Trump tariffs live: President dismisses tariff pause as Netanyahu vows to ‘eliminate’ US trade barriers

Sir Keir Starmer has spoken to his Singaporean counterpart Lawrence Wong about the global impact of Donald Trump’s tariffs and agreed that there can be no winners in trade wars, Downing Street has said.

“They both agreed that it is vital likeminded partners work together to maintain global economic stability,” a No 10 spokesperson said.

US Senate Majority Leader John Thune has indicated that his chamber was unlikely to impede the implementation of Donald Trump’s global tariffs.

“I expected some turbulence in the stock market, I think everybody did. This was a change in policy, a consequential one, but I think we got to let it play out and see what ultimately happens not only in the near term, but in the long term,” Mr Thune told reporters on Monday.

Acknowledging that “everybody is concerned” about the US stock market, the top Republican said nonetheless a bipartisan bill in the Senate to require congressional approval for new tariffs has no future – after Mr president said he would veto the bill.

“The president has indicated he would veto it. I don’t see how they get it on the floor in the House. We are going to wait and see what is going to happen next,” Mr Thune said. The US Constitution granted Congress trade authority but over time the legislature has passed this power to the executive branch.

Seven Republican senators including Grassley have signed on as co-sponsors of the bill.

The S&P 500 and Dow Jones both closed lower on Monday after a rollercoaster session of trading.

Early on Monday, all three major US stock indexes touched their lowest levels in more than a year, and the CBOE Volatility index – Wall Street’s fear gauge – breached 60 points, hitting its highest level since August 2024.

According to preliminary data, the S&P 500 was down 0.28 per cent at the close of trading on Monday, while the Nasdaq Composite actually gained 0.09 per cent, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.93.

Sir Keir Starmer pledged to “shelter British business from the storm” on Monday, as he called for “cool heads” to prevail.

Speaking at a Jaguar Land Rover plant in the West Midlands, the prime minister said: “These are challenging times, but we have chosen to come here because we are going to back you to the hilt.”

“This is a moment for cool heads, nobody wins from a trade war, you know that. But it’s also a moment for urgency, because we’ve got to rise together as a nation to the great challenge of our age – and it is the great challenge – which is to renew Britain so we’re secure in this era of global instability,” he said.

Sir Keir said “this is not a passing phase” and it was a “completely new world”, with the economic turbulence hot on the heels of defence and security instability triggered by the war in Ukraine.

Donald Trump has stated his belief that the European Union was formed to “do damage” to the United States.

Asked if the EU’s ‘zero for zero’ position on tariffs was enough, Trump said: “Well, the EU, no, it’s not. The EU has been very tough over the years.

“It was, I always say it was formed to really do damage to the United States in trade. That’s the reason it was formed. It was formed with all of the countries from Europe, I guess most of them, not all, but most of them.

“And they formed together to create a little bit of a monopoly situation, to create a unified force against the United States for trade.”

The US will not be pausing tariffs, Donald Trump has said, confirming that they are “not looking at that”.

The president says many countries have been negotiating with Washington and they will try and make “fair deals” with each of them.

He also said the US “has been ripped off by many countries over the years”.

“We can’t do it anymore. We can’t be the stupid people anymore,” he added.

Benjamin Netanyahu has praised Trump as a true “friend of Israel” in a joint press conference following his last minute trip to Washington.

Despite the U.S. being Israel’s closest ally, they have not escaped the president’s tariffs and have been landed with a shock 17 per cent tariff on Israeli imports.

Moving on to tariffs, Netanyahu said: “We will eliminate the trade deficit with the US… We will do it very quickly and we will eliminate trade barriers.”

“We intend to do it very quickly and we think it is the right thing to do,” he says.

He adds: “Israel can serve as a model for many countries” – dozens are seeking trade deals with the US to avoid the worst effects of Trump’s tariffs.

The UK is not being “passive” in response to Donald Trump’s tariffs, Sir Keir Starmer’s business secretary has insisted.

Put to him that the government had not stepped up at all, only announcing tweaks to the zero emissions vehicle mandate, Jonathan Reynolds told BBC Radio 4’s PM: “No, I think that is completely incorrect. We’ve leveraged the difficult situation with the US to advance all of those talks.

“Obviously, these deals are never … you can’t announce them until they’re done. You don’t give a running commentary on the progress of them, but that’s been a key part of that.”

He added: “I’m always keen to stress that when I talk about the need for calm, for level heads. That is not a passive response.

“There’s a huge amount going on, whether that’s on trade defence, on domestic competitiveness, on our negotiations with other countries, but that is the right response. Calmness in the face of what we’re seeing isn’t being passive, it is actually doing the right thing in our national interest to make sure we can respond to this difficult situation.”

Mr Reynolds earlier told the programme: “It is, and has been an exceptionally challenging day. A lot of people at home listening will be concerned, whether they are an individual, a business, or someone with investments, or just worried about the impact on the economy as a whole. I think our job, what we can control in the UK is how we respond to this, how we navigate our way through it.”

Financial markets across the globe posted a third day of losses, as the European Commission proposed counter-tariffs of 25 per cent on a range of U.S. goods, including soybeans, nuts and sausages.

Officials said they stood ready to negotiate a “zero for zero” deal with Trump’s administration. “Sooner or later, we will sit at the negotiation table with the U.S. and find a mutually acceptable compromise,” EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic said at a news conference.

The 27-member bloc is struggling with tariffs on autos and metals already in place, and faces a 20 per cent tariff on other products on Wednesday. Trump has also threatened to slap tariffs on EU alcoholic drinks.

The back-and-forth injected further turbulence into global financial markets, which have fallen steadily since Trump’s announcement.