Trump tariffs live: China retaliates with levies against US
- China has placed counter tariffs on US imports that will come into effect on February 10 after President Donald Trump placed 10 percent levies on Chinese goods.
- Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum and Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have announced a 30-day suspension on US tariffs after an agreement was reached with Trump.
Is President Donald Trump using tariffs as a negotiating tactic?
US President Donald Trump’s tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico are on hold for a month.
But US levies on Chinese products have gone into effect – and Beijing has hit back with duties of its own.
China accuses Washington of unilateralism and has filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization.
President Trump says America has been ripped off by “every country in the world”.
So, are tariffs the answer? And at what cost?
EU seeks early US talks to avert Trump tariffs
The European Union wants to engage swiftly with the US over Trump’s planned tariffs, EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic has said, while his boss Ursula von der Leyen forecast negotiations with Washington would be tough.
Sefcovic, speaking at a meeting of EU ministers, said he wanted “early engagement” and was awaiting confirmations of the appointment of Trump’s picks for Commerce Secretary, financier Howard Lutnick, and for US Trade Representative, Jamieson Greer.
“We are ready to engage immediately and we hope that through this early engagement, we can avoid the measures which would bring a lot of disturbance to the most important trade and investment relationship on this planet,” he told reporters.
Von der Leyen, the European Commission president, said a priority was to work on areas where EU and U.S. interests converge, such as critical supply chains and emerging technologies, adding the EU was ready for tough negotiations.
“We will be open and pragmatic in how to achieve that. But we will make it equally clear that we will always protect our own interests,” she said in a speech in Brussels.
In a sign of how tough negotiations will be, Trump’s senior trade adviser Peter Navarro said Europe was sticking it to the US with its value-added tax on cars. EU countries apply VAT to sales of all cars – domestic and foreign.
EU officials say contacts with the new Trump administration have been limited, noting Trump’s picks for top jobs are not able to speak to foreign counterparts until they are confirmed. Von der Leyen and Trump have not been in touch since Trump’s inauguration.
First US military plane with detained migrants to Guantanamo Bay expected to depart today
The first US military aircraft carrying detained migrants to Guantanamo Bay is expected to depart later today, US officials have said, as President Donald Trump’s administration prepares to potentially house tens of thousands of migrants at the naval base in Cuba.
The flight to Guantanamo Bay adds to military flights that have already deported migrants to Guatemala, Peru, Honduras and India.
The announcement comes after US President Donald Trump announced last week plans to transform the detention facility into a holding centre for undocumented migrants.
Trump had campaigned for a second term on the promise of leading a “mass deportation” campaign, targeting the nearly 11 million undocumented people living in the US. Many have been in the country for decades, serving as pillars for their families and communities.
Trump tariffs would hit struggling automaker Nissan hard, analysts say
One of the biggest casualties of Donald Trump’s potential tariffs on Mexico and Canada would likely be struggling Japanese automaker Nissan, analysts say.
While it’s unclear whether the US president will follow through with tariffs he has put on hold for the next month, the blowback would be profound for Japan’s third-largest carmaker, which is struggling to turn itself around and is in talks to merge with Honda.
The US is the top market by vehicle sales for Nissan and bigger rivals Toyota and Honda. All three Japanese automakers make some of their most popular US models in either Canada or Mexico.
As such, the impact of the tariffs would be significant for all three, analysts and industry experts say. But Toyota and Honda are better prepared to ride out the tariffs – both in terms of their finances and their ability to hike prices, and pass on some of the tariff costs to consumers.
“The problem is Nissan, which is basically barely making money in the automotive business,” Reuters quoted James Hong, head of mobility research at Macquarie, as saying.
“The longer the tariff stays, I think it can be quite a big threat for Nissan. And eventually, if the merger actually goes through, then it can be a burden to Honda as well.”
Kennedy moves closer to top health job after clearing Senate panel
Donald Trump’s pick for health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, has moved closer to securing the job, winning approval from a key Republican senator and a recommendation from the Finance Committee to advance him to a full Senate vote as soon as this week.
The Republican-led committee voted 14-13 along party lines, with Democrats having accused Kennedy over two days of contentious confirmation hearings of being financially vested in the anti-vaccine movement and peddling conspiracy theories to sow doubt about lifesaving medicines – assertions Kennedy rejected.
If confirmed in the full Senate, he will run the US Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees more than $3 trillion in healthcare spending, including agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration and the agency in charge of Medicare and Medicaid health programs that provide health insurance for more than 140 million Americans.
Kennedy has faced opposition from health groups, Democrats, family members and the Wall Street Journal and New York Post editorial boards, who say he is unfit for the job because of his role in the anti-vaccine movement.
