Trump expands 25% steel and aluminium tariffs globally; EU retaliates with counter-measures: Live updates

The Independent’s David Maddox and Millie Cooke report:

China’s foreign ministry said Beijing would take all necessary measures to safeguard its rights and interests.

It added if the U.S. insists on “suppressing” China, it must “resolutely counter it”.

A federal judge in Boston on Tuesday blocked the Trump administration’s plan to cut hundreds of millions of dollars for teacher training, finding that cuts are already affecting training programs aimed at addressing a nationwide teacher shortage.

U.S. District Judge Myong Joun sided with the eight states that had requested a temporary restraining order. The states argued the cuts were likely driven by efforts from President Donald Trump’s administration to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

Trump, a Republican, has said he wants to dismantle the Education Department, and his administration has already started overhauling much of its work, including cutting dozens of contracts it dismissed as “woke” and wasteful.

President Donald Trump’s increased tariffs on all U.S. steel and aluminum imports have taken effect, stepping up a campaign to reorder global trade norms that drew swift retaliation from Europe.

Trump’s action to bulk up protections for American steel and aluminum producers restores effective global tariffs of 25 per cent on all imports of the metals. This extends the duties to hundreds of downstream products made from the metals, from nuts and bolts to bulldozer blades and soda cans.

The European Commission responded almost immediately, saying it would impose counter tariffs on 26 billion euros ($28 billion) worth of U.S. goods from next month.

Close U.S. allies Canada, Britain and Australia criticised the blanket tariffs. British Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said Trump’s decision is “disappointing” and “all options” are on the table to respond in the national interest.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Europe “deeply regrets this measure”.

However, she added: “The European Union must act to protect consumers and business. The counter-measures we take today are strong but proportionate.”

The countries most affected by the tariffs are Canada, the biggest foreign supplier of steel and aluminum to the U.S., Brazil, Mexico and South Korea, which all have enjoyed some level of exemptions or quotas.

Tariffs are taxes imposed on imported goods.

The businesses that import these products must pay the tax to the government.

Usually, tariffs are calculated as a percentage of the item’s value.

Within the context of Trump’s tariffs, a 25% tariff on British steel would add $2.50 to a $10 product.

Companies may pass on some or all of these costs to consumers.

The US has traditionally imposed lower tariffs compared to other nations. However, Trump’s new tariffs—along with his pledge to introduce further “reciprocal” charges on foreign goods—could significantly raise prices for consumers in the US and worldwide.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was flat but fragile. Australia’s benchmark closed 9.6% below February’s record high.

Markets in Hong Kong and China were broadly steady, South Korea and Taiwan bounced and Japan’s Nikkei held its ground after slumping to a near six-month low a day earlier.

On Wall Street the S&P 500 had flirted with notching a 10% fall from February’s record closing high, and finished a volatile session about 0.8% lower.

President Donald Trump threatened then backed down from a doubling of steel and aluminium tariffs on Canada to 50%, after Ontario suspended plans for a surcharge on exported electricity.

The dollar has sunk, Treasuries have rallied and lately stocks have suffered their heaviest selling in months as traders worry tariffs and policy uncertainty will hurt U.S. growth.

“Where we stand now is with a heightened concern about the U.S. economy, not having yet taken our model forecast down, but having put in a roughly 40% recession risk into the outlook for the year,” J.P. Morgan chief global economist Bruce Kasman told reporters in Singapore.

“If the U.S. goes into recession, then we enter into a more complicated story, because then you have to recognise that U.S. spillovers to the rest of the world tend to be very large through financial channels.”

France’s European Affairs Minister, Benjamin Haddad, has said the European Union could go further in its response to U.S. tariffs, though a trade war was in no-one’s interest.

“We have the means to go further, if we want,” Haddad told TF1 TV.

“For example, if it came to a situation where we had to go further, digital services or intellectual property could be included,” he added.

For context, the European Commission said it will impose counter tariffs on 26 billion euros ($28.33 billion) worth of U.S. goods from next month. The commission said it will end the current suspension of tariffs on U.S. products on April 1 and will also put forward a new package of countermeasures on U.S. goods by mid-April.

Lutnick agreed to meet with Ford and the U.S. Trade Representative in Washington D.C. on Thursday to discuss a renewed United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the free trade agreement between the North American countries.

In response to the agreement, Ford agreed to suspend the increased tax on electricity.

Ariana Baio has the story:

Dave Portnoy has revealed he was offered a job in the Trump administration’s Department of Commerce, but turned it down as it meant he would have to stop running his sports, gambling and pop-culture media company.

“I got a call, I dunno, a couple of months ago… and it was like ‘Hey would you have any interest, Dave, in joining the dept of commerce… and they were like ‘but a caveat of joining the government is somebody would have to run Barstool.’”

He did not provide further details of the job he had been offered.

Nasser Karimi and Jon Gambrell write:

China, Iran and Russia conducted joint naval drills Tuesday in the Middle East, offering a show of force in a region still uneasy over Tehran‘s rapidly expanding nuclear program and as Yemen‘s Houthi rebels threaten new attacks on ships.

The joint drills, called the Maritime Security Belt 2025, took place in the Gulf of Oman near the strategic Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all crude oil traded worldwide passes. The area around the strait in the past has seen Iran seize commercial ships and launch suspected attacks in the time since President Donald Trump first unilaterally withdrew America from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers.

The drill marked the fifth year the three countries took part in the drills.