to the US in April as it considered how to respond. “As we work to address the new trading terms with our business partners, we are taking some short-term actions, including a shipment pause in April, as we develop our mid- to longer-term plans,” said JLR.
This week, Starmer, who has refused to criticise Trump or his tariffs directly, will focus on how to frame an economic response to a global economic shock that protects working people, and their incomes and jobs – as well as the UK’s public services.
He believes that the last few days have ushered in a “new era”, that the “world has changed” and that a global trade war risks “undermining a proud, hard-working nation”.
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