In a news conference this morning, China has accused the US of “economic bullying” after Donald Trump’s latest tariff threat. Meanwhile, Trump is drawing unwanted comparisons with Liz Truss, whose mini-budget famously tanked the UK economy. Listen to the Trump 100 podcast as you scroll.
Tuesday 8 April 2025 13:25, UK
By Sarah Taaffe-Maguire, business and economics reporter
While stock markets across the world are rising again, there’s been little movement in the price of oil.
It’s now $64.54 for a barrel of Brent crude, the benchmark price, amid continued fears of a recession in the US, the world’s biggest economy.
Last year, the average price was $80 a barrel.
This lingering low could be a rare silver lining in gathering recession fear clouds – cheaper oil will feed through to prices at the pumps in the next 10 days.
Wheels are in motion in for the EU’s response to Donald Trump’s tariffs, according to a spokesperson.
The bloc was hit with a 20% tariff by Trump last week and has since been formulating its stance in response.
Speaking just a short time ago, spokesperson for the EU commission Olof Gill said the picture will be clearer within a week.
“Early next week, we will basically be presenting our plan,” they said.
“We’ll explain what the roadmap is, then consult with member states, consult with industries, before we come forward with the final measures that we will then present to member states to vote on.”
After three days of steep losses, the FTSE 100 index of the biggest companies listed in the UK opened this morning with a 0.91% rise.
This graph shows the plunge since Donald Trump announced his tariffs last week – with the fragile recovery this morning…
US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent says tariff negotiations are the result of multiple calls from countries and not to do with turmoil on the financial markets.
Speaking to CNBC a short while ago, Bessent gave some hope to countries seeking to reduce the effect of tariffs, saying if there are “solid proposals” on the table, deals can be made.
Bessent said US officials had discussed which countries to prioritise and that Trump would be involved in negotiations personally.
“We were having a discussion last night about which countries to prioritise, and I think you are going to see some very large countries with large trade deficits come forward very quickly,” he said.
Bessent also called China’s decision to hit Washington with a retaliatory tariff “a big mistake”.
US officials have said that more than 50 countries have come forward seeking trade talks.
“Why don’t they buy them!” Donald Trump complained in his news conference yesterday.
He was talking about Japan not buying American cars.
He is right that Japanese cars are everywhere in America but American ones are not in Japan – less than 1% of cars sold in Japan originated in the US last year.
The reason, which could be applied to the EU and the UK too where American cars are also scarce – to Trump’s irritation – is as much about other barriers as it is about tariffs.
In Japan, American cars are subject to unique standards, rules limiting distribution, discriminatory financial incentives, and costly certification procedures. American vehicles often fail to reach European or Japanese safety standards.
These are “non-tariff barriers” or NTBs, and they really anger Trump and his team.
He had quite a bit to say about NTBs at his news conference yesterday with Benjamin Netanyahu – who came to Washington seeking a tariff deal but left without one.
The EU is a particular stickler for NTBs. And the UK, despite Brexit, has remained aligned with a proportion of this regulation, particularly so-called Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) barriers, which are biosecurity measures aimed at protecting human, animal, and plant life (it’s the whole chlorinated chicken debate).
Peter Navarro, Trump’s senior adviser for trade and manufacturing, has said repeatedly that NTBs are the major problem for the White House.
Vietnam recently offered for 0% tariffs on US imports but Navarro said that “means nothing”, adding that the emphasis should be on non-tariff barriers.
There is now growing pressure for the UK to remove some of these barriers to placate Trump. This would carry risks to weigh up against the current tariff nightmare.
Lifting NTBs would risk upsetting Britain’s reset with the EU. It would be domestically politically risky too, igniting a debate about American food and medicine on UK shelves and American cars on UK streets.
It’s understandable that the White House is frustrated by seemingly protectionist barriers to trade. But while these barriers are limiting the trade of American goods, they should not be confused with market dynamics and consumer preferences.
Do European and Japanese consumers want massive gas guzzling American vehicles that safety tests conclude are less safe? Do they want food which complies to standards below their own?
For the sake of our own economies, maybe it’s time to let the consumer decide.
China is among the countries hit the worst by Donald Trump’s tariffs.
The US president’s latest threat to pile on an extra 50% levy on Beijing would mean his tariffs on the country could reach a level of 104%.
China’s foreign ministry has accused the US of “economic bullying” and “destabilising” the world’s economies after hitting Washington with a 34% retaliatory tariff.
But which other countries were hit hard? Here’s a quick reminder of what Trump dished out in the Rose Garden last week…
Trump imposed a 10% “baseline” tariff on all imports to the US, which came into effect on 5 April and applies to countries including the UK, Singapore, Brazil, Australia and United Arab Emirates – which have some of the smallest trade deficits with the US.
Trump also announced special reciprocal tariffs on roughly 60 of the “worst offenders”, due to come into effect tomorrow (9 April).
He says these countries charge higher tariffs on US goods, impose “non-tariff” barriers to US trade or have otherwise acted in ways that undermine American economic goals.
Watch: A closer look at Trump’s tariff chart…
Singapore’s prime minister says the 10% universal tariff rate imposed by the US does not look to be open for negotiation.
The Southeast Asian island nation escaped the much larger tariff rates Trump imposed on many of its regional neighbours last week but said it was still “very disappointed” by the 10% rate – which the UK was also hit with.
In an address to parliament, Lawrence Wong said there was no doubt Singapore’s growth would be significantly affected.
“It doesn’t look like the 10% universal rate is open for negotiation. This seems to be the fixed minimum tariff, regardless of a country’s trade balance or existing trade arrangements,” he said.
“We are very disappointed by the US move, especially considering the deep and longstanding friendship between our two countries. These are not actions one does to a friend.”
Wong also said the “likelihood of a full-blown global trade war is growing”, anticipating weaker near-term global growth.
Donald Trump is risking a “Liz Truss moment” with his global tariff policy, a senior economist quoted in the German press says today.
Truss’s budget in 2022 sparked an economic crisis in the UK that led her to leaving her job as prime minister after just 49 days.
She was ousted by a notoriously rebellious group of politicians behind her, but the business daily Handelsblatt points out that there is no such group ready to pounce on Trump.
“If Trump was to actually correct his tariff policy, it could only be due to his own insight – or out of fear of an economic collapse in the US,” it says.
We hope Truss doesn’t read Handelsblatt, as she can be quite sensitive about the idea that she crashed the economy…
‘The world could pay the price’
The parallels between Truss and Trump have been recorded in the New York Times as well.
The outlet spoke to a professor of economics and public policy at Kings College London, who pointed out Trump could affect global economic stability on a much greater scale than the former British leader.
“Truss could really only damage the United Kingdom,” said Jonathan Portes.
“Ultimately, UK institutions, in particular Parliament and the media, were enough to ensure that the system worked. Whether that is the case in the US remains to be seen.
“If it isn’t, the whole world will pay the price.”
It’s a word you can’t escape at the moment… tariffs.
Donald Trump has called it the “most beautiful word in the dictionary” – and plunged global markets into turmoil when he imposed a baseline 10% tariff on all imports to the US, plus much higher rates for the countries he’s billed the worst offenders.
But what actually are tariffs? And how could Trump’s trade war affect you? Business and economics reporter Sarah Taaffe-Maguire explains all…
By Sarah Taaffe-Maguire, business and economics reporter
If it were any other day, we’d be remarking on the sizeable gains of the UK’s benchmark stock index, the FTSE 100.
The list of 100 most valuable companies on the London Stock Exchange has risen 1.3% this morning.
To celebrate this fact, however, would be to ignore the days of losses that amounted to an 11% drop.
There’s a long way to go before that fall is reversed. Stock markets across the world have rallied but are a long way from fully recovering ground.
One of the biggest fallers of recent days was the whopping 13.22% drop on Hong Kong’s Hang Seng yesterday; today, it’s closed up 1.5%.
After China’s Shenzen Stock Exchange closed yesterday just shy of 10% down, it today shut with a 0.64% gain.
In another reversal from the past few trading days, major European stock indexes are a sea of green.
The Europe-wide Stoxx 600 measure is up 1.5%, reflecting share price rises across the continent’s biggest companies.
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