Tariffs live: Trump makes major China tariffs concession as US-UK trade deal ‘only days away’

In an interview with ABC’s This Week, US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick has said that smartphones, computers and some other electronics including semiconductors will come under separate tariffs.

Mr Lutnick said these separate tariffs may be imposed in a month or so.

Wall Street and industry analysts have warned of massive global implications for the car manufacturing industry if Donald Trump’s 25 per cent import tariffs remain in place, with vehicle sales plummeting by millions as prices for both new and used cars surge, according to reporting by NBC News.

In the US alone, car manufacturers could see costs increase by $107.7bn, according to the Michigan-based think tank, the Centre for Automotive Research. That figure includes $41.9bn for the big three US firms – General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis, the parent company of Chrysler.

These reports take into account both the 25 percent tariff on imported vehicles that went into effect 10 days ago, and the forthcoming 25 percent tariff on auto parts that begins on 3 May.

Oliver O’Connell reports from New York:

China has said it is evaluating the impact of Donald Trump’s decision to exclude phones, laptops and other electronics from his global tariffs.

In a statement on Sunday, China’s commerce ministry called the move a “small step by US to correct its wrong practice of unilateral ‘reciprocal tariffs’.”

“The bell on a tiger’s neck can only be untied by the person who tied it,” the ministry said, urging the US to make a major step in correcting what it called its wrongdoing and cancelling the tariffs completely.

Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds has said he is “closely engaged” with Washington on securing a trade deal to avert Donald Trump’s so-called “reciprocal” tariffs.

Asked when he expects to secure a UK-US trade deal, Mr Reynolds told Sky News: “Look I can’t give a timeline on that. We remain closely engaged. I had an exchange with my counterpart ambassador [Jamieson] Greer – I woke up to a message this morning from him. We remain engaged around that.

“The president himself, clearly, is the driving force and the decision-maker, as you would expect on the US side. I welcome the pause in the wider tariffs, we did receive a preferential position”.

But he insisted: “I am never going to be satisfied when there are barriers to trade between ourselves and the US, as I would do with any other key market. And I believe there is a way through.

“The next step is they are going to come back to us on some of the proposals we have put [forward].”

Former Labour frontbencher Harriet Harman has warned that Sir Keir Starmer’s government appears to have a “restricted vocabulary” preventing ministers from speaking out against Donald Trump’s trade tariffs.

Speaking on Sky News’s Electoral Dysfunction podcast, Baroness Harman said: “They don’t seem to be able to be telling the country what I think the country needs to hear them saying, which is that what Trump is doing is a bad thing.

“They need to show that judgement about: it’s not okay for somebody in the largest economy in the world to wreak havoc, not only on their own country, but on our country and the rest of the global economy.

Baroness Harman pointed to the example of when the US put steel tariffs on the UK during the previous Labour government, recalling – in her words – Tony Blair as saying that such a move was “unacceptable” and that George “Bush has got it wrong”.

She continued: “It feels as if there’s a kind of restricted vocabulary amongst ministers at the moment, where they are speaking in code – ‘this is not where we want to be, we don’t want to see a trade war, we’re for open markets’ – but they’re not able to say about the elephant in the room, which is that Trump is wrong on this, we don’t agree with him.

“The other thing I think they should be doing is, they should be being more positive and giving more reassurance.”

Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds has insisted that looser food standards remain off the table in talks for a UK-US trade deal, which he said would breach Labour’s promises during the general election campaign.

“We will never change our SPS (sanitary and phytosanitary) food standards. We’ve made that perfectly clear to the United States,” he told Sky News.

China has put civilian government officials in Beijing on “wartime footing” and ordered a diplomatic charm offensive aimed at encouraging other countries to push back against Donald Trump’s tariffs, four people familiar with the matter have told Reuters.

Communist Party propaganda officials have played a leading role in framing China’s response, one of the people said, with government spokespeople posting defiant clips on social media featuring former leader Mao Zedong saying “we will never yield”.

As part of the “wartime” posture, officials in China’s foreign affairs and commerce ministries have been ordered to cancel holiday plans and keep their mobile phones switched on around the clock, two of the sources said. US-facing departments have also been beefed up, including with officials who worked on China’s response to Mr Trump’s first term, they said.

The onus is now on the Trump administration to show that it can quickly conclude trade negotiations with Washington’s trading partners within the US president’s 90-day timeframe, a former US trade negotiator has said.

“Teeing up these decisions is going to take some serious negotiations,” Wendy Cutler, a former US Trade Representative chief negotiator, told Reuters. “There’s no way during this timeframe we’re doing a comprehensive agreement with any of these countries.”

Describing this as a “huge task”, Ms Cutler said: “The onus is going to be on them to show that they can quickly conclude agreements with countries, and instil some confidence in the market and with other trading partners that there is an off-ramp here.”

Investors in WH Smith will be keen for more details on its strategy after agreeing to sell its UK high street stores and the potential impact of US tariffs when the retail firm updates the market on Wednesday on its past six months of trading.

In what will mark the first major update since the historic retailer pivoted to focus solely on its growing travel store business, selling off its estate of high street shops across the UK for around £76m, shareholders will be keen for more guidance on what the sale deal and the increased focus on travel means for its longer-term outlook.

The company is among retailers with exposure to the US market which have seen their value knocked by Donald Trump’s US tariff plans.

Analysts at Investec highlight that around 28 per cent of its sales and 30 per cent of its profits for the current financial year are expected to come from the US, which also includes Marshall Retail Group (MRG) and InMotion stores.

Investec suggests the company may see more of an impact from a “macro-economic slowdown rather than a tariff impact”, as weaker growth may affect traveller numbers.