Toyota warns of £7.1bn hit from Trump tariffs as it cuts profit forecast
Toyota has warned it faces a 1.4tn yen (£7.1bn) hit from Donald Trump’s trade tariffs, as the Japanese company reported a drop in net profit and cut its guidance for next year.The biggest carmaker in the world said it expected to make an operating profit of 3.2tn yen in its financial year to March 2026, down 16% on previous guidance of 3.
8tn yen.The anticipated annual hit from US tariffs includes the impact of the levies on car imports, higher material prices and a stronger yen.The figures were reported as the latest wave of country-specific tariffs came into force, with dozens of countries facing higher taxes on their exports to the US.This includes Japan, whose baseline rate rose from 10% to 15% under the terms of a framework agreed between Tokyo and Washington last month.Under the deal, Japanese automotive exports to the US are to face a 15% tariff, down from previous sector-specific levies that added up to 27.
5%,The timeframe for when the change comes into effect has yet to be announced,Toyota’s operating profit fell by almost 11% to 1,17tn yen in the three months to the end of June compared with the same period last year,Its figures came a day after the rival Japanese carmaker Honda reported a 50% drop in profit in the same quarter, to 244bn yen.
That was mainly because of a 124bn-yen hit from US tariffs, the company said.The global car industry has been one of the hardest hit by Trump’s trade wars.The sector accounts for 8% of jobs in Japan, with vehicles and automotive parts making up more than a quarter of all the countries exports to the US.As part of last month’s bilateral deal, Trump said Japan would invest $550bn (£410bn) in the US.The president also claimed that Japan would open its market to US products such as cars, trucks, rice and certain agricultural products.
Despite the trade turmoil, Toyota reported record sales in the first half of the year, up 5.5% to 5.1m vehicles, supported by demand for hybrid cars.Shares in the company, however, have dropped by more than 10% this year over tariff uncertainty.Sign up to Business TodayGet set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morningafter newsletter promotionTrump’s latest wave of country-specific tariffs that came into force on Thursday include rates of more than 40% on imports from Syria, Laos and Myanmar, down to 15% for the EU and 10% for the UK.
The “reciprocal” levies announced by the White House a week ago – before a previous 1 August deadline was due to elapse – came into effect a minute past midnight Washington time on Thursday.
Shared prayers and tears: how Lammy wooed JD Vance and the White House
It was famously something that Tony Blair did not do with George W Bush, or at least not something to which the then British prime minister wished to admit. But these are very different times.When the US vice-president, JD Vance, and his family join David Lammy at the foreign secretary’s grace and favour home in Kent at the start of their summer holiday in the UK, they are expected to deepen their relationship by praying together, it is understood.Within the grounds of Chevening lies the pretty 12th-century St Botolph’s church. It is Anglican but, security risks and denominational differences aside, it may present one option for a place to take communion, sources suggested
Planes, trains and more missteps from Labour | Letters
Polly Toynbee rightly advocates greener rail travel over the greater environmental damage caused by airliners (Pushing airport expansion while rail travel languishes – so much for Labour’s green agenda, 5 August). Alas, the same government that has authorised a massive expansion of Heathrow airport has also just pulled the plug on completing the electrification of the Midland Main Line from London to Nottingham, Derby and Sheffield.By my reckoning, this is the third time the scheme has been abandoned partway through. It will ensure that four diesel trains an hour will be plying the route for the foreseeable future, adding to air quality issues and consuming more fossil fuels.The overhead wiring for the electric trains currently ends in the middle of nowhere a few miles south of Leicester
Does Jeremy Corbyn know his potatoes? | Brief letters
“Is this government going to put the nail in the coffin of the joy of digging ground for potatoes on a cold, wet February Sunday afternoon?” Jeremy Corbyn wrote in the Daily Telegraph (Jeremy Corbyn warns rules on council asset sales threaten allotments, 5 August). Never trust a man who can’t tell his parsnips from his potatoes: leaving spuds in the ground till February means they’ll have been spoiled by frost or rot. And I say this as a lifelong Labour voter.Dariel FrancisTunbridge Wells, Kent A key point not covered in your article (YouTube most popular first TV destination for children, Ofcom finds, 30 July) is the extent to which schools, particularly primaries, use YouTube, from movement breaks to educational programmes and quiet-time cartoons before home time.Cat Mehta Weybridge, Surrey While I enjoyed his review of Millet at the National Gallery (5 August), I do wonder about Jonathan Jones’s inner life
Starmer declines to rule out election pledge-breaking tax rises in budget after claim Treasury must fill £40bn deficit – as it happened
Keir Starmer has defended the government’s handling of the economy, but declined to rule out tax rises in the autumn budget.Speaking to broadcasters on a visit to Milton Keynes today, he also claimed that he did not “recognise” some of the figures in a thinktank report claiming that in the budget in the autumn Rachel Reeves will need to address a deficit of more than £40bn.The National Institute of Economic and Social Research argues that tax rises will be needed to plug the hole in government finances. (See 9.39am
Labour accused of using Jimmy Savile’s name to ‘bait’ Nigel Farage
Labour’s use of Jimmy Savile’s “toxic” name appeared to be an attempt to “deliberately bait” Nigel Farage and would distress survivors of child sexual abuse, lawyers for victims of the late TV presenter has said.Alan Collins, the head of the abuse team at Hugh James solicitors, said it was “concerning” to see Jess Phillips, the safeguarding minister, and others use Savile’s name to try to “score points over political opponents”.Labour has accused Farage and Reform UK of being “on the side of predators like Savile” by opposing the Online Safety Act.Peter Kyle, the technology secretary, was the first minister to make the comparison when he told Sky News last week: “I see that Nigel Farage is already saying that he’s going to overturn these laws. So you know, we have people out there who are extreme pornographers, peddling hate, peddling violence
Keir Starmer plays down warnings that taxes will have to be raised in autumn
Keir Starmer has sought to play down warnings that the government will be forced to raise taxes this autumn and said some of the figures being circulated “are not ones I recognise”.The prime minister was responding to forecasts from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR), which projected a shortfall of up to £51bn in the public finances, given a number of factors had knocked the chancellor’s plans to stay within Whitehall spending limits, including higher debt interest payments and U-turns on welfare spending cuts.NIESR said “moderate but sustained” tax rises would be needed in the autumn budget for Rachel Reeves to overcome the deficit of £41.2bn and then restore a near £10bn buffer in the current budget or be forced to use harsh cost-cutting measures in the autumn statement.Speaking during a visit to Milton Keynes, Starmer disagreed with the economists’ warnings
Bank of England cuts interest rates as it warns food costs could push inflation to 4%
Thousands of hotels in Europe to sue Booking.com over ‘abusive’ practices
The unintended consequences of the Online Safety Act | Letters
‘We wish it never existed’: readers tell us about their family’s use of YouTube
The NHL preached inclusion. So why has it got into bed with Donald Trump?
The Hundred can be a ‘multibillion-dollar product’ like the IPL, says Tech Titans chief