Trump tariffs live updates: Starmer vows to ‘shelter’ UK businesses

People should be prepared for things to be tougher in the global economy, a Treasury minister has suggested.

Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones was asked on the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme whether the public should be “prepared for things to be even tougher than they already are”.

Mr Jones said: “In the global economy, yes, but on the UK economy we’re trying to get ahead of these challenges.

“That’s why the plan for change is important, because it means that we can support businesses through industrial policy, we can support people through investment in the National Health Service, for example.

“It is right that we get ahead of that, so that the country is in a more, stronger and resilient place.”

Investment bank JP Morgan has warned that tariffs could tip the American economy into recession.

The bank downgraded US growth by 1.6 percentage points for this year, and predicted far higher unemployment.

Michael Feroli, JP Morgan’s chief US economist, said: “We now expect real GDP to contract under the weight of the tariffs. For the full year, we now look for real growth of -0.3pc, down from 1.3pc previously.”

JP Morgan raised its odds for a US and global recession to 60 per cent, up from 40 per cent previously.

Kemi Badenoch has said there is “a place for tariffs” but that the ones imposed by the US will be “destructive for businesses”.

Th Conservative leader told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme: “The retaliatory tariffs (in the US) will make people in our country poorer.

“There is a place for tariffs, we did use them, but right now what they will do is make life more expensive for British consumers.”

Ms Badenoch spoke about the previous Conservative government negotiating a trade deal with Donald Trump’s government in 2020.

“I would like the government to pick up where we left off,” Ms Badenoch said.

“We had six rounds of negotiations where there were some decisions that were concluded, and they can pick that up and take it.

“But the most important thing is removing tariffs. The tariffs are going to be destructive for our businesses.”

Elon Musk has broken with the Trump administration to advocate for unrestricted trade between the US and Europe.

In comments made during a video appearance with Italy’s right-wing League party on Saturday, Mr Musk said: “Ideally, both Europe and the United States should move to a zero-tariff situation, effectively creating a free trade zone between Europe and North America.”

He added: “If people wish to work in Europe or wish to work in North America, they should be allowed to do so in my view”.

European Union countries are set to consider retaliatory tariffs on up to $28 billion of U.S. imports from dental floss to diamonds on Monday, according to reporting from Reuters.

Such a move would mean the EU joining China and Canada in imposing retaliatory tariffs on the United States in an early escalation of what some fear will become a global trade war, making goods more expensive for billions of consumers and pushing economies around the world into recession.

The 27-nation bloc faces 25 per cent import tariffs on steel and aluminium and cars and “reciprocal” tariffs of 20 per cent from Wednesday for almost all other goods.

President Donald Trump’s tariffs cover some 70 per cent of the EU’s exports to the United States – worth in total 532 billion euros ($585 billion) last year – with likely duties on copper, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors and timber still to come.

The European Commission, which coordinates EU trade policy, will propose to members late on Monday a list of U.S. products to hit with extra duties in response to Trump’s steel and aluminium tariffs rather than the broader reciprocal levies, Reuters has reported.

It is reportedly set to include US meat, cereals, wine, wood and clothing as well as chewing gum, dental floss, vacuum cleaners and toilet paper.

One product that has received more attention and exposed discord in the bloc is bourbon. The Commission has earmarked a 50 per cent tariff, prompting Trump to threaten a 200 per cent counter-tariff on EU alcoholic drinks if the bloc goes ahead.

Wine exporters France and Italy have both expressed concern. The EU, whose economy is heavily reliant on free trade, is keen to make sure it has wide backing for any response so as to keep the pressure up on Trump ultimately to enter negotiations.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has said about the US: “We disagree fundamentally with what they are doing on tariffs”.

Speaking to the BBC on Sunday morning, Ms Badenoch said that tariffs will “make life more expensive for British consumers and we don’t want that.”

She said that, when the Conservatives were negotiating a trade agreement with the US, food standards were not on the table.

She has called for Labour to “pick up where we left off” on the deal, rather than start from scratch. Ms Badenoch told the BBC that the UK had had six rounds of negotiations with the US.

“The tariffs are going to be destructive” and will impact the government’s “tax take” as businesses struggle, Ms Badenoch added.

Sending children back to school in new sneakers, jeans and T-shirts is likely to cost American families significantly more this autumn if the bespoke tariffs president Donald Trump put on leading exporters take effect as planned, American industry groups have warned.

About 97 per cent of the clothes and shoes purchased in the US are imported, predominantly from Asia, the American Apparel & Footwear Association said, citing its most recent data.

Walmart, Gap Inc., Lululemon and Nike are a few of the companies that have a majority of their clothing made in Asian countries.

Those same garment-making hubs took a big hit under the president’s plan to punish individual countries for trade imbalances.

For all Chinese goods, that meant tariffs of at least 54 per cent. He set the import tax rates for Vietnam and neighbouring Cambodia at 46 per cent and 49 per cent, and products from Bangladesh and Indonesia at 37 per cent and 32 per cent.

The prime minister has been “clear that he’s unhappy” about the new US tariffs, a Labour minister has said.

Watch Darren Jone’s comments here:

The prime minister has been “clear that he’s unhappy” about the new US tariffs, a Labour minister has said.

Chief secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones told Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips programme that the UK is “not happy” about the levies.

Asked about comments from Donald Trump last week in which he suggested Sir Keir Starmer was “very happy” with the UK’s tariff treatment, Mr Jones said: “Keir has been clear that he’s unhappy about the tariffs.”

He also said the Prime Minister is “broadly unhappy about tariffs in what was a well-functioning global trading system.”

Mr Jones added: “I suspect what’s being referred to there is the fact that the United Kingdom had the lowest tariff, and puts us in a much stronger position than other complex, large economies, which we think was a vindication of our engagement with the United States in the run up to the president’s announcements.

“But clearly, we don’t like tariffs; we’re not happy about that.”

Mr Jones also said “there will be further announcements from the Prime Minister this week on support for British business” in the wake of the tariffs.