Trump tariffs updates: Protests in US, China angry at ‘weaponised’ levies

Thank you for joining our live coverage.

You can read our news story about the baseline tariffs coming into force here.

And there’s plenty more here.

We’ll be closing this live page soon so let’s bring you up to speed with today’s main developments:

• Thousands of people are gathering in cities across the US to take part in protests against Trump and Musk.
• The leaders of the UK and France have said nothing should be “off the table” when it comes to a response to the tariffs announced by Trump.
• Jaguar Land Rover Automotive says it is pausing car shipments to the US this month to mitigate the effect of a 25-percent tax on vehicle imports.
• Trump tells people in the US to “hang tough” as he admits his trade war “won’t be easy”.
• The Chinese Foreign Ministry says the US should “stop using tariffs as a weapon to suppress China’s economy and trade”.

Thousands of people are gathering here in protest not just against Donald Trump but also against Elon Musk, who is the head of the Department of Government Efficiency.

There had been anger before, but after the new tariffs introduced by Trump and a tanking stock market, that anger is mounting.

This is one of the biggest demonstrations we’ve seen since Donald Trump began his second term and it’s perhaps indicative of the rising anger within the American people – not only at the slashing of the federal workforce and the loss of jobs but now the loss of retirement accounts.

There are many gatherings around the United States but at this particular one in Washington, DC, taking a look at the crowd one can see a very interesting demographic.

At past protests, one would normally see younger people, the angrier people – here there is no such demographic. Here are the middle-aged, there are the elderly; very clearly there has been some chord struck among the American people and perhaps it directly has to do with the effect on their savings, with what has happened in just the past two days.

So there is anger rising, and there is a spontaneity rising.

Over the past month, hundreds of international students in the US have either been detained, deported, or stripped of their visas for protesting against Israel’s war on Gaza.

The Trump administration’s crackdown is being described as an assault on political dissent – one that has been enabled by mainstream news outlets and pro-Zionist pressure groups.

In its latest episode, Al Jazeera’s The Listening Post delves into who gets to speak in Trump’s America – watch it below:

A Downing Street statement says British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron have held a conversation about the tariffs.

“They agreed that a trade war was in nobody’s interests, but nothing should be off the table,” the statement said.

“The prime minister and president also shared their concerns about the global economic and security impact, particularly in Southeast Asia,” it added, noting that the two leaders agreed to stay in close contact over the coming weeks.

Shigeru Ishiba plans to hold a telephone call next week with Trump on tariffs.

The Japanese prime minister made the comment while speaking on a television programme, according to Jiji Press.

Earlier, Ishiba had called for a “calm-headed” approach after Trump slapped 24-percent tariffs on goods made in Japan, one of the US’s top trading partners.

A plunge in banking shares on Friday set Tokyo’s stock market on course for its worst week in years.

Demonstrators have begun gathering on the National Mall in Washington, DC and other cities across the US to protest against Trump’s policies.

A loose coalition of dozens of left-leaning groups like MoveOn and Women’s March organised “Hands Off” events in more than 1,000 towns and cities and in every congressional district, according to the groups.

“Trump, Musk, and their billionaire cronies are orchestrating an all-out assault on our government, our economy, and our basic rights – enabled by Congress every step of the way,” the group Indivisible said on its website.

Prominent Democrats, including Representative Jamie Raskin are set to address the crowd on the National Mall, just blocks from the White House.

Separately, a March for Palestine has been scheduled in Washington, DC around the same time.

As we reported earlier, anti-Trump and Musk protests are expected to take place across the US later today.

In Germany’s capital, Berlin, hundreds of people have also gathered at a Tesla showroom in the latest protest against Musk, who in recent weeks has repeatedly promoted the far-right Alternative for Germany party.

“Elon Musk must no longer be allowed to undermine democratic structures unhindered,” said Caro Weber from Turn Off the Tap on Tesla.

Berlin police said they had taken action against one protester who was holding a banner with photos of Musk performing a gesture similar to the Nazi salute, which a spokesperson from the police said was under investigation for whether it constituted a criminal offence.

Last week, an overnight fire at a Tesla dealership in Italy’s capital, Rome, destroyed 17 cars.

We now have confirmation from the UK maker of Jaguar and Land Rover cars that it is pausing shipments to the US as it works to mitigate the effect of a 25 percent tax on vehicle imports imposed by the Trump administration.

“The USA is an important market for JLR’s luxury brands,” Jaguar Land Rover Automotive said in a statement.

“As we work to address the new trading terms with our business partners, we are taking some short-term actions including a shipment pause in April, as we develop our mid-to-longer term plans.”

Let’s bring you up to speed.

• US President Donald Trump’s 10 percent “baseline” tariffs on many countries have come into effect.
• The Chinese government, which has announced retaliatory levies, has called on the US to stop using tariffs as a “weapon to suppress China’s economy and trade”.
• Trump tells people in the US to “hang tough”, says trade war “won’t be easy”.
• Republicans in the US Senate have passed a budget framework to extend trillions of dollars’ worth of tax cuts and sharply reduce government spending.
• Trump has once again extended the 75-day deadline for TikTok’s owners to sell the company to non-Chinese buyers or be banned in the US.

China’s biggest imports from the US are soybeans, oilseeds and grains, which in 2024 amounted to $13.4bn, according to US trade data.

Other top imports include various fuels amounting to $14.7bn of electrical machinery and $15.3bn worth of agricultural machinery.

In 2024, China imported $29.25bn worth of US agricultural products in 2024.

According to US Census Bureau data, China accounts for about a quarter of US cotton shipments in value, with shipments valued at $1.49bn in 2024, down from $1.57bn in 2023.

Financial Secretary Paul Chan has said Hong Kong will not impose separate countermeasures following China’s retaliation to Trump’s announcement.

Speaking to public broadcaster RTHK, Chan cited the need for the region to remain “free and open”.

“Allowing a free flow of capital and acting as a freeport are our advantages, and this will not change,” he said.

“The rules-based multilateral trading system is our core,” Chan added, stressing that Hong Kong strongly opposed Trump’s actions.

In a new post on Truth Social, Trump claims China has been hit “harder than the USA, not even close” in an apparent signal to the retaliatory 34 percent tariffs on the US.

“They, and many other nations, have treated us unsustainably badly. We have been the dumb and helpless “whipping post,” but not any longer. We are bringing back jobs and businesses like never before,” the US president wrote.

“Already, more than FIVE TRILLION DOLLARS OF INVESTMENT, and rising fast! THIS IS AN ECONOMIC REVOLUTION, AND WE WILL WIN. HANG TOUGH, it won’t be easy, but the end result will be historic. We will, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!,” he added.

Global stock markets have been in freefall since Trump announced sweeping new tariffs on Wednesday, as warnings of a looming recession grow.

Isabel Schnabel, who sits on the European Central Bank’s (ECB) executive board, has said the institution will look closely in the coming weeks at the implications for euro zone growth and inflation of the US tariffs.

Speaking at an economic forum in northern Italy, Schnabel said recent events had caused “a dramatic surge in uncertainty” which may be only the beginning.

“Some people had the view that ‘Liberation Day’ could be the day of peak uncertainty, but I’m not entirely sure that is the case,” she said, referring to the term Trump gave to his tariff announcements on Wednesday.

Schnabel also dismissed the US president’s claim that the EU had been formed to “screw” the US.

“Of course the EU was not born to screw the United States, but it was born to make Europe thrive,” she said.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry says the government has taken and will continue to take measures to safeguard China’s sovereignty, security and development interests in light of the US tariffs.

The ministry said the US should “stop using tariffs as a weapon to suppress China’s economy and trade, and stop undermining the legitimate development rights of the Chinese people”.

The comments come after China announced extra levies of 34 percent on all US goods and export curbs on some rare earths, in retaliation for Trump introducing an additional 34 percent tariff on Chinese goods on Wednesday that brought the total duties on China this year to 54 percent.

From fruits and vegetables to clothes, shoppers in the US rely on many goods produced abroad – and the tariffs that were slapped by Trump tax the imports from nearly all of the country’s trading partners.

The timing of when prices will go up depends on inventory, according to Josh Stillwagon, an associate professor and chair of economics at Babson College. Much of that will also depend on how businesses prepare and respond to the new levies. While companies may have stocked up on goods in anticipation of these tariffs, he told AP he expects some stores to see more immediate price increases.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said on Thursday Trump’s new tariffs could apply to eggs being imported from countries such as Turkiye, Brazil and South Korea to ease a supply shortage, a move that industry experts said could boost prices just as they have started to decline from record highs.

If levies are imposed on eggs, manufacturers that import them for processing into food products would either need to absorb the cost or pass it on to consumers, said Greg Tyler, CEO of the USA Poultry & Egg Export Council industry group. “You will see increases in processed egg prices here in the United States as a result,” he said.

Rerouting supply chains to reemphasise domestic production is also very complex – and could take years. Stillwagon said there are some products, like bananas and coffee, that the US simply can’t substitute to the same scale of production other countries provide. And even for goods that can be made in the US, there will still likely be inflation.

“A real worry here is that this won’t just be a one-time price jump,” he added.