Trump’s new global tariffs kick in at 10% – business live
Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.President Donald Trump’s new tariffs have come into effect today at a rate of 10%, after the US supreme court blocked many of his import taxes on Friday.The president signed an executive order last Friday authorising the 10% tariffs just hours after the supreme court ruling.He later threatened to raise the rate to 15%, but did not officially do so by Tuesday 12.01am time in Washington, when the 10% levy came into effect.
However, Bloomberg is reporting that officials in the White House are working on a formal order that will increase the rate to 15%.It comes after Trump declared this week that he can use tariffs in a “much more powerful and obnoxious way”.The new tariffs, which Trump is applying under Section 122 of the 1974 Trade Act, have triggered uncertainty with a number of US trading partners, including the UK (which negotiated a 10% rate with the US last year) and the EU.On Monday the EU paused the process of ratification of the deal it had struck with the US last July for the second time in a month, after it froze and unfroze the deal in the wake of Trump’s Greenland threats.The deal was for 15% blanket tariffs on EU imports that were inclusive of previous levies.
Meanwhile in the UK, a spokesperson for Keir Starmer, when asked whether retaliatory tariffs were an option, said:double quotation markNo one wants to see a trade war.No one wants to see a situation that’s escalated.But as I say, nothing is off the table at this stage.5am GMT: EU car registrations11am GMT: CBI Distributive trades for Feb2pm GMT: Case-Shiller US home price index2.15pm GMT: Bank of England governor to discuss MPC decision to hold interest rates at 3.
75% with the Treasury CommitteeWilliam Bain, head of trade policy at the British Chambers of Commerce, warns that while the 10% tariff is not as bad as threats of a 15% rate, the changing policies are making it harder for businesses to plan ahead.He says:double quotation markIt is far from clear what will happen next, and whether a higher tariff rate is still on the way.Despite the immediate reprieve, there is fresh uncertainty for UK firms exporting goods to the US.This makes it very difficult for firms to understand the prices and margins they will be able to secure for their goods, currently under production, for export in several months’ time.Inevitably this will have an impact on their sales and hit the economy.
The BCC has provided government with a six-point plan to guard against the worst economic outcomes from the new tariffs and potential further hikes,This includes continued negotiation with the US government, engagement with the US Congress, an uplift in UK Export Finance capacity and reviewing the UK’s Global Tariffs,The risk of further tariff pain to come is still real and the government must do everything it can to prepare for the worst,”Not everyone was happy that Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs were deemed illegal by the US supreme court last week,FedEx has sued the US government, seeking to receive reimbursement of their share of an estimated $175bn in levies after the highest court found Trump had overstepped his authority in issuing the tariffs.
The FedEx lawsuit named as defendants US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which collects tariffs; the agency’s commissioner Rodney Scott; and the United States of America.The suit was filed in the US court of international trade.The company did not specify an amount in its complaint but said it was seeking a “full refund” for duties paid to the US.The company said in a statement:double quotation markWhile the supreme court did not address the issue of refunds, FedEx has taken necessary action to protect the company’s rights as an importer of record to seek duty refunds from US Customs and Border Protection.You can read the full story by my colleague Gabrielle Canon here:Trump’s new global 10% tariff is being applied under Section 122 of the 1974 Trade Act, which allows the president to impose the charge for 150 days without congressional approval.
The president has used this approach after the supreme court ruled that he had violated an emergency-powers law to enact his “reciprocal” tariffs on imported goods from countries around the world.The new tariffs do have some exemptions, including goods that were part of the North American trade pact between the US, Canada and Mexico.The order also includes an exception for some agricultural goods.It is not clear yet what the fallout will be.The UK has not ruled out retaliation, with a spokesperson for Keir Starmer saying yesterday that “nothing is off the table”, and the chair of the EU Parliament’s trade committee, Bernd Lange, said yesterday:double quotation markWe want to have clarity from the US that they are respecting the deal because that’s a crucial element.
”Trump has warned that any country that wants to “play games” with the supreme court decision would be “be met with a much higher Tariff, and worse, than that which they just recently agreed to.” But Jim Reid, of Deutsche Bank, says it is unclear how the president might respond to developments in the UK and the EU.double quotation markAt the moment the rate is 10% with White House officials stating that they are working on a formal order to raise to 15%.Perhaps the stacking concern is delaying things for now.Late yesterday, we also saw the WSJ and Bloomberg report that the administration was preparing new Section 232 national security investigations into several industries including batteries, telecom equipment and industrial chemicals.
Remember that Trump’s delivering the State of the Union address tonight, so it’s possible we might get a better sense of the next steps on tariffs…net-net we still think the effective tariff rate will fall this year and that the world post-SCOTUS will see lower tariffs than the pre-SCOTUS world,Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy,President Donald Trump’s new tariffs have come into effect today at a rate of 10%, after the US supreme court blocked many of his import taxes on Friday,The president signed an executive order last Friday authorising the 10% tariffs just hours after the supreme court ruling,He later threatened to raise the rate to 15%, but did not officially do so by Tuesday 12.
01am time in Washington, when the 10% levy came into effect.However, Bloomberg is reporting that officials in the White House are working on a formal order that will increase the rate to 15%.It comes after Trump declared this week that he can use tariffs in a “much more powerful and obnoxious way”.The new tariffs, which Trump is applying under Section 122 of the 1974 Trade Act, have triggered uncertainty with a number of US trading partners, including the UK (which negotiated a 10% rate with the US last year) and the EU.On Monday the EU paused the process of ratification of the deal it had struck with the US last July for the second time in a month, after it froze and unfroze the deal in the wake of Trump’s Greenland threats.
The deal was for 15% blanket tariffs on EU imports that were inclusive of previous levies,Meanwhile in the UK, a spokesperson for Keir Starmer, when asked whether retaliatory tariffs were an option, said:double quotation markNo one wants to see a trade war,No one wants to see a situation that’s escalated,But as I say, nothing is off the table at this stage,5am GMT: EU car registrations11am GMT: CBI Distributive trades for Feb2pm GMT: Case-Shiller US home price index2.
15pm GMT: Bank of England governor to discuss MPC decision to hold interest rates at 3.75% with the Treasury Committee
Is the UK’s golden era of free museum entry coming to an end?
For a quarter of a century, visitors to the UK’s national museums and galleries have enjoyed universal free entry to see permanent collections.The policy, introduced by the New Labour government in 2001, has been widely credited with improving access to culture and significantly increasing footfall to some of the country’s best-known attractions.But as funding pressures deepen across the sector, and running costs increase, a policy once treated as untouchable is now under renewed scrutiny.The tension was brought into focus this week, when the National Gallery announced it was to make significant cuts in the face of an £8.2m deficit in the coming year, which could mean fewer free exhibitions, reduced international borrowing of artworks and higher ticket prices
The Guide #231: How the hunt for the next James Bond became the franchise’s best marketing tool
Callum Turner’s turn as James Bond lasted at most a couple of weeks. No sooner had he been enshrined as frontrunner to succeed Daniel Craig, than he was nudged from the DB5 driver’s seat by the latest heir apparent, Jacob Elordi, installed as the new bookies’ favourite after his smouldering, highly profitable performance in Wuthering Heights. Smarting somewhere in the background is Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who seemed locked in for the job a couple of years ago, enjoying the backing of former 007s Pierce Brosnan and George Lazenby, but now seems to have fallen out of favour. And don’t forget the succession of other dead cert Bonds now banished to the back of the odds market: the long-rumoured likes of Tom Hardy and Idris Elba (both now likely to have aged out of the role); Theo James; James Norton; Josh O’Connor; Harris Dickinson; Bridgerton’s Rége-Jean Page; and approximately 5,000 other predominately British actors who have enjoyed box office success/led a successful TV drama/look good in a tuxedo.On and on the hunt goes
My cultural awakening: Operation Mincemeat taught me how to cry – now I sob at everything
A musical number about a woman’s letter to her husband on the second world war frontline unlocked my ability to blub – and made me a happier personI am sure I must have cried as a child, but by the time I was a teenager it had stopped. It was probably a boarding school thing. Very stiff upper lip. My parents are not the most emotionally available human beings, either. I like to tease them by saying: “I love you
From Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die to Tracey Emin: your complete entertainment guide to the week ahead
Sam Rockwell stars in Gore Verbinski’s madcap sci-fi comedy, and the YBA Goat is back with a new exhibition at the Tate ModernGood Luck, Have Fun, Don’t DieOut now If Sam Rockwell materialised in an LA diner dressed like something that escaped from an off-Broadway production of Starlight Express, wouldn’t you hear him out? In visionary director Gore Verbinski’s new film, Rockwell plays a man from the future, who has come back to warn us about the perils of artificial intelligence. Sold.The MomentOut now A couple of weeks after appearing in a small role in 100 Nights of Hero, Charli xcx is back on the big screen as a pop star preparing for her tour while navigating the difficulties that inevitably accompany a stratospheric rise to the top. She is – as they say – the moment.If I Had Legs I’d Kick YouOut now Rose Byrne stars as a therapist dealing with more than her fair share of her own obstacles: her young child is ill, her unsupportive husband is away working and she has a tricky relationship with … you’ve guessed it, her therapist
Stephen Colbert on Andrew’s arrest: ‘Let’s hear it for British justice’
Stephen Colbert discussed the arrest of the former prince Andrew and Donald Trump’s confusing new Board of Peace.The Late Show host told the audience of Epstein pal Mountbatten-Windsor’s arrest to a sea of cheers. “Yes, finally, someone, anyone!” he said.He added: “Let’s hear it for British justice, which is better than American justice because it comes with frilly wigs.”Colbert also shared the now viral image captured by a photographer of Mountbatten-Windsor lying back in a car leaving the police station
From patriotic parody to threat: Flanders and Swann, the Likely Lads and Reform | Letter
Stuart Heritage rightly observes the satire that is inherent in For He is an Englishman, the “patriotic” song from HMS Pinafore, cropping up in popular culture (‘The rallying cry of the rich and horrible’, 17 February).For a more xenophobic but equally tongue-in-cheek exploration of the same vein of nationalism, screenwriters need look no further than A Song of Patriotic Prejudice, by Flanders and Swann. In this paean to the English, every other nation of the UK is rubbished through caricature, and the rest of Europe dismissed in a few lines (“The Germans are German, the Russians are red, and the Greeks and Italians eat garlic in bed!”).This line of reasoning is explored in Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? too, where Terry, to the derision of his friend Bob, runs through the shortcomings of every other nation. “To tell you the truth, I don’t like anybody much outside this town,” Terry adds
US farmers are rejecting multimillion-dollar datacenter bids for their land: ‘I’m not for sale’
Amazon’s cloud ‘hit by two outages caused by AI tools last year’
‘It’s survival of the fittest’: the UK kebab chain seeking an edge with robot slicers
Nascent tech, real fear: how AI anxiety is upending career ambitions
Nvidia reportedly plans to invest $30bn in OpenAI’s next funding round
Mind launches inquiry into AI and mental health after Guardian investigation