Tariffs reside: Trump makes main China tariffs concession as US-UK commerce deal ‘only days away’
Donald Trump’s administration appears to have made another concession on their Liberation Day levies by excluding smartphones, laptops and computer chips from its steep “reciprocal” tariffs.
It is the first sign of Trump’s softening stance towards China with the majority of iPhones produced in the country, hit hard by 145 per cent levies.
The announcement late on Friday would also benefit big tech companies such as Apple and Samsung.
The US Customs and Border Protection said items such as smartphones, laptops, machines used to make semiconductors and flat-panel monitors would be exempt.
It came as reports suggested that a breakthrough between UK and the US over tariffs could be reached in the coming days.
With just 90 days for the US to strike more than 90 deals, senior government sources told The Times that conversations over a potential agreement with Mr Trump would be held soon.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves told reporters: “Of course we want to secure the best deal possible for British jobs and British industry. And we are absolutely … resolved to do everything we can.”
China welcomes Trump climbdown on electronics as ‘small step to correct’ tariffs
China has said it is evaluating the impact of Donald Trump’s decision to exclude phones, laptops and other electronics from his global tariffs.
In a statement on Sunday, China’s commerce ministry called the move a “small step by US to correct its wrong practice of unilateral ‘reciprocal tariffs’.”
“The bell on a tiger’s neck can only be untied by the person who tied it,” the ministry said, urging the US to make a major step in correcting what it called its wrongdoing and cancelling the tariffs completely.
Watch: Penguins to hold ‘protest march’ against Trump over tariffs gaffe
Business secretary insists he is ‘closely engaged’ on securing UK-US trade deal
Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds has said he is “closely engaged” with Washington on securing a trade deal to avert Donald Trump’s so-called “reciprocal” tariffs.
Asked when he expects to secure a UK-US trade deal, Mr Reynolds told Sky News: “Look I can’t give a timeline on that. We remain closely engaged. I had an exchange with my counterpart ambassador [Jamieson] Greer – I woke up to a message this morning from him. We remain engaged around that.
“The president himself, clearly, is the driving force and the decision-maker, as you would expect on the US side. I welcome the pause in the wider tariffs, we did receive a preferential position”.
But he insisted: “I am never going to be satisfied when there are barriers to trade between ourselves and the US, as I would do with any other key market. And I believe there is a way through.
“The next step is they are going to come back to us on some of the proposals we have put [forward].”
Labour ministers ‘don’t seem to be able to criticise Trump tariffs’, warns former party chair
Former Labour frontbencher Harriet Harman has warned that Sir Keir Starmer’s government appears to have a “restricted vocabulary” preventing ministers from speaking out against Donald Trump’s trade tariffs.
Speaking on Sky News’s Electoral Dysfunction podcast, Baroness Harman said: “They don’t seem to be able to be telling the country what I think the country needs to hear them saying, which is that what Trump is doing is a bad thing.
“They need to show that judgement about: it’s not okay for somebody in the largest economy in the world to wreak havoc, not only on their own country, but on our country and the rest of the global economy.
Baroness Harman pointed to the example of when the US put steel tariffs on the UK during the previous Labour government, recalling – in her words – Tony Blair as saying that such a move was “unacceptable” and that George “Bush has got it wrong”.
She continued: “It feels as if there’s a kind of restricted vocabulary amongst ministers at the moment, where they are speaking in code – ‘this is not where we want to be, we don’t want to see a trade war, we’re for open markets’ – but they’re not able to say about the elephant in the room, which is that Trump is wrong on this, we don’t agree with him.
“The other thing I think they should be doing is, they should be being more positive and giving more reassurance.”
Looser food standards off the menu in any US-UK trade deal, says business secretary
Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds has insisted that looser food standards remain off the table in talks for a UK-US trade deal, which he said would breach Labour’s promises during the general election campaign.
“We will never change our SPS (sanitary and phytosanitary) food standards. We’ve made that perfectly clear to the United States,” he told Sky News.
China puts government officials on ‘wartime footing’ over Trump tariffs, report says
China has put civilian government officials in Beijing on “wartime footing” and ordered a diplomatic charm offensive aimed at encouraging other countries to push back against Donald Trump’s tariffs, four people familiar with the matter have told Reuters.
Communist Party propaganda officials have played a leading role in framing China’s response, one of the people said, with government spokespeople posting defiant clips on social media featuring former leader Mao Zedong saying “we will never yield”.
As part of the “wartime” posture, officials in China’s foreign affairs and commerce ministries have been ordered to cancel holiday plans and keep their mobile phones switched on around the clock, two of the sources said. US-facing departments have also been beefed up, including with officials who worked on China’s response to Mr Trump’s first term, they said.
Onus on Trump to show trade deals can be struck quickly, says former US negotiator
The onus is now on the Trump administration to show that it can quickly conclude trade negotiations with Washington’s trading partners within the US president’s 90-day timeframe, a former US trade negotiator has said.
“Teeing up these decisions is going to take some serious negotiations,” Wendy Cutler, a former US Trade Representative chief negotiator, told Reuters. “There’s no way during this timeframe we’re doing a comprehensive agreement with any of these countries.”
Describing this as a “huge task”, Ms Cutler said: “The onus is going to be on them to show that they can quickly conclude agreements with countries, and instil some confidence in the market and with other trading partners that there is an off-ramp here.”
WH Smith investors await update on impact of Trump tariffs
Investors in WH Smith will be keen for more details on its strategy after agreeing to sell its UK high street stores and the potential impact of US tariffs when the retail firm updates the market on Wednesday on its past six months of trading.
In what will mark the first major update since the historic retailer pivoted to focus solely on its growing travel store business, selling off its estate of high street shops across the UK for around £76m, shareholders will be keen for more guidance on what the sale deal and the increased focus on travel means for its longer-term outlook.
The company is among retailers with exposure to the US market which have seen their value knocked by Donald Trump’s US tariff plans.
Analysts at Investec highlight that around 28 per cent of its sales and 30 per cent of its profits for the current financial year are expected to come from the US, which also includes Marshall Retail Group (MRG) and InMotion stores.
Investec suggests the company may see more of an impact from a “macro-economic slowdown rather than a tariff impact”, as weaker growth may affect traveller numbers.
Experts cast doubt Trump team’s plan to reach 90 trade deals in three months
Donald Trump and his team want to reach trade deals with 90 countries in as many days – but experts say there’s “no way” he can achieve that mark.
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro told Fox Business the Trump administration will “run 90 deals in 90 days.” His proclamation comes after Trump issued blanket tariffs of at least 10 percent on nearly every country — then placed a 90-day pause on most of the tariffs Wednesday.
Navarro added Trump will be “the boss” and “chief negotiator” of these supposed deals: “Nothing is done without him looking very carefully at it.”
US trade representative Jamieson Greer similarly said that a team of 200 people are “working around the clock” to get deals “to a point where the president can close” them.
But economists say it’s not going to happen with the Senate having only confirmed one other senior Treasury Department official and the administration already being stretched thin.
Katie Hawkinson reports from Washington:
