The dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea
YONHAP SOUTH KOREA/EPA
In other trading early Friday, the US dollar fell to 145.39 Japanese yen from 146.06. The euro gained to $1.1095 from $1.1055.
James Murray, the exchequer secretary to the Treasury, told the Today programme that “everything is on the table” and “we reserve the right to retaliate”.
“We won’t hesitate to act in the national interest,” he said, but added that the government is “fully focused” on securing a deal with the US which would lift the tariffs.
The US has slapped duties above its new 10 per cent baseline on Fiji, Vanuatu and Nauru, for running trade surpluses.
The 22 per cent tariffs on Vanuatu were expected to impact exports and hurt kava farmers, a spokesperson for the prime minister said.
Biman Prasad, the finance minister for Fiji, said that the country applied a 0 or 5 per cent duty on 96 per cent of US imports. President Trump‘s levy “is quite disproportionate and unfair”, he added.
Papua New Guinea, the most populous Pacific island country, said it had no plans to retaliate against the US decision to impose a 10 per cent tariff.
“If the US market becomes more difficult due to this tariff, we will simply redirect our goods to markets where there is mutual respect and no artificial barriers,” James Marape, the prime minister, said.
• Read in full: Nowhere is safe from Trump’s tariffs. Not even penguin islands
London’s FTSE 100 index of companies declined further after the City’s financial markets opened this morning.
The index slipped by 0.53 per cent, or about 45 points, to 8,429.98 points after the start of trading.
The fall, which followed further declines in the Asian markets amid continued concerns over Trump’s tariff plans, came after London’s top index slid by 1.55 per cent in Thursday’s session.
The foreign secretary said he regretted the “return to protectionism” in the US.
David Lammy, the foreign secretary, also acknowledged that British people would be “very concerned” about how they could be impacted.
GEERT VANDEN WIJNGAERT/AP
He told reporters: “We are a nation that believes in open trade, and I regret the return to protectionism in the United States, something that we’ve not seen for nearly a century.
“Of course, we have been absolutely clear that all options are on the table as we ensure the national interests of the British people, who will be very concerned at this time about how this affects the bottom line for them and their economic welfare.”
A Treasury minister said that the UK was “disappointed” with US tariffs when asked if President Trump was right to say Sir Keir Starmer was “very happy” about Britain’s treatment.
James Murray, the exchequer secretary to the Treasury, told Times Radio that the UK was in a “better position” than other countries because it is on the lowest band of tariffs. However, he added that all option would be kept on the table and said: “We’re disappointed at tariffs being imposed globally.”
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“Do not retaliate, negotiate”, is the message to the government from the chief executive of one of Britain’s biggest private companies.
JCB confirmed plans to double the size of a new factory in Texas in the wake of Trump’s tariffs announcement.
Graham Macdonald, the chief executive of the company which has been making diggers and other machinery in America for more than 50 years, told the Today programme that making in the US is “the way to really mitigate” tariffs.
Macdonald also said he would be looking at “trying to push pricing as much as we can to recover”, as he expected every industry to do.
Asked whether the UK should retaliate, he said: “No. Entering into a trade war with an economy the size of the US, we are not in a position (to do so). It’s a trade war we can only lose.”
The European Union should not retaliate with exactly the same tools used by the US in response to the tariffs as it would impact EU consumers, a French minister said on Friday.
Eric Lombard, the finance minister, said: “We are working on a package of responses that can go well beyond tariffs, in order, once again, to bring the US to the negotiating table and reach a fair agreement.”
President Trump boarding Air Force One to travel to his Mar-a-Lago Resort on Thursday
MANDEL NGAN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Melanie Joly, Canada’s foreign minister, said on Friday that the relationship between the US and her country would never be the same after President Trump’s new tariffs regime was announced on Wednesday.
At her arrival for a Nato meeting of foreign affairs ministers in Brussels, Joly added that Canada was putting maximum pressure on the Trump administration.
Shares of Japanese banks fell sharply on Friday as President Trump’s tariffs sparked fears of a downturn in global growth that could delay rate increases in the world’s fourth-largest economy.
The Tokyo index of banking stocks was down 10 per cent at 5.37am GMT. Shares of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Japan’s biggest bank by assets, had also fallen 10 per cent.
A stock quotation board showing Nikkei share average in Tokyo
KIM KYUNG-HOON TPX /REUTERS
Ling Ji, China’s vice-minister of commerce, said that China was willing to work with the EU to maintain a rules-based multilateral trading system and bring certainty to global trade, state media reported on Friday.
China was willing to work with the bloc to resolutely oppose protectionism, unilateralism and bullying, said Ling, at a meeting of the China-Hungary Economic Joint Committee in Budapest.
Washington’s allies and rivals alike warned of a blow to global trade. Japan, one of the biggest trading partners with the US and its largest foreign investor, was now facing a “national crisis”, Shigeru Ishiba, the prime minister, told parliament.
Nissan Motor said on Thursday it would not take new orders from the US for two Infiniti SUVs, in a scaleback of its operations at the Compas plant it has run together with Mercedes-Benz in Mexico.
Nissan also said it would now maintain two shifts of production of the Rogue SUV at its Smyrna plant in Tennessee after announcing in January that it would end one of the two shifts this month.
Imported cars parked at a processing terminal at the Port of Los Angeles
MARIO TAMA/GETTY IMAGES
Nissan said production was expected to continue for those models sold in other markets.
The US dollar fell on Friday and the safe-haven yen strengthened towards a six-month peak, as traders weighed the fallout from President Trump’s new tariff measures.
The US dollar slipped toward a six-month trough against the euro before the release of payrolls report later in the day, which will offer clues to the health of the economy and the outlook for monetary easing.
Traders predicted four quarter-point interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve for the remainder of this year, and reduced the odds of further Bank of Japan tightening to almost nil.
The Australian and New Zealand dollars also fell as shockwaves from Trump’s harsher-than-expected tariffs were rippled through markets more than 24 hours after they were unveiled.
