With Donald Trump’s new tariffs affecting UK exports, Keir Starmer’s government faces critical decisions.
What does this mean for Britain’s economy and post-Brexit trade? How will it impact UK-US and UK-EU relations?
Join the discussion and ask your questions here:
Athena Stavrou4 April 2025 06:00
Prime minister Shigeru Ishiba said this morning that tariffs imposed on Japanese goods by US president Donald Trump are a “national crisis”.
Japan, one of the United States’ biggest trading partners and its largest foreign investor, was hit by a 24-percent levy.
The levies “can be called a national crisis and the government is doing its best with all parties” to lessen the impact, Mr Ishiba said in parliament.
Japan’s Nikkei was down 1.85 per cent after hitting an eight-month low yesterday shortly after the tariffs were announced.
The prime minister called for a “calm-headed” approach to negotiations with Mr Trump’s administration, which has also imposed 25 per cent tariffs on auto imports.
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar4 April 2025 05:27
A conservative legal group has filed what it said was the first lawsuit seeking to block Donald Trump’s tariffs on Chinese imports, saying the US president overstepped his authority.
New Civil Liberties Alliance filed the lawsuit in Florida’s federal court, alleging that Mr Trump lacked the legal authority to impose the sweeping tariffs unveiled on Wednesday as well as duties authorised on 1 February under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.”
By invoking emergency power to impose an across-the-board tariff on imports from China that the statute does not authorize, president Trump has misused that power, usurped Congress’s right to control tariffs, and upset the Constitution’s separation of powers,” senior litigation counsel Andrew Morris said in a statement.
The group filed the lawsuit on behalf of Simplified, a Florida-based retailer of home management products.
Trump on Wednesday announced that China would be hit with a 34 per cent tariff, on top of the 20 per cent he imposed earlier this year, bringing the total new levies to 54 per cent.
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar4 April 2025 04:59
In a statement published alongside the tariff announcement, the White House said: “The UK maintains non-science-based standards that severely restrict US exports of safe, high-quality beef and poultry products.”
It suggested that Britain’s ban on chlorinated chicken was among a range of “non-tariff barriers” that limit the US’s ability to trade.
The UK has long ruled out allowing imports of chlorine-washed chicken from the US due to health concerns, with Rachel Reeves in November reiterating her opposition to any concessions on the issue.
Athena Stavrou4 April 2025 04:58
Republican US senator Chuck Grassley introduced a bill yesterday that would require congressional approval for new tariffs, the day after president Donald Trump unveiled sweeping new taxes on a vast array of imported goods.
Mr Grassley, whose home state of Iowa relies heavily on the global agricultural trade, joined Democratic senator Maria Cantwell of Washington for the “Trade Review Act of 2025”.
The bill requires Congress to sign off on new tariffs within 60 days of their imposition or automatically block their enforcement.
The move, made the day after four other Senate Republicans voted for a measure that would lift Trump’s tariffs on Canadian goods, was the latest sign of dissent among Republicans as Mr Trump’s aggressive moves fanned recessionary fears and sparked Wall Street’s worst day since 2022.
Neither Mr Grassley’s bill nor the measure that passed the Senate on Wednesday were seen as likely to become law while Mr Trump’s Republicans hold majorities in both the houses.
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar4 April 2025 04:38
Asian shares struggled to recover their heavy losses from the previous session as Japan’s Nikkei fell 1.85 per cent this morning, extending its 2.8 per cent slide from yesterday.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dipped 0.26 per cent in thin trade, with markets in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan closed for a holiday.
Overnight S&P 500 companies lost a combined $2.4 trillion in stock market value, their biggest one-day loss since the Covid-19 pandemic hit global markets on 16 March 2020, while other Wall Street indexes similarly clocked sharp falls.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index fell to an eight-month low on Friday.
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar4 April 2025 04:22
A collection of feta producers in Greece have already noted they’ll be severely impacted, with half their sales to America likely to disappear. “We have to divert these quantities to other markets,” said the head of Greece’s association of dairy industries.
That could mean lower prices elsewhere to stoke demand, or trying to find new territories to sell into. But even the latter could see price rises as the wider economic impacts of recession risk and supply chain disruptions are felt.
The European Dairy Association has similarly criticised the move as “unjustified”.
(Reuters)
Athena Stavrou4 April 2025 02:59
Late Show host mocks Trump tariffs
Athena Stavrou4 April 2025 01:41
Athena Stavrou4 April 2025 00:20
Just days after Percy Pig began his US adventure, the iconic sweet may have to return home.
Percy was described as M&S’s “gift to America” when the confectionary hit Target shelves on March 30.
However, the chair of M&S Archie Norman told the Retail Technology Show on Wednesday that “we might have to change our minds” as Trump’s tariffs loomed.
Later on Wednesday, Trump confirmed his sweeping tariffs on imports.
Athena Stavrou3 April 2025 23:31
