Global tariff war: Key developments

Asked about his move to exempt smartphones, computers, and other electronics from reciprocal tariffs in order to protect consumers from sticker shock, President Donald Trump would neither confirm nor deny that his administration was preparing separate tariffs on semiconductors.

“I’ll give you that answer on Monday. We’ll be very specific on Monday,” Trump said, before reiterating: “We’re taking in a lot of money. As a country, we’re taking in a lot of money.”

Chinese users are mocking Trump’s tariffs with a viral AI-generated video showing exhausted, obese Americans forced to do manual labor in factories.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Saturday night, President Donald Trump defended his tariff strategy, insisting that his seemingly abrupt moves had put the economy in “very good shape,” with Americans allegedly getting richer than ever and inflation dropping.

“Inflation is dropping. Americans have more money, and the country has more money. You know, we’ve been making $2 or $3 billion a day the last couple of weeks,” Trump told reporters.

“And then, to be nice, I lowered the tariffs on everybody,” he claimed. Trump’s decision to backpedal effectively kept most of the tariffs at a “baseline” 10% – before further hikes even properly went into force – while most of Beijing’s imports are now subject to a 145% duty.

“We didn’t make that ever,” he said, arguing that “it’s always been the other way around. Other countries, in particular China, were making a lot of money.”

Tesla has stopped taking new orders for Model S and Model X vehicles in China, with both luxury models – produced at Tesla’s factory in the United States – no longer available for purchase on the company’s Chinese website or through its official WeChat mini-program, according to a Reuters report.

The move comes as China raised tariffs on US-made goods, including cars, to 125% on Friday, following President Donald Trump’s decision to increase duties on Chinese imports to 145%. While Tesla did not provide a reason for halting new orders, the sharp rise in tariffs would significantly increase the retail price of imported US-made vehicles in China, making them far less competitive against locally produced electric cars.

The impact on Tesla’s overall business in China is expected to be limited. The Austin, Texas-based company manufactures its best-selling Model 3 and Model Y vehicles at its Shanghai Gigafactory, both for domestic sales and for export to markets such as Europe. These models account for the vast majority of Tesla’s deliveries in China.

In 2024, China imported 1,553 Model X SUVs and 311 Model S sedans, according to Li Yanwei, an analyst at the China Auto Dealers Association. These models represented less than 0.5% of Tesla’s total sales of over 657,000 vehicles in the country last year.

German Chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz stated that Donald Trump's tariff policies raise the risk of a financial crisis and advocated for a US-European free trade agreement.

“Yes, I’m hoping for a new transatlantic free-trade accord,” Merz said in an interview with Handelsblatt newspaper published on Saturday. 

“Zero percent tariffs on everything. That would be better for both sides,” he suggested.

The UK moves to take control of British Steel, Reuters has said, adding that “a minister told an emergency parliamentary session that a full nationalisation of the UK’s last maker of virgin steel was becoming increasingly likely”.

According to the agency, British Steel was already struggling in an over-supplied global market before the rise in energy costs in recent years. New US 25% tariffs on all steel imports, effective March, dealt another blow. The country receives about 5% of British steel exports worth 400 million pounds a year.

After exempting several high-tech products from new tariffs, President Donald Trump continues to urge firms to move production to the United States, according to the White House.

“President Trump has made it clear America cannot rely on China to manufacture critical technologies such as semiconductors, chips, smartphones, and laptops” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has told CNN.

That’s why the President has secured trillions of dollars in US investments from the largest tech companies in the world, including Apple, TSMC, and Nvidia. At the direction of the President, these companies are hustling to onshore their manufacturing in the United States as soon as possible.

The yield on the 10-year US Treasury note was 4.57% as of 11 AM ET on Friday, according to Axios. Though the level is not concerning, it may be a sign of global investors rethinking their assets strategy.

During past periods of significant turmoil, such as September 2008 and the early days of the 2020 pandemic, the dollar appreciated as global investors sought safety, Axios stressed Saturday.

US president Donald Trump’s administration has exempted smartphones, computers and other electronics from its reciprocal tariffs in order to protect customers from sticker shock and to help tech behemoths like Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co.

In order to protect customers from sticker shock and to help tech behemoths like Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co., President Donald Trump's administration has exempted laptops, cellphones, and other devices from its so-called reciprocal tariffs. By removing the products from Trump’s 125% China tariff and his base 10% global tariff on almost all other nations, the exemptions, which were released by US Customs and Border Protection late Friday, reduce the reach of the levies.

The Chinese Embassy in the US posted a cartoon on X criticizing American tariffs. It was shared alongside a quote from Lin Jian, a spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry. “In the face of US hegemony and bullying, remember this: give the bully an inch, he will take a mile,” the embassy wrote, urging followers to recall Lin’s warning.