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

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.

Darren Jones said the UK had been “treated differently to the European Union” as a result of Brexit.

Asked if the lower 10 per cent tariff imposed by the US was a “Brexit dividend”, the chief secretary to the Treasury told Sky News: “It is, there’s one. I’ve struggled to find one in the past but there is one we’ve ended up with.

“It’s good, but what we’re not going to do is pick or trade off the United States or the European Union.

“I’ve already talked about relationship with the United States, we know that’s important and works well, but so is our relationship with the European Union – on trade, on energy, but increasingly on security, and I think it’s the right strategic decision for the UK, especially in this world that’s chopping and changing around, that we have those strong bridges into the European Union and into the United States, and that’s what we’re working to deliver.”

Labour minister Darren Jones has said that globalisation as we’ve known it has come to an end following the introduction of president Donald Trump’s tariffs.

Speaking to the BBC on Sunday morning, Mr Jones said: “The world is changing. Originally on security and defence…but now in terms of global trade.

“Globalisation as we’ve known it for the last couple of decades has come to an end.”

He added that we need to invest in the UK domestic economy.

Mr Jones added that retaliatory tariffs wouldn’t be good for anyone and he didn’t want the tariff tit-for-tat to escalate.

Prices could increase and staff working hours fall as the rise in employer national insurance contributions (NICs) comes into force on Sunday, ministers have been warned.

The rate of employer NICs will go up by 1.2 percentage points from 13.8 per cet to 15 per cent, and the payments will start when an employee earns £5,000, down from the previous level of £9,100.

The tax increase comes as businesses are also dealing with an 6.7 per cent rise in the minimum wage which came into force last week.

The Conservatives have labelled the change a “jobs tax” while the boss of a hospitality industry group has said the move will have a negative impact on job creation.

Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UKHospitality, said: “The increases to employer national insurance contributions are going to hit businesses and workers right across the UK.

“The impacts will be stark, with hours for staff reduced, trading hours shortened, prices increased and, in the worst case scenario, jobs lost.

“These damaging rises not only hit cherished hospitality venues and communities but the government’s ambition to get people back into work. It needs sectors like hospitality to create the jobs to get people out of the welfare system but these tax rises will have the opposite effect on job creation.”