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UK’s response to 10% tariffs ‘can be guided by nationwide curiosity’, says Downing Road
Downing Road mentioned that UK prime minister Keir Starmer spoke to Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese and Italian premier Giorgia Meloni, and had “been clear the UK’s response can be guided by the nationwide curiosity”.
Issuing a read-out of their separate conversations on Friday, No 10 mentioned the leaders “all agreed that an all-out commerce struggle could be extraordinarily damaging”, reviews the PA information company.
A spokesperson mentioned the PM “has been clear the UK’s response can be guided by the nationwide curiosity” and officers will “calmly proceed with our preparatory work, slightly than rush to retaliate”.
The spokesperson added:
He mentioned this strategy with each leaders, acknowledging that whereas the worldwide financial panorama has shifted this week, it has been clear for a very long time that like-minded nations should preserve sturdy relationships and dialogue to make sure our mutual safety and preserve financial stability.”
It’s anticipated that Starmer will take additional calls with counterparts over the weekend.
Ministers have to date averted criticism of Donald Trump as they search to safe a commerce settlement with the US which they hope might safe some exemption from the tariffs.
Nevertheless, the federal government has drawn up a listing of merchandise that could possibly be hit in retaliation, and is consulting with companies on how any countermeasures might influence them.
Rachel Reeves mentioned on Friday that the federal government is “decided to get the most effective deal we are able to” with Washington.
The chancellor mentioned:
After all, we don’t wish to see tariffs on UK exports, and we’re working arduous as a authorities in dialogue with our counterparts within the US to characterize the British nationwide curiosity and help British jobs and British trade.”
The Liberal Democrats have mentioned that the federal government’s “makes an attempt to appease the White Home” should not working, and known as on ministers to coordinate a response with allies.
Lib Dem chief Ed Davey mentioned in a press release:
We have to finish this commerce struggle as shortly as doable, however the authorities’s makes an attempt to appease the White Home and its presents to chop taxes on US tech billionaires merely aren’t working.
As an alternative, one of the best ways to finish this disaster is to face shoulder to shoulder with our European and Commonwealth pals. We should coordinate our response and strengthen our buying and selling relations with our dependable allies. That’s how we are able to shield our economic system from Trump’s bullying.”
Key occasions
Phillip Inman
China’s chief, Xi Jinping, says he’s ready to bounce if it means sidestepping a number of the worst of Donald Trump’s commerce tariffs. Final week he despatched a letter to India’s president, Droupadi Murmu, urging her to hitch him in a tango to have a good time 75 years of bilateral commerce.
Xi mentioned it was “the fitting alternative” for the 2 nations to be “companions of mutual achievement and realise the ‘Dragon-Elephant Tango’”, which, he added, “totally serves the elemental pursuits of each nations and their peoples.”
Beijing is on a wide-ranging attraction offensive, aimed toward redirecting its exports away from the US to different keen locations as Washington erects commerce boundaries.
Tariffs on China imposed by the US president amounting to twenty% earlier this 12 months had been greater than doubled final week to 54% and an efficient common fee of 65%, elevating the price of Chinese language imports to a degree that many analysts consider can be uncompetitive.
The response from Beijing was swift. A sell-off on monetary markets intensified after China’s finance ministry mentioned it might reply in form, including 34% to the tariff on all US items from 10 April.
Traders fear {that a} recession within the US can’t be dominated out because the commerce struggle intensifies and firms hunker down, reducing funding and jobs to climate the storm.
John Denton, head of the Worldwide Chambers of Commerce, likens the onset of those tariff wars to the oil shock of the Seventies, such is its seismic significance. “The overriding theme is the battle for supremacy between China and the US for world commerce dominance,” he mentioned.
China has taken and can proceed to take resolute measures to safeguard its sovereignty, safety and growth pursuits, the international ministry mentioned on Saturday, citing a Chinese language authorities stance on opposing US tariffs.
The US ought to “cease utilizing tariffs as a weapon to suppress China’s economic system and commerce, and cease undermining the respectable growth rights of the Chinese language individuals,” the ministry mentioned, in keeping with Reuters.
Trump launched extra 34% tariffs on Chinese language items as a part of steep levies imposed on most US commerce companions, bringing the whole duties on China this 12 months to 54%.
This prompted retaliation from China on Friday, together with further levies of 34% on all US items and export curbs on some uncommon earths, escalating the commerce struggle between the world’s two largest economies.
Jaguar Land Rover will pause shipments of its UK-made vehicles to the United States for a month, because it considers the best way to mitigate the price of president Donald Trump’s 25% tariff, in keeping with a report within the Instances newspaper.
Jaguar Land Rover, which is owned by India’s Tata Motors, didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark by Reuters on Saturday.
A pause in shipments would add to fears over the influence from tariffs on the UK’s automotive trade, which employs 200,000 individuals instantly. The US is the second-biggest importer of British-made vehicles after the European Union, with practically a 20% share, knowledge from trade physique SMMT exhibits, reviews Reuters.
Jaguar Land Rover, one of many UK’s largest producers by quantity, sells 400,000 Vary Rover Sports activities, Defenders and different fashions yearly. Exports to the US account for nearly 1 / 4 of these gross sales.
The US 25% tariff on imported vehicles and light-weight vans took impact on 3 April. The day before today, Trump introduced tariffs on different items from nations throughout the globe, upending world commerce.
The Instances mentioned that Jaguar Land Rover is assumed to have a few months’ provide of vehicles already within the US, which is not going to be topic to the brand new tariffs.
Taiwan president Lai Ching-te met tech executives on Saturday to debate how to reply to new US tariffs, promising to make sure Taiwan’s world competitiveness and safeguard its pursuits, reviews Reuters.
President Donald Trump introduced across-the-board import tariffs on Wednesday with a lot larger duties for dozens of buying and selling companions, together with Taiwan, which runs a big commerce surplus with the US and is dealing with a 32% obligation on its merchandise. The US tariffs, nevertheless, don’t apply to semiconductors, a serious Taiwanese export.
Lai met the executives at his official residence to debate the response to “the worldwide financial and commerce challenges led to by the reciprocal tariff coverage”, his spokesperson Karen Kuo mentioned in a press release. She didn’t say which corporations had been current, solely that there have been a number of representatives from the data and communications expertise, or ICT, trade.
Lai “hopes to present trade the best help, stabilise the financial state of affairs, guarantee Taiwan’s trade’s world competitiveness, and safeguard our nation’s nationwide pursuits and the continued regular progress of our economic system”, Kuo mentioned.
Taiwan is house to TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker and an essential provider to corporations together with Apple and Nvidia. TSMC didn’t instantly reply to a request by Reuters for touch upon whether or not it attended the assembly. TSMC is in its quiet interval forward of first quarter earnings announcement on 17 April.
On Friday, Taiwan’s authorities introduced T$88bn ($2.67bn/£2.07bn) in monetary assist for corporations and industries to cope with the influence of the US tariffs.
Taiwan, which says the tariffs are unreasonable, has mentioned it’ll talk about them with the US and has not introduced any retaliatory tariffs.

Pippa Crerar
US president Donald Trump has lengthy been an advocate of tariffs – as soon as describing them as essentially the most lovely phrase within the dictionary – and his promise to impose them was a central plank of his presidential election marketing campaign. In anticipation, Downing Road developed a defensive technique that revolved round constructing a powerful relationship with Trump’s White Home – regardless of clear political variations – and launching talks to strike an financial deal that will safe tariff exemptions.
Commerce talks between the UK and US started quickly after Trump’s inauguration, earlier than the prime minister visited Washington in February, with the purpose of agreeing a comparatively slim deal centered on superior applied sciences. Talks intensified earlier than UK enterprise secretary Jonathan Reynolds’ personal go to to fulfill Howard Lutnick, the US commerce secretary, simply over two weeks in the past.
UK officers had been assured by their US counterparts that they had been in a powerful place to barter a commerce cope with Washington. “By then we knew what the faultlines had been, and we had been broadly there, so we simply had some particulars to thrash out,” an official mentioned.
The 2 key figures main the negotiations are Reynolds and Varun Chandra, a company strategist turned senior No 10 aide generally known as the prime minister’s “enterprise whisperer”. Officers have been impressed by how Chandra has navigated the US administration. “He simply will get them, and so they get him. The talks have been far more company in tone than commerce negotiations often are. That’s his world,” one mentioned.
A senior commerce division official, Kate Joseph, and Keir Starmer’s financial worldwide affairs adviser, Michael Ellam, have been working behind the scenes at house to get the Whitehall machine prepared. A number of situations had been drawn up relying on what tariff regime Trump imposed.
Netanyahu anticipated to speak tariffs with Trump in Washington on Monday, officers say
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is anticipated to go to the White Home on Monday to debate just lately introduced tariffs with US president Donald Trump, three Israeli officers mentioned on Saturday, in keeping with Reuters.
The impromptu go to was first reported by Axios, which mentioned that if the go to takes place, the Israeli chief could be the primary international chief to fulfill Trump in individual to attempt to negotiate a deal to take away tariffs.
Netanyahu’s workplace has not confirmed the go to, that will in all probability additionally embrace discussions on Iran and Israel’s struggle towards Hamas in Gaza.
The shock invite by Trump got here in a phone-call on Thursday with Netanyahu, who’s on a go to to Hungary, when the Israeli chief raised the tariff concern, in keeping with the Israeli officers who spoke on situation of anonymity to Reuters.
As a part of a sweeping new tariff coverage introduced by Trump, unspecified Israeli items exports to the US face a 17% tariff. The US is Israel’s closest ally and largest single buying and selling companion.
An Israeli finance ministry official mentioned on Thursday that Trump’s newest tariff announcement might influence Israel’s exports of equipment and medical tools.
Israel had already moved to cancel its remaining tariffs on US imports on Tuesday. The 2 nations signed a free commerce settlement 40 years in the past and about 98% of products from the US are actually tax-free.

Pippa Crerar
When Jonathan Reynolds gathered with officers across the giant tv display screen in his workplace to observe Donald Trump unleash his world commerce struggle, he knew little greater than anybody else about what was to come back.
It was Wednesday evening and the US president was about to upend a century of worldwide commerce with the imposition of sweeping taxes on US imports from all over the world.
Moments earlier than Trump sauntered on stage, Reynolds had been instructed to anticipate a common baseline tariff of 10% – however he didn’t know whether or not the rest could be imposed on prime. The expectation in authorities was that the UK could be hit with a 20% fee, which the Treasury watchdog had warned might wipe 1% off UK GDP.
As Trump introduced out his sandwich board of worldwide tariffs, Reynolds and his workforce shared the frustration of many viewers the world over – the board stored slipping behind the White Home lectern and obscuring the all-important figures subsequent to nations’ names.
It shortly turned clear that the UK’s fee was 10%, decrease than the 20% fee for the EU – however the identical baseline because the US had imposed on nations together with Brazil and Afghanistan. Inside minutes, Downing Road described this as a “vindication” of Keir Starmer’s strategy.
“After we heard it was a flat 10% there was some aid as a result of it might have been a lot worse,” one supply mentioned. “It additionally meant that they had been true to their phrase about the place we stood. That belief can be actually essential going ahead.”
No 10 has been criticised for “sucking up” to Trump however getting little in return, however authorities sources argue that the tariff regime might have been considerably extra damaging for the UK if that they had not labored to develop good relations and put ahead their very own arguments.
They stress that the US was minded to incorporate VAT – which has a typical fee of 20% and has been a lot maligned by Trump – of their calculations, however that Starmer made the case towards this instantly and publicly when he visited the White Home in February. “We had been in a position to discuss them down,” a supply mentioned.
Tariffs are ‘utterly illogical’ and can ‘harm the US itself’, says excessive commissioner for Canada in UK
Ralph Goodale, the excessive commissioner for Canada within the UK, instructed the BBC’s Radio 4 As we speak programme:
Our view is now we have to face agency. The motion taken by the US authorities is totally illogical.
It’s going to harm the USA itself. It’s going to elevate prices in the USA. It’s going to remove jobs in the USA, it’ll cut back progress in the USA and now we have to make it abundantly clear not simply that that that is going to occur rhetorically, however the US has to really feel the ache as a result of finally it will likely be People who will persuade their authorities to cease this foolishness.”
He mentioned Canadian prime minister Mark Carney’s agency stance was “strongly supported” by the Canadian inhabitants:
I’ve by no means seen Canadians extra united and extra decided round a problem earlier than.
Mr Carney’s strategy may be very considerate, it’s very measured and it’s one which enjoys big help from the Canadian inhabitants. Canadians are standing collectively on this like I’ve by no means seen earlier than.”
He added:
After we are attacked we struggle again and we get up for ourselves on this planet and we construct our personal economic system to make sure that we’re extra insulated from this sort of abuse sooner or later.”

Callum Jones
Donald Trump’s huge overhaul of US commerce coverage this week has known as time on an period of globalisation, alarming individuals, governments and buyers all over the world. Nobody ought to have been stunned, the US president mentioned.
The announcement of 10% to 50% tariffs on US buying and selling companions tanked inventory markets after Trump unveiled a “declaration of financial independence” so drastic it drew comparability with Britain’s exit from the European Union – Brexit.
However Trump, who gained re-election promising that tariffs would make America nice once more, has advocated for the return of widespread tariffs with “nice consistency” for many years. “I’ve been speaking about it for 40 years,” he famous within the White Home Rose Backyard.
Many companies, economists and politicians consider Trump’s commerce plan is wrongheaded, flawed and dangerous. Some have even urged it might need been written by ChatGPT. However he’s unquestionably proper with regards to the variety of many years he has argued for it.
“That is so uncommon for Trump. He’s a traditional politician in a technique: he doesn’t consider in a lot deeply,” Larry Sabato, director of the Heart for Politics on the College of Virginia. Tariffs are totally different. “This one factor, he appears to deeply consider in.”
Nissan Motor is contemplating shifting some home manufacturing of US-bound autos to the US, the Nikkei reported on Saturday, as president Donald Trump ramps up commerce tariffs on nations worldwide.
As early as this summer time, Nissan plans to scale back manufacturing at its Fukuoka manufacturing facility in western Japan and shift some manufacturing of its Rogue SUV to the US to mitigate the influence of Trump’s tariffs, the enterprise newspaper mentioned, with out citing the supply of its data.
The Japanese automaker’s Rogue SUV, a well-liked mannequin within the US market, is now produced in Fukuoka and the US, the report mentioned, in keeping with Reuters.
On Thursday, Nissan mentioned it might not take new orders from the US for 2 Mexican-built Infiniti SUVs after earlier Trump tariff bulletins, marking, a drastic scale-back of its operations at a three way partnership plant.
The automaker now plans to take care of two shifts of manufacturing of the Rogue at its Smyrna, Tennessee, plant after asserting in January it might finish one of many two shifts this month.
Nissan bought about 920,000 autos within the US final 12 months, of which about 16% had been exported from Japan, the Nikkei mentioned, including the deliberate manufacturing shift might hit native suppliers’ companies.
Italian economic system minister Giancarlo Giorgetti warned on Saturday towards the imposition of retaliatory tariffs on the United States in response to president Donald Trump’s announcement of sweeping tariffs on commerce companions.
Talking at a enterprise discussion board close to Milan, Giorgetti mentioned Italy was aiming for a “de-escalation” with the US, reviews Reuters.
“We should always keep away from launching a coverage of counter-tariffs that could possibly be damaging for everybody and particularly for us,” Giorgetti mentioned.
Underneath Trump’s plans Italy, which has a big commerce surplus with the US, can be topic to a basic tariff of 20% together with different European Union nations.
“That is the one largest commerce motion of our lifetime,” mentioned Kelly Ann Shaw, a commerce lawyer at Hogan Lovells and former White Home commerce adviser throughout Donald Trump’s first time period.
In accordance with Reuters, Shaw instructed a Brookings Establishment occasion on Thursday that she anticipated the tariffs to evolve over time as nations sought to barter decrease charges. “However that is big. This can be a fairly seismic and vital shift in the way in which that we commerce with each nation on Earth.”
Trump’s Wednesday tariff announcement shook world inventory markets to their core, wiping out $5tn in inventory market worth for S&P 500 corporations by Friday’s shut, a file two-day decline. Costs for oil and commodities plunged, whereas buyers fled to the protection of presidency bonds.
Among the many nations first hit with the ten% tariff are Australia, the UK, Colombia, Argentina, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. A US Customs and Border Safety bulletin to shippers signifies no grace interval for cargoes on the water at midnight on Saturday.
However a bulletin from the company did present a 51-day grace interval for cargoes loaded on to vessels or planes and in transit to the US earlier than 12.01am ET Saturday. These cargoes want arrive to by 12.01am ET on 27 Could to keep away from the ten% obligation.
Donald Trump introduced sweeping tariffs on a number of the US’s largest buying and selling companions, upending many years of US commerce coverage and threatening to unleash a worldwide commerce struggle on what he has dubbed “liberation day”.
The president mentioned he’ll impose a ten% common tariff on all imported international items along with “reciprocal tariffs” on a couple of dozen nations, charging extra duties onto nations that Trump claims have “cheated” the US.
You may take heed to his feedback within the beneath video:
UK’s response to 10% tariffs ‘can be guided by nationwide curiosity’, says Downing Road
Downing Road mentioned that UK prime minister Keir Starmer spoke to Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese and Italian premier Giorgia Meloni, and had “been clear the UK’s response can be guided by the nationwide curiosity”.
Issuing a read-out of their separate conversations on Friday, No 10 mentioned the leaders “all agreed that an all-out commerce struggle could be extraordinarily damaging”, reviews the PA information company.
A spokesperson mentioned the PM “has been clear the UK’s response can be guided by the nationwide curiosity” and officers will “calmly proceed with our preparatory work, slightly than rush to retaliate”.
The spokesperson added:
He mentioned this strategy with each leaders, acknowledging that whereas the worldwide financial panorama has shifted this week, it has been clear for a very long time that like-minded nations should preserve sturdy relationships and dialogue to make sure our mutual safety and preserve financial stability.”
It’s anticipated that Starmer will take additional calls with counterparts over the weekend.
Ministers have to date averted criticism of Donald Trump as they search to safe a commerce settlement with the US which they hope might safe some exemption from the tariffs.
Nevertheless, the federal government has drawn up a listing of merchandise that could possibly be hit in retaliation, and is consulting with companies on how any countermeasures might influence them.
Rachel Reeves mentioned on Friday that the federal government is “decided to get the most effective deal we are able to” with Washington.
The chancellor mentioned:
After all, we don’t wish to see tariffs on UK exports, and we’re working arduous as a authorities in dialogue with our counterparts within the US to characterize the British nationwide curiosity and help British jobs and British trade.”
The Liberal Democrats have mentioned that the federal government’s “makes an attempt to appease the White Home” should not working, and known as on ministers to coordinate a response with allies.
Lib Dem chief Ed Davey mentioned in a press release:
We have to finish this commerce struggle as shortly as doable, however the authorities’s makes an attempt to appease the White Home and its presents to chop taxes on US tech billionaires merely aren’t working.
As an alternative, one of the best ways to finish this disaster is to face shoulder to shoulder with our European and Commonwealth pals. We should coordinate our response and strengthen our buying and selling relations with our dependable allies. That’s how we are able to shield our economic system from Trump’s bullying.”
Trump’s 10% tariff on UK merchandise comes into power as inventory markets plunge
Donald Trump’s 10% tariff on UK merchandise got here into power on Saturday, as world inventory markets continued to fall in response to the imposition of import taxes.
The FTSE 100 plummeted on Friday in its worst day of buying and selling for the reason that begin of the pandemic whereas markets on Wall Road additionally tumbled.
Keir Starmer is anticipated to spend the weekend chatting with international leaders concerning the tariffs, after calls with the prime ministers of Australia and Italy on Friday through which the leaders agreed {that a} commerce struggle could be “extraordinarily damaging”, reviews the PA information company.
The preliminary 10% “baseline” tariff took impact at US seaports, airports and customs warehouses at 12.01am ET (0401 GMT), ushering in Trump’s full rejection of the post-second world struggle system of mutually agreed tariff charges.
Many different nations will see their tariff charges enhance above that subsequent week – together with the EU which can be hit with a 20% fee. A 25% tariff imposed on all international vehicles imported into the US got here into impact on Thursday.
Buying and selling the world over has been hammered within the aftermath of the US president’s announcement on the White Home on Wednesday.
Accoding to the PA information company, London’s prime inventory market index shed 419.75 factors, or 4.95%, to shut at 8,054.98 on Friday, the largest single-day decline since March 2020 when the index misplaced greater than 600 factors in sooner or later. The Dow Jones fell 5.5% on Friday as China matched Trump’s tariff fee.
Beijing mentioned it might reply with its personal 34% tariff on imports of all US merchandise from 10 April.
All however one inventory on the FTSE 100 fell on Friday, with Rolls-Royce, banks and miners amongst these to undergo the sharpest losses.