Trump tariffs live updates: FTSE opens sharply down after Asian markets plummet over trade fears

China has accused the US of unilateralism, protectionism and economic bullying over tariffs.

China’s CSI300 blue-chip index fell more than 5 per cent on Monday morning with selling in nearly every sector, while China’s yuan slipped to its lowest value since January and bonds rallied sharply.

Beijing is facing a combined 54 per cent tariffs on US exports, and announced retaliatory measures on Friday – which was a public holiday.

China’s foreign ministry has warned Donal Trump that “threats and pressure are not the right way to deal with China”.

It also said on Monday that the US president’s sweeping tariffs only serve his country’s “own interest at the expense of other countries”.

Spanish Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo said on Monday he would push the European Union to approve aid for industries hit by US tariffs at a meeting of EU finance ministers to be held that day.

Spain on Thursday was one of the few major economies to offer up a concrete solution to help weather the impact of new US tariffs, offering its companies a financial package of loans and direct aid worth €14.1 billion ($15.54 billion).

European Union countries will seek to present a united front against US President Donald Trump’s tariffs, likely approving a first set of targeted countermeasures on up to $28 billion of U.S. imports.

The 27-nation bloc faces 25 per cent import tariffs on steel and aluminium and cars and “reciprocal” tariffs of 20 per cent from Wednesday for almost all other goods.

Mr Cuerpo also said the EU ministers will discuss a list of products to be submitted to retaliatory tariffs in response to the ones on steel, aluminium and cars.

Ireland’s trade minister has said he believes there is a strong consensus among European Union countries for a “calm, measured” response to US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and that US digital services will not be targeted at this point.

“I’ve spoken to most of my European counterparts… and my strong sense now is that the majority view by some distance is to take a calm, measured response and to try and get the US to the table,” Simon Harris told Newstalk Radio on Monday.

Targeting digital services is “highly unlikely at this stage,” he said.

Donald Trump’s imposition of global tariffs means the UK Government has had to look at its electric vehicle plans with “renewed urgency”, the transport secretary has said.

Asked to what extent the package of changes announced on Monday has been influenced by the US president’s trade policy, Heidi Alexander told LBC: “So, the consultation on the zero-emission vehicles mandate started on Christmas Eve, and it closed in the middle of February, and so we were always planning to bring forward our response in April as a Government.

“Obviously what happened last week with the imposition of global tariffs by the US administration has meant that we have looked at this with renewed urgency in the last week, because, if you think about businesses like Jaguar Land Rover, their business planning has really been thrown up into the air given the amount of cars they export to the US.

“Because the car manufacturers have been saying to us ‘We need certainty on this’, it’s really important that we come forward with a sensible package urgently, which is what we are doing today, so that we can take that part of uncertainty away from their planning because we recognise it is a challenging time for a lot of businesses at the moment.”

Germany’s Dax share index has plunged more than 7 per cent in morning trading.

German shares dropped 7.25 half an hour into trading on Monday morning.

Billionaire fund manager Bill Ackman, who endorsed Trump’s run for president, called for the tariffs to be paused to avert an “economic nuclear winter”.

“The president is losing the confidence of business leaders around the globe,” he added.

The FTSE 100 continues to drop – now plummeting more than 3 per cent.

Just five minutes after opening on Monday morning, the UK’s benchmark had already plunged 3.15 per cent.