Sir Keir Starmer has warned the challenge posed by Donald Trump’s tariffs has “not gone away” despite the president announcing a 90-day pause on the higher rates.
Stock markets rallied after Mr Trump made the surprise decision to pause most of his tariffs for 90 days, leaving in place 10% default tariffs for almost all countries, including the UK.
The president has indicated the timeframe will be used to strike deals with trading partners and claims around 75 countries have asked the White House for talks.
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Speaking to reporters in Cambridgeshire, the prime minister said that while he was “very pleased” to see many of the tariffs paused, he did not think the global trade war that had been triggered was simply a “passing phase”.
“I’m very pleased to see the changes in relation to the tariffs,” he said.
“But the challenge hasn’t gone away, and I don’t think this is a passing phase. I think we’re living in a changing world.”
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Sir Keir also suggested that any potential trade deal the UK reaches with the US may not be enough to spare the country from levies.
Asked whether the pause made him more confident that a deal with the US could be done to get rid of the blanket tariffs, Sir Keir replied: “Well our teams are talking and we’ve got good relations.
“We are calm and pragmatic, the US is our closest partner on defence and security, intelligence and of course huge amounts of trade.
“But I’m clear in my own mind that that on its own will not alleviate the challenges – it’s bigger than that and that’s why we’ve got to step up and turbocharge our economy.”
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The main exception to the tariff climbdown is China, which is facing 125% tariffs after Beijing retaliated to Mr Trump’s threat with an 84% levy of its own on US goods.
Canada and Mexico will also remain subject to 25% fentanyl-related tariffs, while the pause does not apply to the 25% tariffs Mr Trump imposed on steel and aluminium in March and on cars on 3 April.
Mt Trump’s decision to halt tariffs has led to increased market confidence in Asia and Europe, where markets were up on Thursday morning.
However, all three of Wall Street’s main stock indexes bucked the trend by opening down.
