The levies were expected to all take effect on Tuesday, with Mexico and Canada both announcing counter-tariffs of their own in response.
However, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said in a news conference on Monday that implementation of the tariffs would be paused for a month, after she and Mr Trump had a conversation and came to an agreement.
But Mr Trump has also threatened to go further, saying tariffs on the European Union would be implemented “pretty soon”.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
4:36
Trump’s proposed tariffs
When questioned about the UK, the president said Britain was “out of line” when it came to trade but he thought the situation could be “worked out” without the use of tariffs.
What are tariffs, and how do they work?
Put simply, tariffs are taxes on goods that are brought in from other countries.
By raising the price of imports, tariffs aim to protect domestic manufacturers by making locally made goods cheaper.
Contrary to what Mr Trump has said, it is not foreign countries that pay tariffs, but the importing companies that buy the goods.
For example, American businesses like Walmart or Target pay tariffs directly to the US treasury.
In the US, these tariffs are collected by customs and border protection agents, who are stationed at 328 ports of entry across the country.
Image: Mr Trump’s proposed tariffs
To compensate for tariffs, companies then put up their prices, so customers end up paying more for goods.
Tariffs can also damage foreign countries as it makes their products pricier and harder to sell.
This can lead to them cutting prices (and sacrificing profits) to offset levies and maintain their market share in the US.
Why is Trump doing this?
Mr Trump has argued that imposing higher levies will help reduce illegal migration and the smuggling of the synthetic opioid fentanyl to the US.
On Mexico, the US leader claimed drug traffickers and the country’s government “have an intolerable alliance” that in turn impacts national security.
He further claimed that Mexican drug cartels are operating in Canada.
On China, he said the country’s government provides a “safe haven” for criminal organisations.
He has also pledged to use tariffs to boost domestic manufacturing.
“We may have short term some little pain, and people understand that. But long term, the United States has been ripped off by virtually every country in the world,” he said.
His aim appears to be to force governments in those countries to work much harder to prevent what he calls illegal migration and the smuggling of the deadly drug fentanyl – as appears to have been agreed by Mexico. But, even if the countries do not do what America wants, it will still potentially benefit firms that produce goods in the US.
What could the consequences be?
Mexico and Canada are two of America’s largest trading partners, with the tariffs upending decades-old trade relationships.
Goods that could be affected most by the incoming tariffs include fruit and veg, petrol and oil, cars and vehicle parts and electronic goods.
New analysis by the Budget Lab at Yale University found that the average US household would lose the equivalent of $1,170 US dollars (£944) in income from the tariffs.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
1:10
Why Trump’s tariffs could cost you
The research also found that economic growth would slow and inflation would worsen, as the tariffs forced up prices.
Immediate consequences were felt on Monday morning, as shares on Asian markets took a tumble.
Japan’s Nikkei opened down 2.9% while Australia’s benchmark – often a proxy trade for Chinese markets – fell 1.8%. Stocks in Hong Kong, which include listings of Chinese companies, fell 1.1%.
UK stocks were also significantly down, with the benchmark FTSE 100 index – containing the most valuable companies on the London Stock Exchange – dropped more than 1.3% on the open.
In Europe, stock markets opened sharply lower while the euro slid 1.3%. The Europe-wide index of companies, the Stoxx 600 dropped as much as 1.5%.
While Mexico’s peso hit its lowest in nearly three years.
‘Very scary path’
Sky News’ data and economics editorEd Conway said the long term consequences of a trade war is that “everyone gets poorer”, which is what happened to the world before World War Two.
“As countries get poorer, they get frustrated and you get more nationalism,” Conway said, speaking on Friday’s Sky News Daily podcast.
“This is exactly what happened in the 1930s, and the world ended up at war with each other. It is a very, very scary path, and yes, we are basically on a potential of that path.”
However, Conway added that one positive of Mr Trump’s tariffs could be highlighting “massive imbalances” within the global economy.
He said Mr Trump may be able to shift the conversation to problems that “economists don’t want to talk about”.
Spreaker
This content is provided by Spreaker, which may be using cookies and other technologies.
To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies.
You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable Spreaker cookies or to allow those cookies just once.
You can change your settings at any time via the Privacy Options.
Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Spreaker cookies.
To view this content you can use the button below to allow Spreaker cookies for this session only.
“At the moment, we have a dysfunctional global economy,” he explained.
“You have got massive imbalances like trade deficits [when a country’s imports exceeds the value of its exports] and trade surpluses [when a country’s exports exceeds the cost of its imports].
“There might well be a better way of everyone getting together and having a conversation and working out how to align their affairs, so we don’t have these imbalances in the future.
“And tariffs help to get you to this point.”
How has the world reacted?
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reacted strongly against Mr Trump’s tariffs, saying his country would impose 25% tariffs on $155bn Canadian dollars (£85.9bn) of US goods in response.
He added that the move would split the two countries apart, and urged Canadians to choose domestic products rather than American ones.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
0:50
Tariffs against Canada ‘will put US jobs at risk’
Mexican President Ms Sheinbaum posted on X on Sunday to say she had ordered her economy minister to implement tariff and non-tariff measures to defend Mexico’s interests.
She said her government “categorically rejects” the claim that it has “alliances with criminal organisations” and called on the White House to “fight the sale of drugs on the streets of their major cities”.
A day later, she posted saying she and Mr Trump had a “good conversation” and “reached a series of agreements”.
These agreements include Mexico sending 10,000 troops to the border to “prevent drug trafficking from Mexico to the United States, particularly fentanyl”.
Mr Trump responded to the agreement with Ms Sheinbaum, saying negotiations between the two will be ongoing to try and achieve a “deal”.
Meanwhile, China has claimed the US action violates World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules, and vowed to bring a case before the body that governs global commerce.
It also threatened to take “necessary counter-measures to defend its legitimate rights and interests”.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
0:59
Mexico responds to Trump’s tariffs
A spokesperson for theUK government reiterated that the US is an “indispensable ally” and one of the country’s “closest trading partners”.
They added that the trading relationship was “fair and balanced”, after Mr Trump criticised the UK, saying it was “out of line”.
European Union (EU) leaders have also taken a strong stance against looming US tariffs.
Kaja Kallas, the chief of foreign policy for the bloc, said there were no winners in a trade war, and if the US and Europe started one “then the one laughing on the side is China”.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz added that the EU is strong enough to “respond to tariffs with our own tariffs”, while French President Emmanuel Macron said declarations by the US were pushing Europe to be “stronger and more united”.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
0:31
EU can react with its own tariffs
What’s the history of trade wars?
Imposing tariffs is not new to Mr Trump, or the US for that matter.
During his first term in the White House, he imposed higher levies on China and Vietnam.
In 2018, he imposed 25% tariffs on imported steel and 10% on imported aluminium from most countries, a response to what he said was the unfair impact of Chinese steel driving down prices and negatively affecting the US steel industry.
China then hit back with retaliatory tariffs on US imports, including 15% on 120 American products such as fruits, nuts, wine and steel pipes and a 25% tariff on US pork and recycled aluminium.
Before that, democrat Jimmy Carter went so far as to completely ban the sale of wheat to Russia, which remained in effect until Ronald Reagan ended it in 1981.
In 2019, Mr Trump also used the threat of tariffs as leverage to persuade Mexico to crack down on migrants crossing Mexican territory on their way to the US.
A study by economists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Zurich, Harvard and the World Bank concluded that Mr Trump’s tariffs the first time around failed to restore jobs to the American heartland.
The tariffs “neither raised nor lowered US employment” when they were supposed to protect jobs, according to Sky News’ US partner network NBC News.
The severity cannot be overstated, if an additional 50% tariffs are levied on all Chinese goods it will decimate trade between the world’s two biggest economies.
Remember, 50% would sit on top of what is already on the table: 34% announced last week, 20% announced at the start of US President Donald Trump’s term, and some additional tariffs left over from his first term in office.
In total, it means all Chinese goods would face tariffs of over 100%, some as high as 120%.
It’s a price that makes any trade almost impossible.
China is really the only nation in the world at the moment that is choosing to take a stand.
While others are publicly making concessions and sending delegations to negotiate, China has clearly calculated that not being seen to be bullied is worth the cost that retaliation will bring.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
6:50
Tariffs: Xi hits back at Trump
The real question, though, is if the US does indeed impose this extra 50% tomorrow, what could or would China do next?
There are some obvious measures that China will almost certainly enact.
Spreaker
This content is provided by Spreaker, which may be using cookies and other technologies.
To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies.
You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable Spreaker cookies or to allow those cookies just once.
You can change your settings at any time via the Privacy Options.
Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Spreaker cookies.
To view this content you can use the button below to allow Spreaker cookies for this session only.
Further export controls on rare earth minerals (crucial for the development of high-tech products) are one example. China controls a huge proportion of the world’s supply, but the US would likely find workarounds in time.
Hiking tariffs on high-impact US products such as agricultural goods is another option, but there is only so far this could go.
The potentially more impactful options have significant drawbacks for Beijing.
It could, for instance, target high-profile American companies such as Apple and Tesla, but this isn’t ideal at a time when China is trying to attract more foreign investment, and some devaluation of the currency is possible, but it would also come with adverse effects.
Other options are more political and come with the risk of escalation beyond the economic arena.
In an opinion piece this morning, the editor of Xinhua, China’s state news agency, speculated that China could cease all cooperation with the US on the war against fentanyl.
This has been a major political issue for Mr Trump, and it’s hard to see it would not constitute some sort of red line for him.
Other options touted include banning the import of American films, or perhaps calling for the Chinese public to boycott all American products.
Anything like this comes with a sense that the world’s two most powerful superpowers might be teetering on the edge of not just a total economic decoupling, but cultural separation too.
There is understandably serious nervousness about how that could spiral and the precedent it sets.
South Korea’s military said its soldiers fired warning shots at North Korean troops who crossed the demarcation line between the two countries.
Around 10 North Korean soldiers violated the military line on Tuesday, but returned after it made warning broadcasts and fired warning shots, South Korea’s military said.
In a text sent to reporters, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), said “North Korean soldiers crossed the military demarcation line (MDL) in the eastern area of the demilitarised zone (DMZ) around 5:00 pm local time.
Image: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, centre left in a black jacket, stands by what appeared to be a large reconnaissance drone at an undisclosed North Korean location. File pic: AP
“Our military is closely monitoring the North Korean military’s activity and taking necessary measures according to the operational procedures.”
Some of the North Korean soldiers were armed, according to the South Korean military.
There is no clear motive for the crossing, but tensions between the two countries have been running high as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un continues to order missile tests and align with Russia over President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine.
North Korean special operations units are among the thousands of troops that Pyongyang has sent to Russia to fight in the Ukraine war, according to South Korea.
In January, Pyongyang tested a hypersonic missile of intermediate range, in a sign of its determination to continue its weapons development programme.
Bloodshed and violent confrontations have occasionally occurred at the Koreas’ heavily fortified border, called the Demilitarised Zone, or DMZ.
But when North Korean troops briefly violated the border in June last year, it didn’t escalate as South Korean officials realised they were carrying construction tools and decided the incursion was accidental.
The 155-mile (249km)-long, 2.5-mile (4km)-wide DMZ is the world’s most heavily armed border.
The King and Queen received a red carpet welcome and watched a flypast as they were greeted by Italy’s president following their arrival in Rome for a state visit.
The royal couple were met by President Sergio Mattarella at his official residence in Rome, the Quirinale Palace, after their limousine was escorted into the palace quadrangle by mounted Corazzieri guards.
Laura Mattarella, the president’s daughter acting in a first lady role following the death of her mother, was also there to greet Charles and Camilla.
The couple landed at Rome’s Ciampino Airport on Tuesday morning, where again they had a red carpet rolled out for them as they were met by dignitaries, including the UK’s ambassador to Italy, Edward Llewellyn.
Image: The King and Queen are received by Italy’s President Sergio Mattarella and his daughter Laura. Pic: Reuters
Image: King Charles is welcomed at Quirinale Palace. Pic: Reuters
Charles, Camilla, President Mattarella and his daughter stood still as they listened to the national anthems of Italy and the UK being played out at the Quirinale.
Lined up nearby them were a guard of honour formed of the Quirinale Band, troops from the Italian army, navy and air force, members of Italy’s military police the Carabinieri and mounted Corazzieri guards.
The King and Queen watched a joint flypast over the capital by the Italian air force’s aerobatic team, Frecce Tricolori, streaming Italy’s national colours, and the RAF’s Red Arrows who left red, white and blue smoke in their wake.
Image: Pic: Reuters
Image: Pic: Reuters
Honours were later exchanged by the King and the president at the palace.
The King was made a Knight Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Italy, and he presented Mr Mattarella with the insignia for a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath.
“It goes back quite a long way,” said Charles. “It’s just a token really of our appreciation, you’ve served for so long.”
“I’m humbled, your majesty,” Mr Mattarella replied.
The Queen was made a Dame Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Italy, and told her host: “I’m very honoured and humbled.”
Image: The flypast was visible in the skyline from Gianicolo Hill. Pic: Reuters
Image: The flypast overpassing the Colosseum.
Pic: Reuters
What else is on Charles and Camilla’s schedule?
After meeting the president, the couple visited the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, located within the Victor Emmanuel II Monument (also known as Altare della Patria) in Rome’s famed Piazza Venezia, where they lay a wreath.
Italian defence minister Guido Crosetto and UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy were also in attendance.
Image: Corazzieri honour guards march on the day King Charles and Queen Camilla visit.
Pic: Reuters
Image: Charles, Camilla and Italian defence minister Guido Crosetto walk after laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
Pic: Reuters
Image: The royal couple walk in front of Mr Crosetto and David Lammy while visiting the Altare della Patria.
Pic: Reuters
Image: Charles and Camilla visit the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
Pic: PA
Charles and Camilla are scheduled to head to the Colosseum later in the day, where they will be meeting schoolchildren.
They are also attending a British community reception.
The timing of Charles and Camilla’s visit means they will spend their 20th wedding anniversary on Wednesday in Italy.
The trip comes just less than a fortnight after Buckingham Palace confirmed the King had been taken to hospital following side effects related to his ongoing cancer treatment.
Last week, he returned to a full diary of official engagements, albeit slightly adjusted to give more time for rest ahead of the trip to Italy.
The four-day visit to Italy, on behalf of the government, is an important step in continuing efforts to bolster relationships with EU countries following Brexit, but also significant in the context of Donald Trump‘s presidency and the disruption that has caused.
The King and Queen were also due to visit the Vatican City and meet Pope Francis, but that was postponed in recent weeks due to the Pope’s ill health.