Category Archives: International trade

‘Trusted capital from your long-term ally’: Australian super’s US trip to bolster efforts to avoid Trump’s steel tariffs

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Super Members Council says summit may sway US president on tariffs on Australian industry after seeing scale of investment in US

Australia’s $2.8tn superannuation industry will bolster the Albanese government’s bid to secure an exemption from the Trump administration’s 25% tariffs on steel and aluminium imports this week.

A delegation of Australia’s largest funds will meet with US government officials from Monday, as part of a four-day summit designed to improve awareness of the industry’s long-term contributions to the US economy and its plans to more than double investment.

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Trump threatens 25% tariffs on foreign cars and semiconductor chips

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White House has raised threat of levies as a means to bolster US economy, ignoring warnings trade wars could derail it

Donald Trump stood firm against warnings that his threatened trade war risks derailing the US economy, claiming his administration could hit foreign cars with tariffs of around 25% within weeks.

Semiconductor chips and drugs are set to face higher duties, Trump told reporters at a news conference on Tuesday.

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Sadiq Khan says ‘Brexit was a mistake’ and closer EU ties could counter Trump tariffs

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London mayor to tell meeting that mobility scheme would benefit young people and economy

Sadiq Khan will tell EU diplomats “Brexit was a mistake” and renew his backing for a youth mobility scheme as he argues strengthened ties with the bloc would help offset Donald Trump’s threatened tariff regime.

At a meeting on Tuesday, the mayor of London will tell delegates that Britain’s withdrawal from the trading bloc “continues to have a negative impact”, and he will promise to make the case for “being bold” in efforts to seek closer alignment.

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UK marketplace sellers face ‘second Brexit’ hit from Trump’s US import rules

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End of ‘de minimis’ policy for Chinese goods also expected to hit bigger fashion retailers such as Asos and Boohoo

Many UK-based independent sellers on marketplaces such as eBay and Amazon could suffer a significant hit to US sales from planned changes to import rules under Donald Trump, with experts comparing the impact to a second Brexit.

The new rules, which mean all parcels originating or made in China and being sold into the US must pay import duty – of as much as 15% on fashion items – and an additional 10% tariff, are also expected to impact bigger online clothing retailers such as Asos and Boohoo.

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Trump policies make US ‘scary place to invest’ and risk stagflation, says Stiglitz

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Uncertainty created by tariffs and contempt for rule of law will deter investment, says top economist

Donald Trump’s tariff threats have made the US “a scary place to invest” and may unleash stagflation, the Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz has said.

“It risks the worst of all possible worlds: a kind of stagflation,” Stiglitz said in an interview with the Guardian.

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Trump’s reciprocal tariff threat brings fears for Australian trade

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Economist argues GST is not protectionist and should not attract any new levy from the US but concern remains for steel industry

US president Donald Trump has threatened “reciprocal tariffs” on US trade partners in retaliation for some domestic taxes, such as value-added taxes, sparking concerns Australia could be targeted.

But economists have argued Australia’s value-added tax – the goods and services tax, which is applied to imported and domestically sourced goods and services identically – is not protectionist, and so could escape retaliation from the US.

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Caught in the middle: UK firms brace for fallout from Trump’s global trade war

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While UK may not be in direct line of fire, knock-on effects on global trade has British businesses worried

“We’re vulnerable at the moment,” says Fiona Conor, the managing director of Trust Electric Heating, a Leeds-based radiator manufacturer, who has been considering expanding into the US market.

After a predictably unpredictable start to Donald Trump’s second term as US president, Conor is worried her options could be limited, as businesses across the UK brace for a global trade war.

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Starmer ‘not telling truth’ over Gaza family asylum decision, claims Badenoch, after PMQs clash – as it happened

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Opposition leader says PM was wrong when he said that the decision was taken under the last government

After PMQs there will be an urgent question in the Commons, tabled by the Lib Dem MP Christine Jardine, on “the potential security implications of the involvement of Chinese companies including Mingyang in energy infrastructure projects”. After that Dan Jarvis, the security minister, will make a statement to mark the publication of the report into Prevent’s dealings with Ali Harbi Ali, the man who killed the Conservative MP David Amess.

Sir Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan police commissioner, has blamed Home Office foot-dragging for a failure to change the rules to allow forces to sack officers who fail vetting procedures, Matthew Weaver reports.

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Australia ‘killing’ US manufacturing with aluminium imports, Trump’s trade adviser says

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Peter Navarro’s comments to US media, which follow president’s 25% tariff announcement, were shared on an official Trump administration account on X

Donald Trump’s trade adviser claims Australia is “crushing” and “killing” America’s manufacturing sector with its imports of aluminium, as the Albanese government scrambles to try to secure exemptions to the president’s 25% tariffs on metal.

Anthony Albanese said he was still hopeful the local steel and aluminium industry could be spared from the tariff regime, even after escalating comments from the Trump administration criticising current trade arrangements with allies, including Australia.

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Assisted dying bill has lost Commons majority now high court signoff abandoned, says MP – UK politics live

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Danny Kruger says those who backed the bill did so under false premise after change to safeguards announced

There will be two urgent questions after 12.30pm: on the Clonoe inquest, which found that the SAS acted unlawfully when they killed four IRA terrorists in an ambush in 1992; and then another on the US steel tariffs.

A Northern Ireland Office minister will respond to the first, and a business minister will respond to the second.

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Canada, Mexico and EU criticise Trump’s metal tariffs amid fears of trade war

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Ursula von der Leyen says tariffs ‘will not go unanswered’ as Justin Trudeau says Canadians will ‘stand up if we need to’

Canada, Mexico and the EU have sharply criticised Donald Trump’s decision to impose 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminium imports to the US, amid mounting fears of a global trade war.

The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said on Tuesday she “deeply regretted” the US president’s move, announced late on Monday, adding: “Unjustified tariffs on the EU will not go unanswered.”

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Trump announces 25% tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum

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Modified US duties will be enforced ‘without exceptions’, said president, in controversial bid to boost economy

Donald Trump announced 25% tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum on Monday, ramping up his controversial bid to boost the US economy by hiking taxes on imports from overseas.

The modified US duties will be enforced “without exceptions or exemptions”, the president declared, dashing the hopes of countries that hoped to avoid them.

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Asian stock markets mixed after Trump tariffs announcement while gold reaches record high

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Analysts say measures so far have been less than feared but traders still cautious as uncertainty about US policy ‘has basically exploded’

Asian markets were mixed on Tuesday as traders kept a nervous eye on Donald Trump’s next moves after he signed off on 25% tariffs for steel and aluminium imports, having warned of more measures to come.

The president has lived up to his campaign pledges to resume his hardball trade diplomacy to extract concessions on a range of issues, including commerce, immigration and drug trafficking.

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Second Labour MP suspended by Labour amid offensive messages on WhatsApp group – UK politics live

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Burnley’s Oliver Ryan suspended as details emerge about Trigger Me Timbers group

Downing Street has announced a mini-reshuffle following the sacking of Andrew Gwynne as a health minister over the weekend.

Ashley Dalton is replacing Gwynne as a health minister. Dalton was a backbencher.

Forcing those whose asylum applications have been rejected or who have overstayed their visas on to planes has never been the most effective way to return people and never will be. Being punitive just scares people into hiding. They lose contact with the authorities, living a life on the margins.

Voluntary returns are far more effective, and the government should know this because it was the last Labour administration that commissioned independent agencies to run a voluntary programme that saw numbers increase. Building trust with refugee and migrant communities and treating people with dignity and humanity was far more successful than an enforcement approach.

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EU says it will retaliate immediately if Trump imposes new tariffs

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Bloc’s leaders also pledge to protect EU interests after US president announces escalation in aggressive trade policy

Europe will not hesitate to retaliate if Donald Trump imposes any new tariffs, the European Commission and EU national leaders have said, after the US president announced another escalation of his aggressive trade policy at the weekend.

Trump said he would announce on Monday 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminium imports that would affect “everybody”, adding that reciprocal tariffs on all countries that tax imports from the US would follow on Tuesday or Wednesday.

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Trump to announce 25% aluminum and steel tariffs in latest trade escalation

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US president accused of ‘shifting goalposts’ by premier of Ontario for adding further tariffs on top of existing metal duties

Donald Trump has said he will announce new 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports into the US on Monday that would affect “everybody’, including its largest trading partners Canada and Mexico, in another major escalation of his trade policy overhaul.

The US president, speaking to reporters on Air Force One on Sunday, also said he would announce reciprocal tariffs – raising US tariff rates to match those of trading partners – on Tuesday or Wednesday, which would take effect “almost immediately”. “And very simply, it’s, if they charge us, we charge them,” Trump said of the reciprocal tariff plan.

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Britain’s system for controlling arms exports is broken, former diplomat claims

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Ex-Foreign Office official says he saw conduct that ‘crossed the threshold into complicity with war crimes’

Britain’s system for controlling arms exports is broken, subject to political manipulation and has seen conduct that crossed the threshold into complicity with war crimes, a former UK diplomat has claimed.

Writing for the Guardian, Mark Smith, who resigned from the Foreign Office in August, said officials were instructed to manipulate findings on the misuse of UK arms by allies, and if they did not do so, their reports were edited by senior colleagues to give the impression that the UK was in compliance with the law.

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Trudeau says Trump is serious about wanting to annex Canada

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Prime minister says US president covets northern neighbour’s vast resources as Canadians rally against threat

Donald Trump’s recent fixation on absorbing Canada is “a real thing”, Justin Trudeau has told business leaders, warning that the US president wants access to his northern neighbour’s vast supply of critical minerals.

The outgoing prime minister was in Toronto for a hastily called summit of business and labour leaders, seeking to coordinate a response Trump’s looming threat of a 25% tariff on all Canadian imports.

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Trump delays key piece of China tariff plan amid threats to other countries

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President halts plan to put tariffs on low-value packages but says he will impose duties on more countries next week

Donald Trump halted a key part of his tariff attack on China on Friday, as he threatened to impose new US duties on goods from many more countries next week.

Plans to ensure shipments from China to the US worth less than $800 still face tariffs – removing the longstanding duty-free status of low-cast packages – have been delayed to give more time to federal agencies to prepare for the change.

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Bank of England cuts interest rates to 4.5% and halves UK growth forecast

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Latest quarter-point reduction comes with warning households face inflation of 3.7% by autumn

The Bank of England has cut interest rates to 4.5%, as it halved its UK growth forecasts for the year and warned households would face renewed pressure from rising prices.

With the government under fire over the sluggish economy, the Bank’s monetary policy committee (MPC) voted by a majority of seven to two to reduce its key base rate, down from 4.75%, to provide some financial relief to borrowers.

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