Money blog: Trump car tariffs condemned around world; Tesla takes hit; UK faces big consequences (2025)

While speaking at a Paris summit for peace in Ukraine, French President Emmanuel Macron took the opportunity to address Donald Trump's tariffs.

He describes the policy as inflationary, and says he has told the US president that his proposal is not a good idea.

Macron adds that Trump has asked Europe to spend more on defence, arguing it is therefore not coherent to impose tariffs.

Asked about what Europe will do, Macron says the response will be reciprocal.

That comes after the European Commission said the EU is preparing its "calibrated" response to Trump's tariffs (see 12.55pm post).

While spokesman Olof Gill told reporters he could not disclose exact timings, he did insist the response would be "timely" and "robust".

Tariffs are a "blunt instrument" but they're a characteristic of Donald Trump's administration, a former boss of Aston Martin has said.

Andy Palmer explained that the UK has a "reasonably neutral balance of trade" with the US, and while it may not have been the original target, it is "certainly one of the victims of this policy".

"You might not think that a buyer of a Rolls-Royce would care, but they do," he says.

"A 25% hike in prices is going to be really bad, particularly for some of those smaller car makers that are very reliant on profitability coming from the US."

Asked about what he would do if he was in the boardroom, Palmer said: "If I was at Nissan as I was for many years, you'd have been talking about switching manufacturing from Mexico to the US, or at least increasing your percentage or you'd be looking to increase your US parts count into the base vehicle and perhaps then lobbying hard to get you some form of relief.

"I think for companies like Aston Martin, Bentley, Jaguar Land Rover, your first port of call is going to be one of lobby.

"Let's see if the government can find some kind of exception because we're not part of the EU and we don't have a massive balance of trade difference, that's the best chance."

Watch the interview in the video below...

By Rob Powell, political correspondent

On foreign and domestic issues, it's a busy time for the Business Secretary - as evidenced by the raft of questions directed at him during a brief appearance at a central London trade summit.

On the prospect of some sort of deal to avoid tariffs from Donald Trump, Jonathan Reynolds spoke carefully.

He said we would know "pretty soon" what the outcome of "intensive" talks with Washington will be, but sounded somewhat optimistic, saying the trading relationship with the US was "fair and balanced".

He did lean into the idea that the Digital Services Tax – a levy on big tech revenues hated by the Trump White House – could be scrapped though.

Describing it as a "temporary measure," Reynolds said it wasn't put in place as something that would never be changed.

Watch: Reynolds interrupted by protesters

Could that be put on the table as part of attempts to get a UK carve out from tariffs?

On the prospects for British Steel, the Business Secretary's tone was more downbeat.

After Sky News revealed the Chinese owner of the business had rejected a £500m offer from the government to aid the company's transition to greener production, Reynolds said the situation was "very, very challenging".

Asked if he might up the offer, the cabinet minister said talks were continuing, but that he needed to make sure it was "the right deal for the taxpayer".

He suggested he needed assurances over the viability of the business as well as a "guarantee on jobs".

That won't bring much comfort to the thousands facing potential redundancy if an agreement can't be reached.

After Donald Trump announced his latest set of tariffs, much of the discussion has focused on how countries respond.

We're now hearing that the European Union is preparing its "calibrated" response to "achieve the intended impact".

"We have this announcement on cars. Next week we understand that a new suite of measures from the US, what they're calling their reciprocal tariffs, will come into force," European Commission spokesman Olof Gill told reporters.

"We regret all of these, but we are preparing for all of these".

Gill said that while he can't disclose exact timings for Europe's response, he insisted it will be "timely" and "robust".

That comes after Trump took to Truth Social earlier this morning with a renewed threat for the EU.

"If the European Union works with Canada in order to do economic harm to the USA, large scale tariffs, far larger than currently planned, will be placed on them both in order to protect the best friend that each of those two countries has ever had!"

The UK must avoid going head-to-head with the US after Donald Trump's latest tariffs, the secretary general of the International Chamber of Commerce UK has said.

Chris Southworth explained that while the UK and US are facing similar issues, the way we deal with it should not be through tariffs.

"That's just going to make it worse," he told our presenter Darren McCaffrey on Business Live.

"The way we deal with it is actually growth plans, trade agreements, negotiations and deals so we can increase the volume of trade and that generates more revenue."

Southworth said this had to be backed "with proper economic policy at national level" to get economic benefits down to the people who desperately need it.

He also described the past 24 hours as a "perfect illustration of what we're dealing with" after Trump's tariffs were announced hours after Rachel Reeves' spring statement.

Southworth added that Trump's tariffs "demonstrate the volatility and unpredictability of the environment businesses are operating in".

Watch the full interview in the video below...

Trade barriers created by Donald Trump's tariffs should be discussed rather than creating more, BMW Group has said.

The manufacturer said the European Union and US were the world's largest trading partners, and warned a trade conflict would not have any benefits.

"Both sides should therefore promptly find a transatlantic deal that creates growth and prevents a spiral of isolation and trade barriers," it said.

BMW's Spartanburg manufacturing plant in South Carolina is its biggest plant worldwide.

The plant exported around 225,000 BMW vehicles with an export value of more than $10bn last year, making it the largest automotive exporter by value in the US.

Since 2014, the plant has exported more than 2.7m BMW vehicles, representing around two thirds of its total production - with an export value of $104bn.

Something that slipped under the radar during Donald Trump's comments last night was a possible reprieve for China - but only to push through a US deal for a social media platform.

"With respect to TikTok, and China is going to have to play a role in that, possibly in the form of an approval, maybe, and I think they'll do that," Trump told reporters last night.

"Maybe I'll give them a little reduction in tariffs or something to get it done," he added.

You might remember that Trump tried to negotiate the sale of TikTok on live TV in the early days of his presidency - here's our story from the time:

Donald Trump's latest tariff announcement has left British carmakers calling for the UK and US governments to come together and strike a deal.

But how many cars does the UK export to the US? And how many did the US import last year?

We've broken down the key numbers, starting with figures provided by the White House...

• Americans bought approximately 16m cars, SUVs and light trucks in 2024
• 50% of these were imports
• Of the 16m cars bought by Americans, only 25% can be categorised as "Made in America"
• The US trade deficit in automobile parts reached $93.5bn in 2024

And here's the car industry lobby group SMMT on the UK side of things...

• More than 779,584 cars were built in the UK in 2024
• 603,565 cars were shipped worldwide last year - 77.4% of total production
• 54% of those exports were to the European Union
• 16.9% of exports were to the US

Donald Trump has chosen to hit cars - one of the most important products made in the UK and around the world - with his latest tariffs.

But what impact could the measure have on the UK economy after Rachel Reeves' spring statement yesterday?

Our economics and data editor Ed Conway runs through charts and graphs in this video - in a word, the consequences on the UK could be "big"...