What are Donald Trump’s tariffs – and how will they affect the UK?
Donald Trump’s steel and aluminium tariffs have come into effect.
But what are they and what do they mean for the UK?
What are tariffs and why does Trump want to impose them?
Tariffs are taxes on goods imported into the US.
The US president wants to impose wide-ranging tariffs on nearest neighbours Mexico and Canada, which he says will help reduce illegal migration and the smuggling of the synthetic opioid fentanyl to the US.
However, most of the 25% duties imposed on the pair to date have been suspended until 2 April.
But two rounds of tariffs on China have been enacted – reflecting trade imbalances and Mr Trump’s battle against fentanyl.
So why is he now targeting steel and aluminium?
On Wednesday, a separate 25% tariff on all steel and aluminium imports to the US came into effect, affecting UK products worth hundreds of millions of pounds.
The steel and aluminium tariffs are designed to protect US manufacturing and bolster jobs by making foreign-made products less attractive.
The world’s largest economy relies on imports of steel and aluminium and Mr Trump wants to change that.
How have countries – including the UK – reacted?
The European Union has announced it will impose retaliatory tariffs on the US.
The European Commission said it will impose “countermeasures” affecting €26bn (£21.9bn) of US goods from 1 April after US tariffs on steel and aluminium came into force today.
The bloc’s tariffs will not only impact US steel and aluminium products, but also textiles, home appliances and agricultural goods.
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Canada has announced 25% retaliatory tariffs on US goods worth C$29.8bn (£16bn) from tomorrow, its country’s finance minister has said.
The tariffs will include steel products worth C$12.6bn (£6.8bn) and aluminium products worth C$3bn (£1.6bn).
Computers, sports equipment and cast iron goods are also among the other products subject to the new retaliatory tariffs.
Announcing the tariffs, Canada’s foreign minister, Melanie Joly, added that Canada will raise the issues of tariffs with European allies to coordinate a response to put pressure on the US.
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While UK industry sees it as a direct attack, the reality is that this country is not a major player any more because energy costs, in particular, mean that UK-produced steel is expensive.
Nevertheless, stainless steel and some high-end products from the UK are in high demand and account for the bulk of the £350m in annual exports to the US.
Sir Keir Starmer has said he is “disappointed” to see Mr Trump impose global tariffs on steel and aluminium, saying the UK will take a “pragmatic approach” and “all options are on the table”.
The business secretary Jonathan Reynolds said on Wednesday morning that while he was disappointed, there would be no immediate retaliation by the UK government as negotiations continue over a wider trade deal with the US.
Why will metal products become more expensive?
It stands to reason that if you slap additional costs on importers in the US, that cost will be passed on down the supply chain to the end user.
If the aluminium to make soft drinks cans costs 25% more, for example, then the hit will have to be felt somewhere.
It could mean that any US product involving steel or aluminium goes up in price, but hikes could be limited if companies decide to take some of the burden in their bottom lines.
Read more on tariffs:
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What are the prospects for higher prices?
It depends on the extent to which costs are passed down through the supply chain as new tariff regimes and any reciprocal tariffs are deployed.
We do know that Mr Trump plans to fully roll out duties, on all goods, against Mexico and Canada from 2 April. But the White House did row back on a threat to double Canada’s tariff on its steel and aluminium – the biggest exporter – to 50%.
But Mr Trump is also widely expected to target almost all imports from the European Union from the beginning of April.
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Is the UK facing further tariffs?
Mr Trump has not explicitly said that the UK is in his sights.
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.
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‘The ultimate cost of tariffs will be paid in the US’
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Even if no tariffs are put on all UK exports to the US, consumers globally will still be impacted by the wider trade war, particularly in the US.
Economists believe that tariffs will raise costs in the US, sparking a wave of inflation that will keep interest rates higher for longer. The US central bank, the Federal Reserve, is mandated to act to bring inflation down.
More expensive borrowing and costlier goods and services could bring about an economic downturn in the US and have knock-on effects in the UK.
Forecasts from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) predict lower UK economic growth due to higher global interest rates.
It has estimated that UK GDP (a measure of everything produced in the economy) could be between 2.5% and 3% lower over five years and 0.7% lower this year.
The Centre for Inclusive Trade Policy thinktank said a 20% across-the-board tariff, impacting the UK, could lead to a £22bn reduction in the UK’s US exports, with the hardest-hit sectors including fishing and mining.
The pop of flash bangs and the drawing of rubber bullet launchers by police sent protesters scattering down streets in downtown LA during a fourth day of demonstrations against Donald Trump’s immigration policy.
Dozens of National Guard – America’s reserve force – carrying shields and long guns, created a perimeter around a federal building as protesters angrily shouted at them.
“National Guard out of LA,” they chanted, followed by a chorus of “shame, shame, shame”.
The arrival of National Guard troops on the streets, with a total of 4,000 now deployed by President Trump against the wishes of California governor Gavin Newsom, seems to have escalated tensions.
Another 2,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines are heading to Los Angeles on orders from US President Donald Trump
First and second-generation immigrants tell Sky News they have to ‘defend’ LA
Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass described her city as a “test case” for Trump usurping the authority of local governments.
The news that 700 marines were also being mobilised, ready to deploy, was viewed by Democratic politicians as not just a gross overreaction to the situation but a cynical political ploy by the White House to stoke trouble.
Trump says they are needed to restore law and order.
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Crowd control explosions were being deployed from the rooftops of the federal buildings towards protesters in a plaza below in a bid to disperse the crowd.
Many of those gathering are first and second-generation immigrants, mostly from Central and South America.
They are furious about the raids that took place last week. Dozens of immigrants were rounded up in LA’s garment district, an area packed with clothing wholesalers.
Read more:
What we know about the LA immigration raids and protests
Downtown LA is a scene of pandemonium and lawlessness
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Pandemonium and lawlessness on streets of LA
Bryanna Ordonez, 17, was protesting with friends. Her dad was among the 44 people arrested in the raids. He’d lived here – illegally – for more than 10 years.
“My father got deported on 6 June,” she said, holding back tears. “I’m here protesting for him and two of my uncles that were deported.
“Our parents worked so hard to get us here today just to be taken from us because they wanted us to have a better life. It’s so unfair.”
Bryanna Ordonez, 17, tells Sky News her dad was among 44 people arrested in Friday’s raids
Giovanni Garcia is from South Central LA. His mother emigrated from Mexico 26 years ago, but she only received her Green Card last year.
“Everyone says LA is an immigrant city, and it is,” says Giovanni. “You go to Chinese restaurants, they have Hispanic workers in the back.
“You know, you go to the clothing companies, they have Hispanics working. Like, this is our city, and we have to stand here and defend it.”
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As dusk fell, the crowds thinned on the streets. A remaining hardcore of demonstrators were backed into a corner of downtown LA known as Little Tokyo.
As night fell, an hours-long standoff between police and protesters took place next to a pagoda and with the backdrop of a giant mural of LA Dodgers baseball star Shohei Ohtani, before, eventually, a number of them were arrested.
LA is a city known for sporting prowess, multiculturalism and a long history of resistance movements – the immigration protests of 2025 now among them.
A shirtless man waving a Mexican flag stands atop a burning car in the heart of Los Angeles, as another man throws a traffic cone into the flames and some play drums and shout chants in opposition to immigration officials.
In the background, city hall can be glimpsed through a haze of thick black smoke.
The downtown district of one of America’s biggest cities was a scene of pandemonium and lawlessness as protests, which had previously been mainly peaceful, turned ugly.
Critics of Donald Trump said the president’s extraordinary decision to deploy National Guard troops, defying the wishes of the state’s governor, had inflamed tensions and stoked emotions.
A protester throws a cone into a burning fire in LA. Pic: Reuters/Daniel Cole
The 101 Freeway, the main highway cutting through the downtown area, was also closed down for much of the day as police and protesters faced off, with flash bang devices sending some people scattering.
Bottles and other projectiles were hurled towards police, who responded by using tear gas and rubber bullets.
It was this chaos, his critics say, that Donald Trump wanted to provoke.
California Highway Patrol officers try to dodge rocks being thrown. Pic: AP/Ethan Swope
Trump’s decision to call in 2,000 National Guard troops, several hundred of whom were on the streets of LA on Sunday, was taken without consultation with the California governor and LA mayor, and marked an extraordinary escalation by the president.
The military arrived on Sunday morning and was ordered to guard federal buildings, after two days of protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers.
As part of Trump’s closed border policy, ICE has been ordered to find, detain and deport as many illegal immigrants as possible, and it was these raids that stoked the first signs of protest on Friday into the weekend.
Smoke rises as the National Guard clashed with protesters in downtown Los Angeles.
Pic: Reuters/Daniel Cole
By midday Sunday, the military was surrounded by protesters outside the Metropolitan Detention Centre in downtown LA. It was here that many immigrants had been held before being shipped off to detention facilities.
The walls and floors are covered in expletive-ridden graffiti, reading f*** ICE.
The Los Angeles police soon split the crowd and drove a wedge between the National Guard and the crowd.
California Governor Gavin Newsom has called Donald Trump’s acts those of a “dictator, not a president”.
A police officer fires a soft round in Los Angeles. Pic: AP Photo/Eric Thayer
Los Angeles Metro Police officers strike protesters during unrest in the downtown area of the city.
Pic: Reuters/Daniel Cole
He’s formally requested that the Trump administration withdraw the National Guard. The White House say the military will remain there until order is restored. Five hundred marines are still on standby.
Los Angeles Police Department police chief Jim McDonnell, asked whether the National Guard was needed, said: “This thing has gotten out of control.”
He said that although the LAPD would not initially have requested assistance from the National Guard, the disorder had caused him to reevaluate his assessment.
US correspondent Martha Kelner is reporting from Los Angeles
Several people were arrested.
Sky News witnessed a young woman, who called herself Gabriella, riding her motorbike at speed towards a line of police officers.
Read more from Sky News:
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One of the police officers used his arm to push her off the bike. She said she was protesting because her “people were being rounded up.”
Politicians on both sides of the aisle condemned the violence, but some vehemently disagreed about what actions led to the escalation.
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