Taiwan’s president Lai Ching-te said he will offer the “greatest support” to industries impacted by the new tariffs.
Mr Lai acknowledged that Taiwan had a trade surplus with the US, but that much of it came from Taiwanese industries trying to fulfill the US demand for Taiwan’s information technology products.
“We feel that this is unreasonable and are also worried about the subsequent impact these measures may have on the global economy,” Mr Lai said in a statement on Facebook.
The president said he instructed premier Cho Jung-tai to work closely with industries that are impacted and to communicate with the public about their plans to stabilise the economy.
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar4 April 2025 06:26
Free trade advocates in the Republican Party’s old guard piled on Donald Trump as the stock market tumbled sharply downwards on Thursday in response to the White House’s tariff plan.
Wednesday’s announcement of across-the-board tariffs on nearly all countries that export goods to the US sent markets spiraling in after-hours trading, which solidified into a steep drop Thursday morning. Reuters reported that the first US job losses from import tariff hikes were taking place in Michigan and Indiana, where automaker Stellantis announced hundreds of “temporary” layoffs due to idling production facilities in Mexico and Canada.
Signs of the backlash from within conservative circles were already evident Wednesday afternoon, as a handful of GOP senators including former Majority Leader Mitch McConnell sided with Democrats to condemn the president’s trade action.
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar4 April 2025 06:19
Vietnam has reportedly asked the US to postpone the hefty 46 per cent tariff imposed by Donald Trump, which will be implemented on 9 April.
The government, which was slapped with one of the highest tariffs, claims “there is still room for discussion and negotiation” between the two sides.T
he tariffs will have a “negative impact” on Vietnam’s exports, the government said on its website.
“We believe that the decision is not in line with the reality of mutually beneficial economic and trade cooperation between the two countries,” Vietnam’s foreign ministry spokesperson Pham Thu Hang told Reuters today.
The US is Vietnam’s largest export market, and in 2021, exports to the US were valued at $142bn, nearly 30 per cent of the country’s GDP. Vietnam’s trade surplus with the US exceeded $123bn last year.
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar4 April 2025 06:03
A man walks past an electronic board showing the Nikkei 225 index on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (AFP via Getty Images)
Tokyo stock exchange (AFP via Getty Images)
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar4 April 2025 06:03
With Donald Trump’s new tariffs affecting UK exports, Keir Starmer’s government faces critical decisions.
What does this mean for Britain’s economy and post-Brexit trade? How will it impact UK-US and UK-EU relations?
Join the discussion and ask your questions here:
Athena Stavrou4 April 2025 06:00
Prime minister Shigeru Ishiba said this morning that tariffs imposed on Japanese goods by US president Donald Trump are a “national crisis”.
Japan, one of the United States’ biggest trading partners and its largest foreign investor, was hit by a 24-percent levy.
The levies “can be called a national crisis and the government is doing its best with all parties” to lessen the impact, Mr Ishiba said in parliament.
Japan’s Nikkei was down 1.85 per cent after hitting an eight-month low yesterday shortly after the tariffs were announced.
The prime minister called for a “calm-headed” approach to negotiations with Mr Trump’s administration, which has also imposed 25 per cent tariffs on auto imports.
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar4 April 2025 05:27
A conservative legal group has filed what it said was the first lawsuit seeking to block Donald Trump’s tariffs on Chinese imports, saying the US president overstepped his authority.
New Civil Liberties Alliance filed the lawsuit in Florida’s federal court, alleging that Mr Trump lacked the legal authority to impose the sweeping tariffs unveiled on Wednesday as well as duties authorised on 1 February under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.”
By invoking emergency power to impose an across-the-board tariff on imports from China that the statute does not authorize, president Trump has misused that power, usurped Congress’s right to control tariffs, and upset the Constitution’s separation of powers,” senior litigation counsel Andrew Morris said in a statement.
The group filed the lawsuit on behalf of Simplified, a Florida-based retailer of home management products.
Trump on Wednesday announced that China would be hit with a 34 per cent tariff, on top of the 20 per cent he imposed earlier this year, bringing the total new levies to 54 per cent.
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar4 April 2025 04:59
In a statement published alongside the tariff announcement, the White House said: “The UK maintains non-science-based standards that severely restrict US exports of safe, high-quality beef and poultry products.”
It suggested that Britain’s ban on chlorinated chicken was among a range of “non-tariff barriers” that limit the US’s ability to trade.
The UK has long ruled out allowing imports of chlorine-washed chicken from the US due to health concerns, with Rachel Reeves in November reiterating her opposition to any concessions on the issue.
Athena Stavrou4 April 2025 04:58
Republican US senator Chuck Grassley introduced a bill yesterday that would require congressional approval for new tariffs, the day after president Donald Trump unveiled sweeping new taxes on a vast array of imported goods.
Mr Grassley, whose home state of Iowa relies heavily on the global agricultural trade, joined Democratic senator Maria Cantwell of Washington for the “Trade Review Act of 2025”.
The bill requires Congress to sign off on new tariffs within 60 days of their imposition or automatically block their enforcement.
The move, made the day after four other Senate Republicans voted for a measure that would lift Trump’s tariffs on Canadian goods, was the latest sign of dissent among Republicans as Mr Trump’s aggressive moves fanned recessionary fears and sparked Wall Street’s worst day since 2022.
Neither Mr Grassley’s bill nor the measure that passed the Senate on Wednesday were seen as likely to become law while Mr Trump’s Republicans hold majorities in both the houses.
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar4 April 2025 04:38
Asian shares struggled to recover their heavy losses from the previous session as Japan’s Nikkei fell 1.85 per cent this morning, extending its 2.8 per cent slide from yesterday.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dipped 0.26 per cent in thin trade, with markets in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan closed for a holiday.
Overnight S&P 500 companies lost a combined $2.4 trillion in stock market value, their biggest one-day loss since the Covid-19 pandemic hit global markets on 16 March 2020, while other Wall Street indexes similarly clocked sharp falls.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index fell to an eight-month low on Friday.
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar4 April 2025 04:22
