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

Donald Trump is acting like a 19th century European autocrat, a historian has suggested.

“We have a democratic leader who seems to have the authority to act as whimsically as a 19th century European autocrat,” Tim Naftali, a historian and senior research scholar at Columbia University, told the Associated Press. “He sneezes and everyone catches a cold.”

Professor Natfali added: “What the president ends up having is what he wants, which is everyone’s attention all of the time.”

Stock investors were warily watching moves across asset classes, in particular the dollar and Treasuries. An index that measures the US dollar against a basket of currencies on Friday fell below 100 for the first time in nearly two years, while the yield on the benchmark 10-year US Treasury bond was on pace for its biggest weekly jump in decades.

In many prior risk-off events, the dollar and Treasuries have acted as safe havens, but that has not been the case over the last week as stocks have tumbled, said Walter Todd, chief investment officer at Greenwood Capital in South Carolina.

“We are the reserve currency and the risk free asset of the world, and our markets are not acting as such,” Mr Todd said.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury on Friday topped 4.5 per cent, which investors have cited as a level that could cause turbulence for stocks. Higher yields translate into higher borrowing costs for consumers and businesses, while potentially making bonds more competitive investments against stocks.

“Until Treasuries stabilise and start to behave normally, risk assets will struggle,” Barclays analysts said in a note on Friday.

More than half of British adults now believe Donald Trump is not “a friend of Britain’s”, according to new polling suggesting that figure has soared 12 per cent since January.

Polling by Opinion, commissioned by The Observer, found that 34 per cent of UK voters now believe the US is more of a threat than an ally – up from just 16 per cent who held that view in November. Just 35 per cent of respondents said they currently have confidence in Washington as an ally.

That number fell even lower when talking about Mr Trump specifically, with only 16 per cent of British voters polled saying they believed he was trustworthy, against 64 per cent who did not.

Sir Keir Starmer’s government has announced it will temporary suspend the UK global tariff on 89 products in order to ease pressure on businesses in the face of Donald Trump’s global levies.

The UK global tariff – which applies to goods entering the UK that do not qualify for preferential treatment under free trade agreements – will be suspended until 2027 on a wide range of products including pasta, fruit juices, agave syrup, plant bulbs, plywood and plastics.

Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds said: “From food to furniture, this will reduce the cost of everyday items for businesses, with savings hopefully passed onto consumers.

“As we face a new era of global trade, this government is going further faster to make Britain the best country to do business, delivering on our Plan for Change. These suspensions are just another example of that.”

The stock market remains “very unsettled” as investors weigh how to price in any economic fallout from the changing tariff backdrop, Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at the firm Janney Montgomery Scott told Reuters.

The market is “kind of trapped by the level of uncertainty that lurks out there”, Luschini said. “And therefore investors are largely unwilling to make big bets in one direction or another.”

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].”