US president says tariffs on imported goods will come down from 145% rate but insists ‘we’re doing fine with China’

Donald Trump said during a White House news conference that high tariffs on goods from China will “come down substantially, but it won’t be zero”.

Trump’s remarks were in response to earlier comments on Tuesday by treasury secretary Scott Bessent, who said that the high tariffs were unsustainable and that he expects a “de-escalation” in the trade war between the world’s two largest economies.

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Parliament will be recalled on Saturday in a bid to save the firm’s Scunthorpe plant.

Swiss lender’s market capitalisation has been hit harder by US tariffs than Spanish rival

The president’s protectivist trade vision is deeply flawed. But he has picked up on something Democrats are missing

Trying to understand Donald Trump’s across-the-board tariffs based solely on economic theory won’t work. As the US president himself said: “Chronic trade deficits are no longer merely an economic problem, they’re a national emergency that threatens our security and our very way of life.” That may be why, as many economists have pointed out, there’s simply no good economic case for his plans.

But few commentators have understood that facts and figures aren’t the whole point of the tariffs. As always, economics is part of a broader political vision. The tariffs help Trump make his claim that a way of life is under threat and he alone can protect it.

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Ford and Stellantis are offering employee-pricing programs, while Hyundai said it would not raise prices for at least two months to ease consumer concerns.