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.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Trump100 Day 52: Tesla, tariffs and a step closer to truce
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.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Trump’s tariffs are ‘disappointing’
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:
It may be harder for the UK to trump metals tariffs this time round
‘Canadianos’ and cancelled Vegas trips: How Canadians are acting with defiance
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.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Trump adviser tells Sky ‘stop that crap’
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.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
‘The ultimate cost of tariffs will be paid in the US’
Why tariffs could cost you – even if Trump spares UK
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.
It is much more than a battle over vaccines in the United States.
It has become a proxy war about trust, freedom, and the role of government in public health.
The debate about childhood immunisations, once a matter of bipartisan consensus, is now a defining clash between federal government, state leadership and the medical community.
At the centre of it is the federal government’s sharp policy shift under US health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr.
He has rolled back vaccine recommendations and reshaped advisory committees with sceptics.
States have responded along ideological lines – Florida planning to abolish all vaccine mandates; California, Oregon, and Washington forming a “Health Alliance” to safeguard them.
The western states felt they had to act when the head of the agency tasked with disease prevention was sacked.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr appears before the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday. Pic: AP
Senator Elizabeth Warren speaks at the hearing. Pic: AP
‘You’re putting Americans’ health at risk’
Susan Monarez had only been in the job for a month when Donald Trump told her she was no longer required.
“She didn’t bend the knee, so you fired her,” Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren told Mr Kennedy during a heated committee hearing on Capitol Hill.
“You’re putting American babies’ health at risk, American seniors’ health at risk, all Americans’ health at risk, and you should resign,” she added.
Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock described the health secretary as “a hazard to the health of the American people.”
“For the first time, we’re seeing deaths of children from measles. We haven’t seen that in two decades. We’re seeing that under your watch,” he said.
Mr Kennedy told the hearing America had done “worse than any country in the world” in terms of COVID deaths.
“…the people at CDC who oversaw the process, who put masks on our children, who closed our schools, are the people who will be leaving,” he said.
Read more US news:
Farage met his match in Washington hearing
How Trump is vulnerable over Epstein
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Is US politics fuelling a deadly measles outbreak?
Jab mandates compared to ‘slavery’
Several senior figures at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have resigned since Susan Monarez was removed.
The turmoil in public health has led to a fragmented system where Americans’ access to vaccines and the rules governing them, largely depend on where they live.
Likening vaccine mandates to “slavery”, Florida’s surgeon general Joseph Ladapo said the government had no right to dictate them.
“Your body is a gift from God. What you put into your body is because of your relationship with your body and your God,” he said.
It is a tug of war between collective responsibility or individual choice and one that will redefine public health in this nation.
Donald Trump is to rebrand the US Department of Defense as the “Department of War”, according to the White House.
The president will today sign an executive order allowing it to be used as a secondary title for the US government’s biggest organisation.
It also means defence secretary Pete Hegseth will be able to refer to himself as the “secretary of war” in official communications and ceremonies.
Mr Hegseth could refer to himself as ‘secretary of war’ under the change. Pic: Reuters
Mr Hegseth posted the words “DEPARTMENT OF WAR” on X on Thursday night.
Permanently renaming the department would need congressional approval, but the White House said the executive order will instruct Mr Hegseth to begin the process.
The Department of Defense – often referred to colloquially as the Pentagon due to the shape of its Washington HQ – was called the War Department until 1949.
Historians say the name was changed to show the US was focussed on preventing conflict following the Second World War and the dawning of the nuclear age.
Mr Trump raised the possibility of a change in June, when he suggested it was originally renamed to be “politically correct”.
The department is often just referred to as the Pentagon. Pic: Reuters
His reversion to the more combative title could cost tens of millions, with letterheads and building signs in the US and at military bases around the world potentially needing a refresh.
Joe Biden’s effort to rename nine army bases honouring the Confederacy and Confederate leaders, set to cost $39m (£29m), was reversed by Mr Hegseth earlier this year.
Read more from Sky News:
The proxy war that will redefine US public health
Judge says Trump’s National Guard deployment was illegal
Opponents have already criticised Mr Trump’s move.
“Why not put this money toward supporting military families or toward employing diplomats that help prevent conflicts from starting in the first place?” said Democratic senator Tammy Duckworth, a member of the armed services committee.
Mr Trump’s other federal renaming orders include controversially labelling the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf Of America” and reverting North America’s tallest mountain, Denali in Alaska, to its former name of Mount McKinley.
The Mexican government and Alaska’s Republican senators both rejected the changes.
For so long, the Epstein story has cast them in a cameo role.
Everyday coverage of the scandal churns through the politics and process of it all, reducing their suffering to a passing reference.
Not anymore.
Not on a morning when they gathered on Capitol Hill, survivors of Epstein‘s abuse, strengthened by shared experience and a resolve to address it.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Epstein survivors call for release of all files
In a news conference that lasted over an hour, they brought an authenticity that only they could.
There was vivid recollection of the abuse they endured and a certainty in the justice they seek.
They had the safety of each other – adults now, with the horrors of youth at a distance, though never far away.
It was an emotional gathering on Capitol Hill, attended by survivors, politicians and several hundred members of the public who turned up in support.
Banners read “Release the files”, “Listen to the victims” and “Even your MAGA base demands Epstein files”.
Haley Robson was one of several Epstein survivors who spoke. Pic: AP
A startling spectacle
That last statement isn’t lost on Donald Trump. As if for emphasis, one of the speakers was the ultra-loyal House representative Marjorie Taylor Greene – they don’t make them more MAGA.
In a spectacle, startling to politics-watchers in this town, she stood side by side with Democrat congressmen to demand the Epstein files be released.
It reflects a discontent spread through Donald Trump’s support base.
He is the man who once counted Jeffrey Epstein as a friend and who has said he’d release the files, only to reverse course.
Read more:
Partial release of Epstein files feeds cover-up claims
Explainer: Trump, Epstein and the MAGA controversy
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
‘It’s a Democrat hoax’ – Trump on Epstein files
Trump’s vulnerability
The Epstein files is the slow-burner that won’t go out, a story that exposes Trump’s vulnerability.
Just how vulnerable can be measured on Congress, where politicians need only a couple of Republicans to back legislation demanding full publication.
It bears the shape of a loyalty test to the president and the dynamics of that have changed with the survivors stepping forward.
One by one, they presented a thunderous reminder of the people and the moral imperative at the heart of the Jeffrey Epstein saga.
It’s political, sure, but it’s about much more – that, we saw on Capitol Hill.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Sports2 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment11 months agoHere are the best electric bikes you can buy at every price level in October 2024