2. Paul Kirby
3. Europe digital editor
4. Shares in some of Europe’s biggest companies have nosedived in response to China’s 34% tariff on US goods.
5. The Milanstock market has fallen 7%, with banking and insurance shares well down: financial group Unipol has plummeted 13%, Unicredit and Bper are down 11%, and Intesa and Banca Popolare di Sondrio have both lost 10% of their value.
6. The DAX in Germany lost hundreds of points in a matter of minutes as banking shares and industrials tumbled. Deutsche Bank was down over 10%, while Daimler, Mercedes-Benz and MTU Aero Engines have slipped by between 5% and 7.5%.
7. In France, banking groups Société Générale and BNP Paribas were down 10.8% and 8.6% respectively while car group Stellantis lost 8.5% of its value and steel firm ArcelorMittal was down 10%.
8. In Amsterdam Dutch insurer Aegon and banking group ING are both down by more than 9%.
11. Tom Espiner
12. Business reporter
13. After a shaky start on Friday, European markets are falling further after China said it would impose retaliatory tariffs of 34% on all US goods from 10 April.
14. Indexes in the UK, Germany and France are all down more than 3%. Asian markets also dropped earlier.
15. The sweeping new tariffs announced by President Donald Trump on Wednesday sparked a global stock market sell-off, with US markets suffering their worst day since the Covid pandemic hit in 2020.
16. Traders are worried the tariffs will push up prices and slow growth both in the US and around the world.
19. We’ve got more now on China’s response to US tariffs, after Beijing says it’s hitting back with a 34% tariff on American goods.
20. A spokesperson at the ministry of commerce says China has also filed a lawsuit with the World Trade Organization (WTO).
21. The US-imposed tariff “seriously violates WTO rules, damages the legitimate rights and interests of WTO members, and undermines the rules-based multilateral trading system and the international economic and trade order,” the spokesperson says.
22. “It is a typical unilateral bullying practice that endangers the stability of the global economic and trade order. China firmly opposes this.”
25. China has just said it will add a 34% tariff on US goods starting from 10 April.
26. Its finance ministry says the US tariffs on Chinese products are “not in line with international trade rules”.
27. US President Donald Trump has announced 54% tariffs on China, which include previous duties already in place. That makes China one of the hardest-hit countries on America’s tariff list.
28. Image source, Getty Images
31. As the UK continues talks with the US to reach a deal, some countries are bringing in measures – either to get ahead or in response.
32. Let’s take a look at a few of them:

• Canada: Prime Minister Mark Carney said yesterday the country will match US auto tariffs, placing 25% levies on all US vehicles that don’t comply with the North American free trade deal, known as CUSMA
• Taiwan: Premier Cho Jung-tai said today they’ve set aside $2.7bn (£2bn) to support industries hit by the tariffs
• Spain: The government has announced a €14.1bn (£11.9bn) package to help companies cope with the impact of the tariffs

3. Oliver Smith
4. Business producer
5. A 10% tariff will hurt UK businesses exporting to the US – but it could have been worse.
6. Still, some are seeing possible upsides.
7. I’ve been speaking to a UK electric motorbike manufacturer. The US is a growing market for him, and with his bikes seen as luxury items, he’s understandably worried.
8. But with Chinese rivals now facing a 34% tariff, his prices suddenly look more competitive.
9. A chemicals firm also tells me he’s lost some US business to companies in China and India over the years. With both countries now facing higher tariffs than the UK, he’s hoping American customers might take another look at his products.
10. But he’s also cautious. If Chinese and Indian goods become harder to sell in the US, they could be diverted to the UK – undercutting his business here.
11. That might be good news for UK buyers, but not for him.
12. Image source, Getty Images
15. Image source, EPA
16. As we’ve mentioned earlier, Nato foreign ministers are meeting in Brussels.
17. UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy has been speaking to reporters, saying the UK is “a nation that believes in open trade”.
18. He says the UK is “engaged in discussions with the United States to strike an economic agreement and an economic deal”.
19. He adds that the national interest will come first, and “it’s in their national interests to be negotiating with the United States an economic agreement at this time, but keeping all options on the table”.
22. Image source, Getty Images
23. Farmers in the US are “disappointed” by Donald Trump’s new tariffs, the head of a farmers union has told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
24. “We’re disappointed that they are so widespread and affect so many products,” says Chad Franke, president of the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union.
25. He says the farmers he represents are worried about retaliatory tariffs from other countries, as agricultural goods are often the first to be hit.
26. All tariffs are likely to cause disruption to the industry, he adds, as farmers need to plan “years in advance”, making it “really difficult to change quickly”.
29. Faisal Islam
30. Economics editor
31. All the chips have been thrown up in the air by the American actions. All assumptions about how global trade functions will have to change.
32. Some of the seasoned market observers I’ve spoken to suggest that even the sharp falls we saw in the US markets yesterday are underpinned by the idea that this full tariff package won’t actually happen.
33. But if it does, it raises serious questions about whether the US government’s approach is undermining the strategies of some of America’s biggest blue-chip businesses.
34. Their current supply chain strategies involve finding the most cost-effective places in the world to make their goods. Now, they’re being told to “make American”.
35. There’s another factor here. Most of the world’s trade doesn’t happen through America. I’ve been struck by a lot of the comments from around the world – with many nations not wanting to be seen to give in to what they see as coercion from the US.
36. We’ve already seen the Canadians try to join forces with the EU. Some of Trump’s proxies on social media are saying world leaders should strike a deal with the US president now – get to the front of the queue – because they’re worried, I think, about a co-ordinated response.
39. Image source, White House
40. As we mentioned earlier, US President Donald Trump spoke to reporters on board Air Force One yesterday after announcing new tariffs.
41. Let’s recap what he said:

• Trump likened the tariffs to an operation, saying the patient was “very sick” but the operation was now over
• He said the US economy would “boom” and that trillions of dollars had already been committed
• He added he’d be open to deals with other countries if the offers were “phenomenal”
• “Every country is calling us,” he said, adding the US had put itself in the “drivers seat”

2. 
3. Image source, Reuters
4. If you scan across Donald Trump’s tariff chart, you’ll see that the value in the second column equals roughly half of the number in the first column for most countries. There’s a reason for that.
5. The two columns represent:
6. Tariffs that countries supposedly charge the US
7. Tariffs the US will impose on other countries
8. Initially, it was assumed that the figures were based on existing tariffs plus other trade barriers (like regulations and licensing rules) which make trade harder.
9. But, the White House has now published its official methodology, and it turns out there is a simple equation behind it.
10. The calculations are based on a country’s goods trade deficit with the US. In other words, how much more the US imports than it exports. This number is then divided by the total value of imports from that country.
11. Let’s use China as an example: The US buys more goods from China than it sells to them – there is a goods deficit of $295bn and the total amount of goods it buys from China is $440bn.
12. Then, we find the percentage difference between those two numbers, which = 67% – that’s the number which appears in the first column of Trump’s chart.
13. And to work out column two – the tariff the US wishes to impose – you simply divide that number by two.
14. So in China’s case, the result is 34, and there you have the tariff.

• How were Donald Trump’s tariffs calculated?

3. Ottie Mitchell and Tiffanie Turnbull
4. BBC News, Sydney
5. Image source, PA Media
6. Two tiny, remote Antarctic outposts home to penguins and seals have also ended up on the list for Trump’s new tariffs.
7. Heard and McDonald Islands – a territory about 4,000km (2,485 miles) south-west of Australia – can only be reached by a week-long boat trip from Perth, and haven’t seen human visitors in almost a decade.
8. “It just shows and exemplifies the fact that nowhere on Earth is safe from this,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Thursday.
9. Read more about how an island of penguins found itself on Trump’s tariff list.
10. Image source, Annelise Rees
13. Image source, Getty Images
14. Some Canadians may be angry about Trump’s policy, but others are finding it amusing.
15. One of the targets of Trump’s tariffs is Norfolk Island – a tiny Australian territory with about 2,200 residents.
16. The island’s been hit with a 29% tariff.
17. Locals say the economy relies on tourism and they don’t export anything to the US – so the tariff has become something of a running joke.
18. “Everyone’s laughing about it,” Gye Duncan, a former resident, tells Reuters news agency. “They’re either laughing about it or confused why because there’s no real reason, or no logical reason why he (Trump) would do that.”
19. People on the island are hoping the sudden international attention will give them a much-needed publicity boost and attract more visitors to the rugged volcanic island in the southern Pacific.
22. Robin Levinson King
23. Reporting from Toronto, Ontario
24. At her local grocery store, Benedykta Mazur has taken on the role of a bit of a sleuth.
25. Since Donald Trump launched a trade war with Canada, she’s been doing her best to buy Canadian wherever she can.
26. She refuses to buy anything grown or made in the US.
27. “It’s a no, an absolute no,” she tells me. “This is something that is not going to be just kind of wishy washy.”
28. Mazur says that while Canadians are known for being “really nice”, it’s time to focus that friendliness elsewhere and build ties with countries that “share commonalities in regards to how you treat another person, because countries are made of people”.
31. Image source, Reuters
32. Nato foreign ministers are meeting in Brussels today to talk about Russia’s war in Ukraine – but some are also reacting to Trump’s sweeping tariffs.
33. UK Foreign Minister David Lammy says he regrets the “return to protectionism in the US”, while Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly says Canada’s relationship with the US will never be the same again.
34. Joly also says Canada is putting maximum pressure on the Trump administration.
35. We’re expecting to hear from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who’s also in Brussels, a bit later today.
36. Just a reminder – Canada wasn’t on the list of new tariffs announced this week, but Trump had already imposed a 25% tariff on goods coming into the US from Canada. He’s also previously called for Canada to become the US’s 51st state.
39. Ali Abbas Ahmadi
40. Reporting from Windsor, Ontario
41. 
42. Carmaker Stellantis says it will temporarily shut down its assembly plant in Windsor, a Canadian city on the US border, next week because of car tariffs announced by US President Donald Trump.
43. Derek Gungle, who works on the assembly line at the plant, says the news was “kind of expected” after the tariffs were announced – but still “scary, very scary”.
44. Speaking quietly after giving several interviews, Gungle says Windsor depends heavily on cross-border trade, and any threat to that could have devastating consequences.
45. If the shutdown becomes permanent or he loses his job, Gungle says he has “no idea” what he’ll do.
48. Image source, Getty Images
49. The boss of construction giant JCB has urged the UK government not to hit back at Donald Trump’s tariffs, warning it could lead to “a trade war we can only lose”.
50. It comes after the UK published a 417-page list of US goods that could face tariffs in response.
51. JCB has announced it will double its investment in a new factory in Texas, but chief executive Graeme McDonald says this won’t affect jobs in the UK.
52. “We can’t ignore the biggest market in the world,” he tells BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, adding the best way to deal with the tariffs is to “make in America”.
53. Trump has said companies producing in the US won’t face tariffs, but McDonald says it’s still unclear what “make in America” actually means, given global supply chains.
54. His message to the UK government: “do not retaliate, negotiate” – as there’s “a deal to be done” with the US.
57. Jim O’Neill, former chief economist at Goldman Sachs and treasury minister, says the UK should think about what it can gain from and offer to the rest of the world in response to US tariffs.
58. Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, O’Neill suggests the UK should talk to other G7 countries about lowering trade barriers, especially for cross-border services, “which is what the UK has a marginal advantage in”.
59. “The most important thing is to try to more seriously pursue the obvious things elsewhere in the world that would be to our benefit – I’d include China and India in that too,” he says.
60. O’Neill also says that if the US wants to impose tariffs, it’s “in the bounds of feasibility” for other big economies to restructure and stop their “addiction to the US consumer”.
63. The UK government is “working at pace” to secure a trade deal with the US, a treasury minister tells the BBC.
64. Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, James Murray says the government is “disappointed” global tariffs have been introduced, but it will keep a “cool head” and take a “pragmatic approach”.
65. The focus is on getting a trade deal, says Murray, but the government is keeping “everything on the table” when it comes to its response.
67. 
68. Chris Mason
69. Political editor
70. President Trump’s lament about the consequences of deindustrialisation in America and his reaction to that is prompting the UK and others to have to think nimbly and devote considerable bandwidth to preparing contingencies for what might happen next.
71. How should we understand and grapple with the magnitude of what we are witnessing?
72. Prime Minister Keir Starmer is not a man known for flights of rhetorical fancy.
73. So it is instructive to see how he is articulating this moment.
74. He claimed it was “the beginning of a new era for trade and the economy” and not just this, but was the second such paradigm shift we have witnessed just in the last few months.
75. There was already the beginnings of a new era for defence and security, he suggested, with the UK, Germany and others committed to ramping up spending on the military.

Page 2

2. The FTSE 100 opened more than 0.3% lower and has continued to fall. It quickly dropped to 0.56%, then slid further to 0.68%.
3. Traders are concerned about the global economic impact of US trade policy.
4. We’ll bring you more updates on this.
7. Tom Espiner
8. Business reporter
9. Before trading gets under way on the London stock market at 08:00 BST, here’s a quick look at what’s been happening around the world.
10. Markets have been on edge over the possible impact of Trump’s tariffs, with traders worried about a US or even global recession.
11. US markets all closed lower on Thursday – the Dow Jones fell nearly 4%, the S&P 500 dropped close to 5%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq slid nearly 6%. Those are big moves.
12. Asian markets also took a hit – Japan’s Nikkei was down more than 2.6%, and Australian shares dropped to their lowest level in eight months, with the S&P/ASX 200 index down more than 2.4%.
13. As a general rule, if stock market indexes move more than 2% in a day, up or down, it usually signals something significant.
14. Image source, Getty Images
17. Image source, Reuters
18. US President Donald Trump told reporters last night that UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer was “very happy” about how Britain has been treated on tariffs.
19. “We have a very good dialogue and I think he was very happy about how we treated them with tariffs,” he said on board Air Force One, referring to the 10% import tax he imposed on the UK, which is among the lowest globally.
20. Yesterday, Starmer said his government was “taking a calm approach, acting in the national interest”.
21. But the government has also published a list of US products it could target with retaliatory tariffs – seen as a sign it’s taking a tougher line.
24. Tom Bateman
25. US State Department correspondent, travelling with Marco Rubio
26. European anger over the 20% import tax on EU goods to the United States was clear from foreign ministers at a Nato meeting in Brussels yesterday.
27. The French delegation said transatlantic solidarity was “being tested” by President Trump’s tariffs, while Germany’s foreign minister suggested the move damaged Nato’s economic security.
28. Concerns were such that they were put directly to the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, despite the meeting being about defence.
29. A senior State Department official confirmed the issue of tariffs was raised in the meeting of 32 foreign ministers, but denied the tone was accusatory, describing it instead as collegial.
30. It comes amid the biggest strain in US-Europe relations in years, with the Trump administration unleashing a series of demands as well as insults to their European allies over what they have described as countries freeloading on American security guarantees.
33. Tariffs are taxes charged on goods imported from other countries.
34. The companies that bring the foreign goods into the country pay the tax to the government.
35. Typically, tariffs are a percentage of a product’s value. A 20% tariff on Chinese goods means a product worth $10 (£7.76) has an additional $2 charge.
36. Firms may choose to pass on some or all of the cost of tariffs to customers.
37. The US has typically charged lower tariffs on goods than other countries.
38. Trump’s new tariffs could lead to a sharp increase in the prices people pay for goods in the US and around the globe.
41. Media caption,
42. ‘He’s flipped the system’: Americans react to Trump’s tariffs
43. We’ve been reporting that the Trump administration still feels confident about the tariff measures, despite the drop in the stock market. But some Republicans are starting to feel uneasy.
44. What about the American people?
45. “I know we’re all going to get pinched in the pocket for a while. I think in the long run, it’s going to get us out of the massive deficit that we’re in,” 71-year-old Mary Anne Dagata from Michigan tells the BBC.
46. But Catherine Foster, 58, from Florida, is worried about her retirement.
47. “Trump is not a king and I feel like our Congress and Senate is letting us down, both parties, by not pushing back [on tariffs],” she says.
48. We’ve got more reaction from the US on the tariffs here.
50. 
51. Anthony Zurcher
52. North America correspondent
53. There is some anxiety, which you are starting to see signs of in the behaviour of the Republicans in Congress.
54. On Thursday, we saw several Republicans break with their party in the Senate.
55. You saw Chuck Grassley, a senior member of the Republican leadership and a senator from Iowa, co-sponsor a bill that would limit Donald Trump’s ability to propose new tariffs and give Congress a say in extending those beyond a fixed deadline.
56. I think you will see more of that in the midterm elections, if it looks like the stock market pain is going to continue, and you’ll start hearing from consumers more about rising prices.
57. This all mixes into a certain sense of unease and this will only grow if this is not temporary – as Donald Trump and his administration promise.
60. Image source, Reuters
61. US Vice-President JD Vance has told Newsmax that yesterday’s stock market drop – the sharpest since 2020 – was just “one bad day”.
62. “But we’re going to have a booming stock market for a long time, because we are reinvesting in the United States of America,” he says.
63. The vice-president says the government wants Wall Street to do well, “but we care the most about are American workers and about American small businesses. And they’re the ones who are really going to benefit from these policies.”
64. Vance also says the tariffs imposed “could have gone a lot higher”, but Trump is trying to “send a message that we’re going to be a little kind”.
67. Media caption,
68. ‘The country is going to boom’ after tariffs, says President Trump
69. US President Donald Trump said last night he expects the US to “boom” following his tariff announcement.
70. He added that nearly $7 trillion (£5.4tn) worth of investment could flow into the country once the tariffs take effect.
71. “The markets are going to boom, the stocks are going to boom, the country is going to boom,” he said.
72. He also said the rest of the world was now trying to strike deals with the US.
75. Image source, EPA
76. The managing director of the International Monetary Fund said last night that the new tariffs “clearly represent a significant risk to the global outlook at a time of sluggish growth”.
77. Kristalina Georgieva said the IMF was still looking into the “macroeconomic implications” of the measures and stressed the need to avoid actions that could do more damage to the global economy.
78. “We appeal to the United States and its trading partners to work constructively to resolve trade tensions and reduce uncertainty,” she said.
79. The IMF is a global organisation with 191 member countries.
82. Image source, EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock
83. Japan, one of the US’s biggest trading partners and its largest foreign investor, is now facing a “national crisis”, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba says.
84. Speaking in the parliament earlier, Ishiba said his government is working with all parties to try to soften the impact of the 24% tariffs Japan is facing from the US.
87. Mariko Oi
88. Asia business correspondent
89. The stock markets in Japan, South Korea and Australia are falling for a second day, with the Nikkei 225 flirting with its lowest level in eight months.
90. China’s markets are closed for a public holiday, but the popular video app TikTok faces its deadline either to be sold by its Chinese owner or face a ban in the US this weekend.
91. Donald Trump has said that if there is a sale, he would consider offering some relief from US tariffs on Chinese imports. He has said a deal involving multiple investors is very close.
94. Unlike the countries we just mentioned, the UK is facing a 10% tariff on all goods heading to the US. But there’s still a lot of uncertainty about what that could mean for people here.
95. Here’s how it could affect you and your money:
96. Prices could rise – or fall
97. Once the tariff is in place, the value of the dollar could strengthen. That might push up import costs for UK firms buying goods, which could then be passed on to UK consumers through higher prices.
98. But some economists say prices might actually drop at first. That’s because firms that usually sell to the US might start sending their goods to countries like the UK instead – possibly leading to a surge of cheaper goods here.
99. Your job could be affected
100. Higher prices might lead workers to ask for bigger pay rises. If UK companies see their profits squeezed, job cuts could follow. More than 25,000 jobs in the car manufacturing sector could be at risk.
101. Interest rates could stay high
102. Rates are currently at 4.5%, and economists had expected two cuts this year. But if inflation rises because of higher prices, rates might stay higher for longer.
103. For more detail, BBC business reporter Michael Race has the full story.
106. Paul Sargeant
107. Visual Journalism Team
108. President Trump revealed the tariffs for a number of major countries during his speech on Wednesday, but the full list was released a little later by the White House.
109. Here are the countries with the highest tariffs announced yesterday.
110. Vietnam has by far the largest economy among this group – with an annual GDP of around $430bn – and is the only one among the world’s top 50 largest economies.
111. In comparison, the Falkland Islands, despite being a British overseas territory rather than a country, has a GDP of around $370m – over 75,000 times smaller than the GDP of the United States.
112. 
115. On Wednesday, the US president announced taxes on goods coming into his country, including 10% on all UK imports.
116. Here are the BBC’s Henry Zeffman and Anthony Zurcher on how the fallout has unfolded – and what might come next:
117. Media caption,
118. Watch: The UK and US fallout from Trump’s tariffs
121. Governments around the world have been reacting to tariffs imposed on them by the US. Here is what some world leaders have said:

• European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen has said the consequences of the tariffs “will be dire for millions of people around the globe”
• UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said yesterday that his government is “taking a calm approach, acting in the national interest”
• The Chinese government has promised “resolute countermeasures”, which will hurt American companies trying to sell into China’s market
• South Africa’s presidency has said that the tariffs “affirm the urgency to negotiate a new bilateral and mutually beneficial trade agreement with Washington”
• In Brazil, its foreign ministry said the government is “evaluating all possible actions to ensure reciprocity in bilateral trade”, according to the Reuters news agency
• Over in Australia, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has described the tariffs as not being “the act of a friend”, adding that they are “unwarranted”

1. You can find a list of affected countries in our article taking a look at the tariffs.
4. Image source, Getty Images
5. Stock markets in Asia have fallen for a second day after US President Donald Trump announced a salvo of tariffs hitting 180 countries and territories, as concerns grow about a global trade war.
6. On Friday, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 fell by another 3.5%, Australia’s ASX 200 was down more than 2%, and Singapore’s Straits Times Index was almost 3% lower.
7. South Korean stocks are also losing ground but that appears to be related to the country’s constitutional court upholding the impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol.
8. Markets in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan are closed for public holidays.
11. Johanna Chisholm
12. Live page editor
13. Image source, Getty Images
14. Donald Trump’s far-reaching tariff offensive is proving for a second day to thwart the hopes of investors that economic stability would return before the week’s end.
15. The US president’s announcement of a levy of 10% on nearly all US imports starting tomorrow, and higher rates on some of America’s biggest trading partners from 9 April, sent shockwaves through global markets on Thursday.
16. In the US – the country whose president kicked off this meltdown in his bid to remake the world’s economic order – Wall Street experienced its largest one-day loss since June 2020.
17. That downward trend seems poised to continue for a second day – as we’ll hear more about in our next post, Asia-Pacific shares dropped for a second day after heavy losses the day before.
18. We’re also continuing to follow the reaction of world leaders. From Brussels to Beijing, we’ll be bringing you the latest on how different countries are preparing to respond to Trump’s escalating trade war.