Key events
How have car manufacturers reacted to Trump’s tariffs?
The US’s 25% tariff on imported cars and light trucks took effect on Thursday, the day after Trump announced tariffs on other goods from countries across the globe. This has prompted a swift reaction from car manufacturers.
Britain’s car industry, which employs 200,000 people directly, is highly exposed to the new tariffs. The US is the second-biggest importer of British-made cars after the EU, with nearly a 20% share.
Jaguar Land Rover has announced it would “pause” shipments to the US, as the The Coventry, England-headquartered company says it is working to “address the new trading terms” and is looking to develop its “mid- to longer-term plans”.
The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) thinktank has said over 25,000 direct jobs in the car manufacturing industry could be at risk as exports to the US are projected to fall.
Meanwhile, carmaker Stellantis said on Thursday it was temporarily laying off 900 workers at five US facilities after Trump’s tariffs were announced, and temporarily pausing production at an assembly plant in Mexico and one in Canada.
Stellantis, which owns car brands like Jeep, Citroën and Ram, said it will be temporarily pausing production at the Windsor assembly plant in Canada up until the week of 21 April.
The company will also be temporarily pausing production at the Toluca assembly plant in Mexico for the month of April, starting tomorrow. Due to the production pause, there will be temporary layoffs at the Warren and Sterling stamping plants in Michigan and at the Indiana and Kokomo transmission plants and Kokomo casting facility in Indiana.
However, the United Automobile Workers union, one of biggest trade unions in the US, endorsed the tariffs, which Trump sees as a way of tempting US manufacturers to return to America.
The union said the decision “signals a return to policies that prioritize the workers who build this country — rather than the greed of ruthless corporations.” Shawn Fain, the union president, said “ending the race to the bottom in the auto industry starts with fixing our broken trade deals, and the Trump administration has made history with today’s actions”.
UK’s PM warns ‘the world as we knew it has gone’ as countries mull response to Trump’s tariffs
Welcome back to our live coverage of the economic fallout from Donald Trump’s announcement of sweeping tariffs last week.
Almost $5tn (£4tn) was wiped off the value of global stock markets after the US president made his shock announcement last Wednesday, which included a 10% base tariff on imports into the US from the UK.
Trump’s 10% tariff on UK products came into force on Saturday, as global stock markets continued to fall in response to the imposition of import taxes.
Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand were struck with tariffs of 49%, 46% and 36%, while the EU faces a levy of 20% for all the goods it exports to the US.
The FTSE 100 plummeted on Friday in its worst day of trading since the start of the pandemic, while markets on Wall Street also tumbled.
Analysts warn that already sluggish UK economic growth could be up to 0.5 percentage points lower over coming years as a result of Trump’s tariffs.
In reaction to the US tariff offensive, the UK’s prime minister, Keir Starmer, has written an opinion piece in the Sunday Telegraph, saying he is ready to “use industrial policy to help shelter British business from the storm”. He is among world leaders who are in intense discussions with their teams, carefully weighing up how to respond to the president’s tariffs.
“Old assumptions can no longer be taken for granted. The world as we knew it has gone. We must rise to meet the moment,” Starmer wrote.
“We are ready for what comes next. The new world is less governed by established rules and more by deals and alliances.”
Stay with us as we will keep bringing you all the latest updates and reaction to the tariff’s throughout the day.
