Jaguar Land Rover has said it will “pause” shipments to the US as it works to “address the new trading terms” of Donald Trump’s tariffs.
A 25 per cent levy on all foreign cars imported into America came into force on Thursday, and a wider “baseline” 10 per cent tariff on goods imported from around the world kicked in on Saturday morning.
The move from the British car firm comes as companies are grappling with the new trade rules, and the fallout on the global stock markets.
In a statement on Saturday, a Jaguar Land Rover spokesperson said: “The USA is an important market for Jaguar Land Rover’s luxury brands.
“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.”
Trading across the world has been hammered in the aftermath of the president’s tariff announcement at the White House on Wednesday.
The FTSE 100 plummeted on Friday in its worst day of trading since the start of the pandemic, while markets on Wall Street also tumbled.
All but one stock on the FTSE 100 fell on Friday – with Rolls-Royce, banks and miners among those to suffer the sharpest losses.
Sir Keir Starmer is expected to spend the weekend taking calls from foreign leaders about the tariffs after discussions with the prime ministers of Australia and Italy on Friday in which the leaders agreed that a trade war would be “extremely damaging”.
Issuing a read-out of their separate conversations on Friday, No10 said the leaders “all agreed that an all-out trade war would be extremely damaging”.
A spokesperson said the PM “has been clear the UK’s response will be guided by the national interest” and officials will “calmly continue with our preparatory work, rather than rush to retaliate”.
“He discussed this approach with both leaders, acknowledging that while the global economic landscape has shifted this week, it has been clear for a long time that like-minded countries must maintain strong relationships and dialogue to ensure our mutual security and maintain economic stability,” the spokesperson added.
London’s top stock market index shed 419.75 points, or 4.95 per cent, to close at 8,054.98 on Friday, the biggest single-day decline since March 2020 when the index lost more than 600 points in one day.
The Dow Jones fell 5.5 per cent on Friday as China matched Trump’s tariff rate. Beijing said it would respond with its own 34 per cent tariff on imports of all US products from April 10.
Press Association – Caitlin Doherty
