Donald Trump has labelled today “Liberation Day” and will reveal the extent of his promised tariffs later – meanwhile, the world waits uncertainly, with markets down. Earlier, a think tank warned 25,000 UK jobs could be at risk. Listen to Trump 100 as you scroll.
Wednesday 2 April 2025 15:54, UK
The guest list for Trump’s Rose Garden tariffs announcement later today will include a host of blue collar workers.
According to a senior White House official, guests will include “steelworkers, autoworkers, oil and gas workers, steam fitters, truck drivers, and hardworking Americans from a variety of trades”.
As a reminder, Trump implemented a 25% tariff on all cars coming into the US from today.
The head of the United Auto Workers, an American union representing workers in the car, aerospace and metal industries, says those tariffs are a victory for autoworkers.
By James Sillars, business and economics reporter
I was watching the US market screens as trading began on Wall Street.
There was a sea of red.
There is an air of inevitability circling investors now as the clock ticks down to 9pm UK time, when Donald Trump is due to reveal his “liberation day” tariff plans for the world.
There’s enough speculation, some of it informed, elsewhere on exactly what they will entail – but jitters over the impact the duties will have are being felt globally.
The main threat, as US investors see it, is that higher import duties will only hit sales, margins and profits.
It was the tech-heavy Nasdaq that felt the worst of the pain in early trading, falling more than 1.3%, though all three main indexes were lower – matching falls in Europe earlier.
Among the US firms suffering was Tesla.
Its stock fell almost 6% after sales figures covering the first quarter of the year disappointed.
A 13% decline to 336,681 vehicles was worse than many analysts had expected.
While some of that can be explained by a backlash against Elon Musk over his controversial role in the Trump administration, sales in Germany have been particularly weak since his intervention in February’s German elections, in which he urged voters to back the far-right AfD.
By Dominic Waghorn, international affairs editor
For Donald Trump it’s “Liberation Day”, for allies it could be the end of an era. A period of mutually fostered prosperity is, it seems, coming to a close.
They are asking if the America we knew is gone for good?
Some are making up their minds already.
Canada’s new leader Mark Carney was not mincing his words this week. America had changed so much under Trump, he said, their relationship that had been “based on deepening integration of our economies and tight security and military cooperation, is over”.
Europe’s central banker Christine Lagarde said on Monday Trump’s tariffs mean the continent must begin a “march for independence”.
Transatlantic partners who have prospered for decades through mutual dependence are filing for divorce.
Others, like Britain’s Keir Starmer, are holding out hope there is enough of a relationship still worth having.
Trade war is ‘in nobody’s interests’, Starmer says
For all of America’s friends and allies, there a few key questions.
Is that it now, will Trump go on wreaking havoc on the world order for the next four years? It seems likely.
Unlike his first presidency, this is Trump untethered.
No grown-ups saving him from his worst impulses – replaced this time by unquestioning loyalists.
No fears about his re-election chances. And so, no apparent concern about a tanking stock market or even the chances of recession.
Trump’s ambitions transcend those concerns, not least seeking retribution as he sees it for the way America’s been treated by allies.
Grievances that need redressing through his favourite instrument, tariffs.
Much depends on the way he wields them. Hopes his tariff threats are purely negotiating tactics seem increasingly forlorn.
Liberation Day will either usher in a glorious new era for American prosperity or very much the opposite.
Trump says it will re-shore America manufacturing and raise billions in revenue.
Most economists are sceptical. Doing that would take years anyway. Before then, they predict inflation and economic pain.
The economy is always what counts most when Americans come to vote. The price of eggs was famously a key issue in the last election.
If Liberation Day brings more such pain, Trump can expect to do badly in the mid-term elections.
What is Trump’s “Liberation Day”?
Political gravity may already be at work. Two by-elections in Florida yesterday may have been won by Republicans, but with support halved compared to levels last November.
And despite millions thrown at it by Trump’s campaign financier in chief, Elon Musk, a judicial contest in Wisconsin went against him.
At town hall meetings up and down the country, Republican members of congress have been on the sharp end of voter discontent, booed and jeered to the rafters.
In public, Republicans remain unswervingly loyal to the president. In private, they must be worrying what MAGA will do to their electoral margins come 2026.
Will that deter Trump? Probably not.
He has a mandate from the American people and he believes from God, who he says saved him to make America great again. And he has a mission to do that his way.
He is even now openly discussing a third term against all the rules of the US constitution.
America as a reliable partner, the bulwark of the West is – it seems, for now, at least – history.
Allies and all of us need to prepare for a different future.
Donald Trump announced last week that he’ll be putting a new 25% tariff on all imported cars into the US – something he’s set to confirm later today when announcing a swathe of new tariffs.
But how many cars does the UK export to the US? And how many did the US import last year?
We’ve broken down the key numbers, starting with figures provided by the White House…
And here’s the car industry lobby group SMMT on the UK side of things…
By Stephen Murphy, Ireland correspondent
Locals in Kinsale, Co Cork have told Sky News of their fears that Donald Trump’s new tariffs will hit Ireland’s lucrative pharmaceutical exports.
The beautiful seaside town, renowned for seafood and tourism, is also home to a huge state-of-the-art plant owned by Eli Lilly, one of the world’s largest drug companies.
The Indiana-headquartered firm employs 3,615 people in Ireland, across three sites.
“We’re on tenterhooks,” says Marie O’Sullivan, a local councillor and owner of Salvi’s Cafe in the town.
“It’s like throwing a stone into a pond, the ripple effects will spread out.”
Marie says the well-paid jobs at Lilly support many other businesses and jobs in Kinsale.
“It would be about 50/50 with tourism here,” she says. Even Lilly retirees have good pensions, she adds, and help support her business.
There’s a discernible nervousness here about what the tariffs will mean for pharma exports to the US, which stood at €58bn last year.
Nine of the world’s top 10 pharma firms have bases in Ireland, employing around 50,000 people directly.
Trump wants to move a lot of the manufacturing they do back to the US, but that would most likely take years to achieve.
A large pub called the White House looms over Pearse Street.
All eyes in Kinsale will be on its namesake tonight, casting an equally long shadow over the town from 5,000km away.
Today’s tariff announcement is Donald Trump’s latest attempt to turn back the clock on the US economy to the late 19th century, a historian has said.
The University of Exeter’s Dr Marc Palen said Trump sees the late 19th century as the US economy’s protectionist “golden age”.
“Trump’s tariff plan explicitly draws from a very old GOP playbook that dates to a period Trump regularly lionises, the 1890 McKinley tariff,” he said.
Dr Palen added: “In reality, the tariff helped kickstart a decade of economic depression, trade wars with Canada and Europe, and even a failed GOP attempt to annex Canada that backfired spectacularly.”
The UK hopes an economic deal with the US will spare the country from some of the tariffs.
Sir Keir Starmer and Donald Trump have had “productive negotiations” towards a UK-US “economic prosperity deal”, Downing Street has said.
The two leaders discussed a possible deal in a phone call on Sunday and agreed negotiations will “continue at pace”, according to a statement released last Sunday.
The day before the so-called “Liberation Day”, Sir Keir told our political editor Beth Rigby the UK was “working hard on an economic deal” with the US and said “rapid progress” has been made.
But, he admitted: “Look, the likelihood is there will be tariffs. Nobody welcomes that, nobody wants a trade war.
“But I have to act in the national interest and that means all options have to remain on the table.”
Watch: ‘Everything on table over US tariffs’, Starmer says
Trump has not explicitly said the UK is in his sights for further tariffs, though he has described VAT – a tax added on all goods and services in the UK – as unfair.
In deciding what is a reciprocal tariff for the UK, it’s possible Trump could use the tax, typically 20%, to decide.
Data shows no great trade imbalances – the gap between what you import and export from a certain country – and UK figures show no trade deficit with the United States.
UK ministers have previously suggested this could be good news for avoiding new levies.
But the tariffs Trump has already announced would have a big impact on the UK – particularly the car tariff.
The impact of Donald Trump’s tariffs will be negative across the world, the head of the European Central Bank has warned.
Christine Lagarde said the damage will depend on how far they go, how long they last and whether they lead to successful negotiations.
“Let’s not forget quite often escalation of tariffs, because they prove harmful, even for those who inflict it, lead to negotiation tables where people actually sit down and discuss and eventually remove some of those barriers,” she told Ireland’s Newstalk radio.
There’s one word on everyone’s mind in the US at the moment, and that’s tariffs.
“You speak with the taxi driver or with the people here, it’s tariffs, tariffs, tariffs,” a German finance ministry board member has said from Boston.
Speaking to Darren McCaffrey on Business Live, Martin Jacob said the tariffs are expected to be universal and have a “really bad” impact on the global economy.
“Ultimately for the people in the US, it will mean much higher prices and inflation will skyrocket,” he added.
Jacob warned that a lot of manufacturing companies will suffer in the UK and Europe.
Speaking more specifically on the situation in Germany, he outlined the recent rise in military spending and said Trump’s tariffs could have a “huge impact”.
“Germany is not in a position of strength right now… Europe has its own issues, and this makes the whole negotiation situation a little bit more vulnerable,” he said.
Sir Keir Starmer has just spoken about tariffs at the start of Prime Minister’s Questions in the Commons.
He said the government had been “preparing for all eventualities” ahead of the changes.
“Let me be clear with the House, a trade war is in nobody’s interests, and the country deserves, and we will take a calm, pragmatic approach,” he added.
While it is not expected that the UK will respond with tariffs of its own, Starmer said nothing will be ruled out.
He said “constructive talks” with the US are “progressing” to do a deal with the US, adding that the industries and sectors set to be impacted are working with the government on a way forward.
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