Thanks for following along tonight as we brought you the latest on Donald Trump’s trade war with Canada.
It all kicked up a gear this afternoon when the US president used Truth Social (where else?) to announce he would double tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminium to 50% from tomorrow.
Stock markets roiled and incoming Canadian prime minister Mark Carney hit back, raising fears of further instability.
But since then we’ve had hints from Trump that he might not double the tariffs after all – and the head of a Canadian province that had imposed an electricity surcharge on exports to the US said “cooler heads need to prevail” as he suspended the fee.
US stocks have even regained some ground in the past hour as investors were encouraged by Ukraine’s agreement to a 30-day ceasefire with Russia.
However, Trump’s blanket 25% tariffs on all steel imports into the US are still set to come into force overnight.
The UK had been hoping it might be exempted, but our US correspondent Mark Stone is hearing that’s not the case.
But while the EU has said it will reciprocate, possibly with tariffs on American products like Harley-Davidson motorbikes, the UK will not.
“They are choosing a different path, not to antagonise Trump,” Stone says.
The hope is that down the line, this approach may see Trump opt to lift tariffs on the UK.
We’ll be back with updates on Trump’s tariffs in the morning – in the meantime you can read our full story here:
