Trump Tariffes Live: Starmer insists in the UK “prepared for all the possibilities” as the fear for the commercial war grow up

The Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and his first business hall have warned today that the looming US rates would have a significant impact on the exports of the country and already in difficulty.

“It is clear that the introduction of new rates would have heavy repercussions for Italian producers,” Meloni said while hosting a award ceremony for Italian cuisine in Rome.

Meloni added that he has not excluded “adequate answers” to protect the exports of the third largest economy in the euro area, although he has not developed.

Italy has published a commercial surplus with the United States of € 39 billion ($ 42.14 billion) in 2024, the largest third in the 20 nations area, shows Eurostat data.

Last Wednesday, the Confindustria Association Business said that the Italian economy will grow by 0.6 percent this year, half of the government’s official goal and decreasing compared to the 0.9 percent forecasts made by the group in October.

The economy expanded by a modest 0.7 percent both in 2024 and in 2023.

He eliminated the growth of 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2024 compared to the previous three months, after restoring the third quarter. Most analysts do not involve any significant short -term harvest.

Confindustria said that while its forecasts incorporated US rates already announced on steel and aluminum and what they called “record levels of uncertainty” on commercial policy, did not take into account the effects of a growing commercial war.

In the worst case, with permanent US rates by 25 % on all imports, which increase 60 % for China and retaliation measures compared to US exports, Italy’s growth will drop to 0.2 percent about this year.

According to reports, Sir Keir Starmer offered large US technological companies with a serious tax concession in a last temptation to dodge the harmful rates of Donald Trump.

The prime minister is ready to reduce the rate of the tax services tax (DST) of the government in an attempt to win concessions from the president as a canvas of the global commercial war, it emerged.

According to reports, there is an agreement on the table ready to be signed, which covers areas such as artificial intelligence and other future technologies. But The guardian On Wednesday he also reported that the United Kingdom offered significant changes to the DST. According to reports, the move would see Great Britain lower the main rate of the tax, in a greater push to the main American companies such as Amazon, the Facebook Meta owner and the owner of Google Alphabet, while applying the withdrawal to companies in other countries.

Our political correspondent Archie Mitchell has more details:

The United Kingdom is not preparing a period of time to seal an agreement with the United States that hopes for the looming rates of Donald Trump, said Downing Street.

When asked about a deadline to reach an economic agreement, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “We are not putting a period of time on this”.

He said that business and industry groups asked the government to “give priority to dialogue” with the United States and not to take a “knee” reaction.

When asked about the risk of low -cost floods of goods in the UK market in the middle of a commercial war and how to protect national industries, it has indicated the “robust regime of commercial remedies” which already has measures for the steel sector.

The government will closely examine the impact on northern Ireland of any retaliation rate imposed by the EU, said the spokesperson.

Sir Keir Starmer said that the government “is carefully looking at the details of any retaliation rates announced by the EU” and how northern Ireland could be influenced, if the United States proceeds with its plans to introduce rates.

The leader of the Dup Gavin Robinson told the Municipalities that “most did not consider him in the national interest, what happens in Northern Ireland is no longer only in his control (Sir Keir)”.

He asked: “He will indicate that he is ready to take measures to exempt Northern Ireland from the EU action or take retaliation actions if they don’t do it?”

The prime minister started his answer by saying “we must be calm and pragmatic”, adding: “I think it is what workers and businesses in Northern Ireland would like to see from this government at a time like this.

“We are, as they would expect, we carefully look at the details of any retaliation rates announced by the EU if they are and what impact they could have on companies.

“As you know, where goods do not enter the EU, companies can request a complete reimbursement of any EU duties paid, but they reassure it the interests of Northern Ireland are at the forefront in our decisions.”

Sir Keir said that the commercial secretary Jonathan Reynolds spoke with the North Ireland manager on Wednesday morning.

While the world economy is preparing for the presentation of Donald Trump of a rates band, some country leaders will fear the worst after Washington has identified a list of “dirty 15” nations.

Although it did not name the countries, the Treasury Secretary Scott Besent said that the group of Nations has exchanged heavily with the United States and had high rates on US goods, as well as non -Tarifase barriers such as the rules for production of domestic content.

My colleague Alex Croft Has more details in this report:

Donald Trump’s rates will push prices for US buyers because the retailers operate on “Sottile margins of wafer”, warned the managing director of the luxury grocer Fortnum & Mason.

Tom Philon The telegraph: “In the end it will be the consumer who pays. Nobody wins in a commercial war. Everything that happens is that the prices increase and the productivity falls. I think it is really disappointing that we are in this situation.”

Athron said it was “too early to say” what the specific impact on Fortnum & Mason would be.

In his last column, our main commercial commentator James Moore He writes:

Donald Trump is characterizing it as a “day of liberation”. The rest of the world is scratching its collective head and is wondering how the most destructive commercial policy that the United States have ever taken will end – and how much they give to the global economy.

It is not yet clear how this “liberation” will work or what form it will take. Will the rates be favored by Trump 25 %? Will they land at the top of the withdrawals already imposed? How do those accused of collecting in American ports and border crossings face? Who knows or dare to ask?

The potential chaos will initially mitigated due to the protective measures adopted by the affected people. While some-specifics at Wall Street-Honse saw his victory with colored glasses, importers in the United States were much more bloody and took measures to prepare for the worst.

They trampled on the gas. The net result of this can be seen in numbers. The attempt by tr. Of course, this will relax over time and Trump will undoubtedly use the fall in the deficit when he does it to say that politics is working.

But his H-Commercio bomb will entail repercussions in the United States as much as in the rest of the world and not only by requesting American consumers to pay more for the goods they buy or hiking on the costs of US companies that import raw materials from abroad.