Donald Trump reveals his long-awaited package of tariffs, which are expected to make a huge impact on global trade. Watch live and follow below.
Wednesday 2 April 2025 23:55, UK
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But we’ll be back in the morning with all the latest news.
Before we check out, here’s a brief rundown of what happened on Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” for the US…
Watch: What you need to know about Trump’s tariffs
Donald Trump brandished a chart during his Rose Garden speech highlighting his sweeping new tariffs.
For those of you not eagle-eyed enough to spot every single country on that list and which tariffs now apply to them, here’s a rundown…
By Adam Parsons, Europe correspondent
There will be a response from the European Union – the question is how soon, and how tough.
A symbolic reprisal is one choice – putting tariffs on classic American products such as Harley-Davidson motorbikes or bottles of bourbon.
That won’t damage the European economy, but it won’t make much of a difference either.
There’s a reluctance to slap wide-ranging, indiscriminate tariffs simply because that would increase costs for many European manufacturers.
So something more targeted may look appealing and that could mean going after the tech giants – Facebook, Apple, Google, Amazon, for example.
Companies who have already had rows with EU regulators and are seen as being, to varying extents, close to the White House. If Europe could specifically target Tesla, it probably would.
There are also those suggesting the EU should hold fire for the moment, confident that Trump’s tariffs will backfire and keen that the effects are visible.
One fear is that some of the cheap goods that were destined for US markets will now be diverted to Europe, flooding its market.
Another fear is how the Windsor Framework will be affected, now that there are different US tariffs on either side of the Irish border.
And, finally, there is that insult from the president, who called the European Union “pathetic”.
A few minutes later, a senior EU diplomat sent me a message saying “the US is Brexiting the world, but you can’t stop the march of folly”.
Transatlantic relations are getting even icier.
We can now bring you various global reactions to Trump’s tariff announcement.
In Ireland, Taoiseach Micheal Martin says he can see “no justification” for the tariffs, adding that Ireland will reflect with its “EU partners on how best to proceed”.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni says US tariffs are “wrong”, adding she hopes to work with America and Europe to avoid a trade war that would weaken the West.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada will fight tariffs with countermeasures.
“It’s essential to act with purpose and with force, and that’s what we will do,” he told reporters.
Australia received a new tariff of 10%, which PM Anthony Albanese says is “totally unwarranted” and will change the perception of the two countries’ relationship.
“These tariffs are not unexpected, but let me be clear, they are totally unwarranted,” he says.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen will make a statement responding to the 20% tariffs on EU goods at 4am UK time tomorrow.
Donald Trump told countries how they will be able to end the tariffs levied against them during his speech.
He said: “To all of the foreign presidents, prime ministers, kings, queens, ambassadors and everyone else who will soon be calling to ask for exemptions from these tariffs. I say terminate your own tariffs, drop your barriers, don’t manipulate your currencies.”
US treasury secretary Scott Bessent has already warned countries not to respond to the tariffs.
“My advice to every country right now is, do not retaliate,” he tells Fox News. “Sit back, take it in, let’s see how it goes. Because if you retaliate, there will be escalation.”
By Dan Whitehead, Sky correspondent, in Ontario
For Canada – this is all about cars.
Confirmation from President Trump that, from tomorrow, vehicles imported into the US will, as feared, be subject to a 25% tariff.
A bitter blow to the car-makers – mainly in Ontario – but such is the integration of the auto industry in North America that it’s bad news too for the industry in the US.
“He will singlehandedly shut down the American auto industry,” says Flavio Volpe, head of Canada’s Automotive Parts Manufacturers Association.
He told Sky News this tariff will lead to mass job losses among the 500,000 car-workers in Canada within “one week”.
More than a million vehicles are exported from Canada to the US each year – an industry worth tens of billions of dollars.
Even though there’s not yet a specific tariff on auto parts, companies in Canada are already cutting staff and losing business – fewer car orders, fewer parts needed.
Relationship ‘no longer’ reliable
Canada may not have been on the billboard of highest tariff countries, but they are left in limbo that things could get worse if it doesn’t address what Trump sees as a “massive” amount of fentanyl coming across the border.
Such is the turmoil between Canada and the US, the new prime minister here, Mark Carney, called a snap election for 28 April.
The US-Canada relationship is “no longer” reliable, he says – just how these North American neighbours fix it will be front and centre when Canadians head to the polls.
We’ve now been getting some reaction to Trump’s “Liberation Day” announcement from inside the cabinet.
White House national security adviser Mike Waltz thanked Trump on X for “putting America first”.
“Economic security is national security,” he added on X.
Homeland security secretary Kristi Noem, who Trump singled out for applause earlier, said previous trade policies had “gravely impacted” American national security.
Trump’s “strong action” on tariffs, she adds, “will help make America safe again”.
House Speaker Mike Johnson says Trump is sending a “clear message” with his tariff announcements – that the US “will not be exploited by unfair trade practises anymore”.
Energy secretary Chris Wright says the US is in the “midst of a negotiation” and Trump is “fighting every day to make the cost-of-living conditions better for Americans”.
In case you missed it, Donald Trump signed a second executive order tonight alongside one pushing out global tariffs.
It closed a specific trade loophole used to ship low-value packages duty-free from China.
Known as “de minimis,” it previously allowed goods worth less than $800 (£615) to be sent directly to US consumers without incurring import duties or rigorous customs inspections.
More than a billion packages arrived in the US under this loophole last year, with a majority coming from China, led by direct-to-consumer retailers such as Temu and Shein.
Trump initially sought to close the loophole in February but his order was paused because there had not been sufficient time to prepare, with packages stacking up at ports of entry.
Let’s now look at some of the small print to Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Listed in details released by the White House following Trump’s announcement, we can see some goods will be exempt.
These include:
By Ed Conway, economics and data editor
For decades, trade and trade policy have been an economic and political backwater – decidedly boring, seemingly uncontroversial.
Trade was mostly free and getting freer, tariffs were getting lower and lower and the world was becoming more, not less, globalised.
But alongside those long-term trends, there were some serious consequences.
Mature, developed economies like the UK and US became ever more reliant on cheap imports from China and, in the process, saw their manufacturing sectors shrink.
Watch: What just happened with Trump’s tariffs?
Large swathes of the rust belt in the US (and much of the Midlands and North of England) were hollowed out.
And to some extent that’s where the story of Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” really began – with the notion that free trade and globalisation had a darker side, a side he wants to remedy via tariffs.
He imposed a set of tariffs in his first term – some on China, some on specific materials like steel and aluminium. But the height and the breadth of those tariffs were nothing compared with the ones we have just heard about.
Not since the 1930s has the US so radically increased the level of tariffs on all nations across the world.
Back then, those tariffs exacerbated the Great Depression. It’s anyone’s guess as to what the consequences of these ones will be.
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