Sir Keir Starmer has vowed to shelter the country’s interests after US president Donald Trump slapped sweeping tariffs on dozens of trading partners including the UK.
“We stand ready to use industrial policy to help shelter British business from the storm,” he wrote in the Sunday Telegraph.
It comes after the US president put a 10 per cent tariff on all UK goods exports to America, including a 25 per cent tariff on all British carmakers.
Labour minister Darren Jones said that a trade war was in “no-one’s interests” and said that globalisation as we’ve known it has come to an end. However Reuters has reported that the EU is considering retaliatory tariffs on $28 billion worth of US imports. A list of US goods that could be slapped with tariffs will reportedly be presented to EU countries late on Monday.
Meanwhile Jaguar Land Rover said it was suspending shipments to the US while it considers how to mitigate the cost of Mr Trump’s tariffs.
Indonesia will not retaliate against US tariffs
Indonesia will not retaliate against US president Donald Trump’s trade tariff on Southeast Asia’s largest economy, its senior economic minister said on Sunday in the government’s first response to the levy.
Chief Economic Minister Airlangga Hartarto said in a statement that Indonesia would pursue diplomacy and negotiations to find mutually beneficial solutions.
Be prepared for things to get worse in the global economy, minister warns
People should be prepared for things to be tougher in the global economy, a Treasury minister has suggested.
Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones was asked on the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme whether the public should be “prepared for things to be even tougher than they already are”.
Mr Jones said: “In the global economy, yes, but on the UK economy we’re trying to get ahead of these challenges.
“That’s why the plan for change is important, because it means that we can support businesses through industrial policy, we can support people through investment in the National Health Service, for example.
“It is right that we get ahead of that, so that the country is in a more, stronger and resilient place.”
Watch: Minister declares UK will never allow chlorinated chicken in US trade deal
US could go into recession, JP Morgan warns
Investment bank JP Morgan has warned that tariffs could tip the American economy into recession.
The bank downgraded US growth by 1.6 percentage points for this year, and predicted far higher unemployment.
Michael Feroli, JP Morgan’s chief US economist, said: “We now expect real GDP to contract under the weight of the tariffs. For the full year, we now look for real growth of -0.3pc, down from 1.3pc previously.”
JP Morgan raised its odds for a US and global recession to 60 per cent, up from 40 per cent previously.
Badenoch: US tariffs are destructive for businesses
Kemi Badenoch has said there is “a place for tariffs” but that the ones imposed by the US will be “destructive for businesses”.
Th Conservative leader told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme: “The retaliatory tariffs (in the US) will make people in our country poorer.
“There is a place for tariffs, we did use them, but right now what they will do is make life more expensive for British consumers.”
Ms Badenoch spoke about the previous Conservative government negotiating a trade deal with Donald Trump’s government in 2020.
“I would like the government to pick up where we left off,” Ms Badenoch said.
“We had six rounds of negotiations where there were some decisions that were concluded, and they can pick that up and take it.
“But the most important thing is removing tariffs. The tariffs are going to be destructive for our businesses.”
Musk calls for unrestricted trade between US and Europe
Elon Musk has broken with the Trump administration to advocate for unrestricted trade between the US and Europe.
In comments made during a video appearance with Italy’s right-wing League party on Saturday, Mr Musk said: “Ideally, both Europe and the United States should move to a zero-tariff situation, effectively creating a free trade zone between Europe and North America.”
He added: “If people wish to work in Europe or wish to work in North America, they should be allowed to do so in my view”.
EU mulls counter-tariffs on up to $28bn of US imports
European Union countries are set to consider retaliatory tariffs on up to $28 billion of U.S. imports from dental floss to diamonds on Monday, according to reporting from Reuters.
Such a move would mean the EU joining China and Canada in imposing retaliatory tariffs on the United States in an early escalation of what some fear will become a global trade war, making goods more expensive for billions of consumers and pushing economies around the world into recession.
The 27-nation bloc faces 25 per cent import tariffs on steel and aluminium and cars and “reciprocal” tariffs of 20 per cent from Wednesday for almost all other goods.
President Donald Trump’s tariffs cover some 70 per cent of the EU’s exports to the United States – worth in total 532 billion euros ($585 billion) last year – with likely duties on copper, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors and timber still to come.
The European Commission, which coordinates EU trade policy, will propose to members late on Monday a list of U.S. products to hit with extra duties in response to Trump’s steel and aluminium tariffs rather than the broader reciprocal levies, Reuters has reported.
It is reportedly set to include US meat, cereals, wine, wood and clothing as well as chewing gum, dental floss, vacuum cleaners and toilet paper.
One product that has received more attention and exposed discord in the bloc is bourbon. The Commission has earmarked a 50 per cent tariff, prompting Trump to threaten a 200 per cent counter-tariff on EU alcoholic drinks if the bloc goes ahead.
Wine exporters France and Italy have both expressed concern. The EU, whose economy is heavily reliant on free trade, is keen to make sure it has wide backing for any response so as to keep the pressure up on Trump ultimately to enter negotiations.
Conservative leader: ‘We disagree fundamentally with Trump on tariffs’
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has said about the US: “We disagree fundamentally with what they are doing on tariffs”.
Speaking to the BBC on Sunday morning, Ms Badenoch said that tariffs will “make life more expensive for British consumers and we don’t want that.”
She said that, when the Conservatives were negotiating a trade agreement with the US, food standards were not on the table.
She has called for Labour to “pick up where we left off” on the deal, rather than start from scratch. Ms Badenoch told the BBC that the UK had had six rounds of negotiations with the US.
“The tariffs are going to be destructive” and will impact the government’s “tax take” as businesses struggle, Ms Badenoch added.
New school shoes and clothes for American children will cost more because of tariffs, industry warns
Sending children back to school in new sneakers, jeans and T-shirts is likely to cost American families significantly more this autumn if the bespoke tariffs president Donald Trump put on leading exporters take effect as planned, American industry groups have warned.
About 97 per cent of the clothes and shoes purchased in the US are imported, predominantly from Asia, the American Apparel & Footwear Association said, citing its most recent data.
Walmart, Gap Inc., Lululemon and Nike are a few of the companies that have a majority of their clothing made in Asian countries.
Those same garment-making hubs took a big hit under the president’s plan to punish individual countries for trade imbalances.
For all Chinese goods, that meant tariffs of at least 54 per cent. He set the import tax rates for Vietnam and neighbouring Cambodia at 46 per cent and 49 per cent, and products from Bangladesh and Indonesia at 37 per cent and 32 per cent.
Watch: PM clearly unhappy about Trump tariffs, Darren Jones says
The prime minister has been “clear that he’s unhappy” about the new US tariffs, a Labour minister has said.
Watch Darren Jone’s comments here: