Tariffs stay: EU pauses retaliation for 90 days however warns Trump over commerce deal
The EU has paused its retaliatory measures against the US for 90 days but issued a warning to Donald Trump over a trade deal.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen made the announcement today after the US president made the shocking decision to implement a 90-day freeze on the hefty tariffs he had just imposed on dozens of countries.
She said in a post on X: “We took note of the announcement by President Trump. We want to give negotiations a chance. While finalising the adoption of the EU countermeasures that saw strong support from our member states, we will put them on hold for 90 days.”
A relief rally washed over battered global stock markets in the wake of Mr Trump’s humiliating U-turn, with the FTSE 100 soaring by more than 6 per cent shortly after trading began.
However, Mr Trump ratcheted up the pressure on China, immediately hiking the tariff on Chinese imports to 125 per cent from the 104 per cent level that kicked in on Wednesday.
Beijing slapped 84 per cent tariffs on US imports in return, and has now hinted at further counter-measures, as the trade war between the world’s top two economies continues to escalate.
All countries will still face what Mr Trump calls his “baseline” 10 per cent tariff.
Sweden’s economic growth will be hit by tariffs, finance minister says
Sweden’s economic growth will be negatively affected by the international conflict over trade tariffs, the country’s finance minister Elisabeth Svantesson has said.
“It’s a given that the growth outlook must be revised down when the next forecast is presented,” Svantesson told reporters after a meeting between government ministers, companies and labour unions on Thursday.
Bond market may have contributed to Trump’s U-turn but ‘did not cause panic move’, Hassett insists
The bond market may have contributed to Donald Trump’s humiliating U-turn on tariffs, White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett has admitted.
However, in the interview with CNBC, Mr Hassett insisted it “did not cause a panic move”.
All countries should still expect to face 10% tariff, confirms White House economic adviser
All countries will still face what Donald Trump has called his “baseline” 10 per cent tariff, White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett has confirmed after the US President paused some of the duties.
When asked in an interview with CNBC if tariffs will be permanent, Mr Hassett responded: “Everyone expects 10 per cent tariffs to be the baseline.”
US close to trade deals with trading partners, White House’s Hassett says
The US is talking to trading partners and is close to reaching agreements with some on tariffs, White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett has said after President Donald Trump paused some of the duties.
“There’s a big inventory of deals that are right close to the finish line,” Hassett said in an interview with CNBC on Thursday.
Badenoch accuses Labour of making UK ‘more fragile’ in face of US tariffs
Kemi Badenoch has accused the Labour Government’s of making decisions since entering office that have “made us more fragile” in the face of US global tariffs.
“The biggest thing that Keir Starmer could do right now to make a difference is to get on with US-UK trade deal,” the Tory leader told the BBC.
She said “making sure we get a deal that brings new benefits to the UK, not just make concessions to take us back to where we were last week” was vital.
“(We) absolutely must be cool and calm when issues of trade come up,” Ms Badenoch said during a visit to Lancashire.
“It is about power, it is about our global relationships, it is about shaping the world.
“We need to be very careful not to just lurch into decision-making, but that requires having plans in place and knowing where you want to go.
“What we’re seeing right now is that Labour is learning on the job. I am worried that a lot of the mistakes that they’ve made have made us less able to weather the storm of tariffs.”
She said this included policies such as the rise in employer national insurance, changes to inheritance tax for farmers and means-testing the winter fuel allowance for pensioners.
“All of those things have made us more fragile,” Ms Badenoch said.
EU-US negotiations ‘likely, Ireland’s deputy premier says
Negotiation with the US is “likely”, Ireland’s deputy premier has said, after President Donald Trump announced a 90-day pause in certain sweeping tariffs.
Simon Harris met with US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick, a key critic of Irish policies within the Trump administration, in Washington DC on Wednesday.
The engagement came after Mr Trump said he would be delaying tariffs on most nations for 90 days while raising his tax rate on Chinese imports to 125 per cent.
The US had announced a 20 per cent tariff for the EU, which would have applied to Ireland.
The precise details of the pause were not immediately clear, but the US treasury secretary has said Mr Trump will keep a 10 per cent baseline tariff on most countries.
On Thursday, Mr Harris said he had debriefed EU trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic on his engagement with Mr Lutnick.
In a statement, he said: “It has been my consistent position and the consistent position of the Irish Government and the European Union that we need to get into substantive, calm, measured dialogue with the United States.
“It has always been our preference that would have happened before tariff announcements. Clearly that was not the position of the United States.
“However, after my discussions yesterday, it is now clear to me that such engagement and negotiation is likely.”
Citigroup upgrades US and European equities to ‘overweight’ after tariff pause
Citigroup upgraded its recommendation on US and European equities to ‘overweight’ following Trump’s 90-day pause on most of his levies.
There was no immediate clarity on Citi’s previous recommendation on both the regions equities in the note dated Wednesday.
EU pauses retaliation for 90 days ‘to give negotiations a change’
The European Union will put on hold for 90 days its first countermeasures against Donald Trump’s tariffs “to give negotiations a chance”.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement on X: “We took note of the announcement by President Trump. We want to give negotiations a chance. While finalising the adoption of the EU countermeasures that saw strong support from our member states, we will put them on hold for 90 days.”
ANALYSIS: Let’s take a look at the continental indices
The Independent’s business and money editor Karl Matchett reports:
As the EU pauses their own countermeasures for 90 days, let’s look at the continental indices.
As is the case with the FTSE 100 today, the main European markets and key index in each nation is showing strong green.
The STOXX 50 is up 6 per cent, the CAC 40 in France is up by 5.6 per cent, the DAX in Germany by 5.8 per cent and Spain’s IBEX 35 by 5.9 per cent.
The FTSE 100 at 4.6 per cent is lagging those slightly, but again, we note they didn’t always suffer the same steep drops that for example the DAX did only a few days earlier.
Just one equity (Deutsche Telekom) is in the red on the DAX today.
ANALYSIS: Where are we on Tariffgate?
The Independent’s business and money editor Karl Matchett reports:
So, where are we on Tariffgate?
The UK is now at 10 per cent, which is where we were initially after that first big batch was implemented.
So no real alteration there – except for the extra tariffs on auto parts, steel and aluminium. Those are all still at 25 per cent and still in effect.
Pharmaceutical tariffs are still in limbo – the president has already said they will be dealt with separately and so are still expected to be incoming.
All the other nations’ tariffs, which were above 10 per cent and as high as 49 per cent, are now back to 10 per cent – with the exception of China, which has a 125 per cent reciprocal tariff on it now for the heinous crime of disrespect.
