US and China on collision course for all-out trade war as tariffs hit

Beijing vows to 'fight to the end' as Washington sounds note of defiance

- Callum Jones Washington Rowena Mason Jennifer Rankin Brussels

The US and China are on collision course for an all-out trade war, with Beijing warning it would "fight to the end" in the face of sweeping global tariffs due to be imposed by Donald Trump today.

The White House said it would press ahead with a total 104% tariff on US imports from China from 12.01am Washington time today after Beijing refused to lift its threat of retaliatory tariffs on US goods by the deadline set by Trump.

"President Trump has a spine of steel and he will not break," said the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt. "And America will not break under his leadership."

While the US hit China with the biggest tariffs, it is also hitting dozens of other trading partners with a range of levies, including 10% on imports from the UK, 20% from the EU, 26% on India and 49% on Cambodia.

In the UK, Rachel Reeves tried to calm stock market jitters after a three-day sell-off across global markets that eased yesterday. The chancellor told parliament she had spoken to the Bank of England governor, Andrew Bailey, and that "markets are functioning effectively and that our banking system is resilient".

Reeves said that a trade war was "in nobody's interest" and confirmed that the UK was seeking to negotiate a new deal with the US.

Stock markets in Asia and Europe staged a partial recovery yesterday. The Nikkei 225 rallied 6% in Tokyo while the FTSE 100 closed up 2.7% and stock markets in Germany and France both ended the day up 2.5%.

By early afternoon on Wall Street, the S&P 500 was roughly flat.