US customs agents have begun collecting President Donald Trump’s unilateral 10 per cent tariff on all imports from many countries, with higher levies on goods from 57 larger trading partners due to start next week.

The initial 10 per cent “baseline” tariff to be paid by US importers took effect at US seaports, airports and customs warehouses on Saturday.

“This is the single biggest trade action of our lifetime,” said Kelly Ann Shaw, a trade lawyer at Hogan Lovells and former White House trade adviser during Trump’s first term.

Shaw told a Brookings Institution event on Thursday that she expected the tariffs to evolve over time as countries seek to negotiate lower rates.

“But this is huge. This is a pretty seismic and significant shift in the way that we trade with every country on earth,” she added.

Trump’s Wednesday tariff announcement shook global stock markets.

Prices for oil and commodities plunged while investors fled to the safety of government bonds.

Among the countries first hit with the 10 per cent tariff are Australia, the United Kingdom, Colombia, Argentina, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

A US Customs and Border Protection bulletin to shippers indicates no grace period for cargoes on the water at midnight on Saturday.

But a US Customs and Border Protection bulletin did provide a 51-day grace period for cargoes loaded onto vessels or planes and in transit to the US before 12.01am ET on Saturday.

These cargoes need to arrive by 12.01am ET on May 27 to avoid the 10 per cent duty.

At the same hour on Wednesday, Trump’s higher “reciprocal” tariff rates of 11 per cent to 50 per cent are due to take effect.

European Union imports will be hit with a 20 per cent tariff while Chinese goods will be hit with a 34 per cent tariff, bringing Trump’s total new levies on China to 54 per cent.

China on Saturday said “the market has spoken” in rejecting Trump’s tariffs after it hit the US with a slew of countermeasures, including extra levies of 34 per cent on all US goods and export curbs on some rare earth minerals.

“China has been hit much harder than the USA, not even close,” Trump said on Saturday on social media.

“THIS IS AN ECONOMIC REVOLUTION, AND WE WILL WIN. HANG TOUGH, it won’t be easy, but the end result will be historic.”

Shortly after posting the comment, Trump was spotted arriving at his Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, Florida, reading a New York Post article covering China’s retaliation to Trump’s tariffs and the stock market “crash”.

Some world leaders moved quickly to strike a deal with Trump to avert economic disruption while others weighed countermeasures.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to visit the White House on Monday, sources said, as unspecified goods from the country face a 17 per cent tariff under the new policy.

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba was reportedly seeking a telephone conversation with Trump.

Japan faces a 24 per cent levy.

Vietnam, which benefited from the shift of US supply chains away from China after Trump’s first-term trade war with China, will be hit with a 46 per cent tariff and agreed on Friday to discuss a deal with Trump.

The head of Taiwan’s National Security Council was in Washington DC for talks with the Trump administration that were expected to include the tariffs, a source said.

Taiwan President Lai Ching-te huddled with tech executives on Saturday to discuss how to respond to the 32 per cent duty it faces on its products.

Italian Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti warned on Saturday against the imposition of retaliatory tariffs on the United States, saying at a business forum near Milan that doing so could cause damage.

Canada and Mexico were exempt from both Trump’s latest duties because they are still subject to a 25 per cent tariff related to the US fentanyl crisis for goods that do not comply with the US-Mexico-Canada rules of origin.

Trump is excluding goods subject to separate, 25 per cent national security tariffs, including steel and aluminium, cars, trucks and car parts.

His administration also released a list of more than 1000 product categories exempted from the tariffs.

Valued at $US645 billion ($A1.1 trillion) in 2024 imports, these include crude oil, petroleum products and other energy imports, pharmaceuticals, uranium, titanium, lumber and semiconductors and copper.

Except for energy, the Trump administration is investigating several of these sectors for further national security tariffs.

Jaguar Land Rover will pause shipments of its cars made in the United Kingdom to the United States for a month, it says, as it considers how to mitigate the cost of US President Donald Trump’s 25 per cent tariff.

Jaguar Land Rover, which is owned by India’s Tata Motors, confirmed the temporary export suspension after the Times newspaper reported the plan.

“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,” JLR said in an emailed statement.

The UK’s car industry, which employs 200,000 people directly, is highly exposed to the new tariffs. 

The US is the second-biggest importer of UK-made cars after the European Union, with nearly a 20 per cent share, data from industry body SMMT shows.

Jaguar Land Rover, one of the UK’s biggest producers by volume, said in its statement that the US was an important market for its luxury brands. 

It sells 400,000 Range Rover Sports, Defenders and other models annually and exports to the US account for almost a quarter of sales.

The US 25 per cent tariff on imported cars and light trucks took effect on April 3, the day after Trump announced tariffs on other goods from countries across the globe.

The UK has said it is focused on trying to secure a trade deal with the US.

The Times said that Jaguar Land Rover is thought to have a couple of months’ supply of cars already in the US, which will not be subject to the new tariffs.

Iran’s rial currency has traded at a record low against the US dollar as the country returns to work after a long holiday, costing more than million rials per greenback as tensions between Tehran and Washington likely will push it even lower.

The exchange rate had plunged to more than million rials during the Persian New Year, Nowruz, as currency shops closed and only informal trading took place on the streets, creating additional pressure on the market. 

But as traders resumed work on Saturday, the rate fell even further to 1,043,000 to the dollar, signalling the new low appeared here to stay.

Iran’s economy has been severely affected by international sanctions, particularly after US President Donald Trump withdrew America from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers in 2018. 

At the time of the 2015 deal, which saw Iran drastically limit its enrichment and stockpiling of uranium in exchange for lifting of sanctions, the rial traded at 32,000 to the dollar.

After Trump returned to the White House in January, he restarted his “maximum pressure” campaign targeting Tehran with sanctions. 

He again went after firms trading Iranian crude oil, including those selling at a discount in China.

Trump, meanwhile, has written to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, trying to jump-start direct talks between Tehran and Washington. 

Iran has maintained it is willing for indirect talks, but such discussions under the Biden administration failed to make headway.

Trump is also continuing air strikes targeting the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, the last of Tehran’s “Axis of Resistance” able to attack Israel after Israel mauled other militant groups during its war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Economic upheavals have evaporated the public’s savings, pushing average Iranians into holding on to hard currencies, cryptocurrencies, gold, cars and other items. 

Also, Internal political pressure remains inflamed over the mandatory hijab, or headscarf, with women still ignoring the law on the streets of Tehran. 

Rumours also persist over the government potentially increasing the cost of subsidised petrol, which has sparked nationwide protests in the past.

The falling rial has put more pressure as well on Iranian reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian, whose finance minister was impeached in March – when the rate was 930,000 rials to the dollar – over the crashing currency and accusations of mismanagement.

“The market has spoken” in rejecting US President Donald Trump’s tariffs, China says, as it calls on Washington for “equal-footed consultation” after global markets’ dramatic reaction to the trade levies, which drew Chinese retaliation.

Several Chinese commerce associations in industries from health care and textiles to electronics also issued statements on Saturday calling for unity in exploring alternative markets and warning that the tariffs would worsen inflation in the US.

“The market has spoken,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said in a post on Facebook on Saturday morning. 

He also posted a picture capturing Friday’s falls on US markets.

Trump introduced additional 34 per cent tariffs on Chinese goods as part of steep levies imposed on most US trade partners, bringing the total duties on China to 54 per cent.

Trump also closed a trade loophole that had allowed low-value packages from China to enter the US duty-free.

This prompted sweeping retaliation from China on Friday, including extra levies of 34 per cent on all US goods and export curbs on some rare earths, escalating the trade war between the world’s two largest economies.

Global stock markets plummeted following China’s retaliation and Trump’s comments on Friday that he would not change course, extending sharp losses that followed Trump’s initial tariff announcement earlier in the week and marking the biggest losses since the pandemic. 

For the week, the S&P 500 was down nine per cent.

“Now is the time for the US to stop doing the wrong things and resolve the differences with trading partners through equal-footed consultation,” Guo wrote in English.

China’s chamber of commerce representing traders in food products called on “China’s food and agricultural products import and export industry to unite and strengthen co-operation to jointly explore domestic and foreign markets.”

The metals and chemicals traders’ chamber said the tariffs “will push up the import cost for US importers and the consumption cost for consumers, exacerbate domestic inflation in the US, and increase the possibility of a US recession”.

The leaseholder of a major Australian port has lamented becoming “a political football”, reiterating the facility is not for sale.

On a day involving an unfortunate interaction with a different sort of footy on the campaign trail, both major parties flagged plans to bring Port Darwin back into Australian hands.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said on Saturday granting a 99-year lease of the facility to a China-linked company in 2015 was a mistake by the Northern Territory government.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has blamed the then-federal government which included Mr Dutton in its cabinet.

Both have flagged a potential takeover – a move shaping as a fait accompli following the May 3 election.

However, leaseholder Landbridge has denied involvement in any discussions.

“As previously stated, the port is not for sale,” director Terry O’Connor said in a statement.

“Landbridge is disappointed that we are being used as a political football in the current election campaign.”

Mr Dutton told reporters in the NT a coalition government would bring the port back into Australian ownership.

“Or into a model where we have greater assurance about the operator and the way in which the lease operates,” he said.

“We’ll negotiate in good faith and I believe within six months we can arrive at an outcome.”

Mr Albanese phoned ABC Radio Darwin on Friday to flag similar plans, denying it was an election stunt.

He would not commit to when it would happen, promising more detail before the election and suggesting the plan had been in motion for some time.

“There’s nothing spontaneous about this,” he told reporters in western Queensland on Saturday.

“When the Port of Darwin was flogged off to a company with links to the Chinese government, we opposed that sale … Peter Dutton was in the cabinet that sold it.”

The port has been a concern since it was leased to Landbridge for more than $500 million.

However, multiple reviews have found insufficient reason to overturn the lease on national security grounds.

“A mistake was made many years ago in relation to the lease and the way in which that was undertaken by the then-territory government,” Mr Dutton said.

“But that is the past and we need to deal with the strategic circumstances that we face at the moment.”

Elsewhere in Darwin, in scenes reminiscent of former leader Scott Morrison clumsily tackling a child on the 2022 campaign trail, Mr Dutton accidentally kicked a football into a camera operator, leaving him with a bloodied forehead.

Mr Albanese visited flood zones in Queensland, announcing disaster payments and a deal for exclusion fencing to protect livestock from wild dogs and pigs.

Asked about his presence in the safe Nationals seat of Maranoa, held by party leader David Littleproud, Mr Albanese said campaigning exclusively in marginal seats alienated people from mainstream politics.

But he still found time for a pot-shot.

“Support from the government doesn’t look at the political map and we don’t get out the colour-coded spreadsheet to determine infrastructure funding,” he said.

It came after Senator Bridget McKenzie – the target of Mr Albanese’s sledge from her ministerial stint during the “sports rorts” scandal – announced plans to reinstate an 80:20 funding model for regional roads.

“The prime minister reduced federal funding commitments for regional road infrastructure to 50:50, to match the urban funding model,” the opposition regional development spokeswoman said in a statement on Saturday.

Mr Albanese said the pre-election budget included investment in regional Queensland roads, although the headline announcement was upgrades to the Bruce Highway, which runs along the state’s coast.

Global stock markets have plummeted further after China vowed to strike back at US President Donald Trump with additional tariffs of 34 per cent on US goods, escalating a trade war that has rattled investors and fed fears of a coming recession.

The trade war has spurred the biggest market losses since the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Nasdaq Composite’s slide on Friday confirmed a bear market for the tech-heavy index, compared to its record closing high of 20,173.89 on December 16. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average confirmed a correction to its record closing high of 45,014.04 on December 4.

China added 11 US bodies to the “unreliable entity” list, which allows Beijing to take punitive actions against foreign entities, including firms linked to arms sales to democratically governed Taiwan, which China claims as part of its territory.

Other impacted nations like Canada have also readied retaliation in a mounting trade war after Trump raised US tariff barriers to the highest levels in more than a century, leading to a plunge in world financial markets.

For the week, the S&P 500 fell 9.08 per cent, the Nasdaq declined 10.02 per cent, and the Dow fell 7.86 per cent. The Russell 2000 Small Cap Index dropped 9.70 per cent.

Investment bank J.P. Morgan estimated a 60 per cent chance of the global economy entering a recession by year-end, up from 40 per cent previously.

“This is significant and is unlikely to be over, hence the negative market reactions,” said Stephane Ekolo, Market & Equity Strategist, Tradition, London. “Investors are afraid of a ‘tit for tat’ trade war situation.”

Republican US Senator Ted Cruz, a staunch Trump supporter, warned the tariffs could pose “enormous risks” for the US economy and for Republicans’ political fortunes.

“The effect of this is trillions of dollars of increased taxes on American consumers,” he said on his podcast.

As the market selloff intensified, Trump was largely out of public view at his golf course, where he sent multiple defiant social media messages guaranteeing victory for the US economy.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell told a business journalists conference on Friday the tariffs were “larger than expected” and elevated the risk of both higher inflation and slower growth.

He did not directly address the US stocks selloff but acknowledged that uncertainty had paused business decisions.

“People are just, they just are kind of waiting for clarity,” Powell said. “I can’t tell you when that will pass, but you know, ultimately it will pass.”

Just before Powell spoke, Trump said in a Truth Social post that it was the “perfect time” for the Fed to cut interest rates. “CUT INTEREST RATES, JEROME, AND STOP PLAYING POLITICS!” Trump wrote.

In an interview with conservative host Tucker Carlson on Friday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent asserted the plunge in US stocks was driven more by the surprise emergence of China’s DeepSeek AI tool than by Trump’s policies.

The White House touted stronger-than-expected job data on Friday, after a Labor Department report showed the US economy added far more jobs in March than predicted.

But Trump’s sweeping import tariffs could test the labour market’s resilience in the months ahead amid sagging business confidence.

“To the many investors coming into the United States and investing massive amounts of money, my policies will never change. This is a great time to get rich, richer than ever before!!!” Trump said in a social media post in all caps.

After Beijing’s retaliation, he posted: “China played it wrong, they panicked – the one thing they cannot afford to do!”

The 10 per cent baseline tariffs for US imports take effect on Saturday but shipments under way by then have until May 27 to arrive tariff-free, according to US Customs and Border Protection.

In Japan, one of the top US trading partners, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said the tariffs had created a “national crisis” after a plunge in banking shares on Friday set Tokyo’s stock market on course for its worst week in years.

With European shares also tumbling to the biggest weekly losses in years, the European Union’s trade commissioner, Maros Sefcovic, said he held a “frank” two-hour call with US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.

“I was clear: US tariffs are damaging, unjustified,” Sefcovic wrote on social media.

The EU is divided on how best to respond to Trump’s tariffs.

with AP

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton says the lease of a major port was a mistake, flagging plans to bring it back into Australian hands.

The move is shaping as a fait accompli regardless of the May 3 election’s outcome.

Mr Dutton is in the Northern Territory, where the Port of Darwin has been leased to a China-linked company for the next nine decades.

He told reporters on Saturday the coalition would immediately move to “secure” the port if elected.

“To make sure that we can bring that national asset, that strategic asset, back into Australian ownership, or into a model where we have greater assurance about the operator and the way in which the lease operates,” he said.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese phoned ABC Radio Darwin on Friday afternoon to flag a similar plan.

“We want it to be in Australian hands … we’re prepared to go down the road of taxpayer direct involvement,” he said.

The port has been a concern since it was leased to the Landbridge Group in late 2015 for more than $500 million.

Speculation about its future follows discussions in March that prompted Landbridge director Terry O’Connor to announce the port was not for sale.

Multiple reviews found insufficient reason to overturn the lease on national security grounds.

Blaming the NT government for leasing the port, Mr Dutton said the decision should never have been made and circumstances had changed.

“A mistake was made many years ago in relation to the lease and the way in which that was undertaken by the then-territory government,” he said on Saturday.

“But that is the past, and we need to deal with the strategic circumstances that we face at the moment.”

Mr Albanese argued on Friday that the federal government had created a financial incentive for the territory government to “flog off” the port.

“Peter Dutton will pretend that this had nothing to do with the LNP federally and will just blame the former Northern Territory government … and say that they’re going to now buy it back,” he said. 

“Well, we’ve been in that process for some time.”

Mr Albanese is visiting flood zones in Queensland on Saturday to announce federal government disaster recovery allowances.

The allowances provide up to 13 weeks of income support for eligible workers and sole traders who have incurred a loss from the natural disaster.

The amount available depends on individual circumstances, with applications open from Tuesday afternoon.

Almost double the yearly average rainfall has been dumped on parts of regional Queensland.

Massive areas of land have been inundated and tens of thousands of livestock are either missing or dead because of the record-breaking rain.

Emergency disaster grants, personal hardship assistance payments and grants for small businesses and non-profits are also available.

Labor has matched the coalition’s pledge of $10 million for a radar in outback Queensland to supplement other weather warning systems, including satellites and flood gauges.

Emergency Management Minister Jenny McAllister said support included the deployment of heavy-lift helicopters, personal hardship payments and a fodder bank for impacted farmers.

A military aircraft has provided support, transporting more than 5000 litres of aviation fuel from Longreach to Windorah on Tuesday.

A deal to spin off the US assets of TikTok was put on hold after China indicated it would not approve the deal following President Donald Trump’s tariffs announcement this week, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

Trump on Friday extended by 75 days a deadline for ByteDance to sell US assets of the popular short video app to a non-Chinese buyer, or face a ban that was supposed to have taken effect in January under a 2024 law.

The deal, the structure of which was largely finalised by Wednesday, according to one of the sources, would have spun off TikTok’s US operations into a new company based in the US and majority-owned and operated by US investors. ByteDance would hold a position of less than 20 per cent.

The deal had been approved by existing investors, new investors, ByteDance and the US government, the source said.

The White House and the Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment. TikTok declined comment.

The Associated Press was first to report China’s disapproval.

“The deal requires more work to ensure all necessary approvals are signed,” Trump said on social media, explaining why he was extending the deadline he set in January that was supposed to have expired on Saturday. 

“We hope to continue working in good faith with China, who I understand is not very happy about our reciprocal tariffs.”

China now faces a 54 per cent tariff on goods imported into the United States after Trump announced he was hiking them by 34 per cent this week, prompting China to retaliate on Friday. 

Trump has said he would be willing to reduce tariffs on China to get a deal done with ByteDance to sell the app used by 170 million Americans.

Trump has said his administration was in touch with four different groups about a prospective TikTok deal. He has not identified them.

A major stumbling block to any deal for TikTok’s US business is Chinese government approval. China has not made a public commitment to allow a sale and Trump’s comments suggested renewed Chinese opposition.

“We look forward to working with TikTok and China to close the deal,” Trump wrote on Friday.

“We do not want TikTok to ‘go dark,'” he added.

Congress passed the measure last year with overwhelming bipartisan support, as politicians cited the risk of the Chinese government exploiting TikTok to spy on Americans and carry out covert influence operations. Democratic then-President Joe Biden signed it into law.

Some politicians have said Trump must enforce the law, which had required TikTok to stop operating by January 19 unless ByteDance had completed a divestiture of the app’s US assets. Trump began his second term as president on January 20 and opted not to enforce it.

The Justice Department in January told Apple and Google that it would not enforce the law, which led them to restore the app for new downloads.

The new Trump order will set a mid-June deadline for a deal.

The White House-led talks on the future of TikTok are coalescing around a plan for the biggest non-Chinese investors in parent company ByteDance to increase their stakes and acquire the app’s US operations, Reuters has reported.

The plan entails spinning off a US entity for TikTok and diluting Chinese ownership in the new business to below the 20 per cent threshold required by US law, rescuing the app from a looming US ban, sources told Reuters.

Jeff Yass’ Susquehanna International Group and Bill Ford’s General Atlantic, both of which are represented on ByteDance’s board, are leading discussions with the White House, Reuters has reported.

Walmart denied an ABC News report that it was also considering joining a group of investors in a deal for TikTok.

with AP

The US Internal Revenue Service has begun making sweeping cuts to its workforce and among the first to go will be employees of its civil rights office, the agency said in an email to staff.

Reuters previously reported that more than 20,000 staff would be cut, which a source familiar with Friday’s announcement confirmed, saying 20 per cent to 25 per cent of the tax-collecting agency’s workforce would be targeted.

The start of the layoffs and the civil rights office’s elimination were first reported by the Washington Post.

The cuts are part of a major overhaul of the federal workforce that has already cost more than 200,000 workers their jobs. US President Donald Trump has tasked billionaire Elon Musk with leading the reshaping and downsizing of the government.

“The IRS has begun implementing a Reduction in Force (RIF) that will result in staffing cuts across multiple offices and job categories,” an internal human resources email sent to all staff said on Friday.

The email said 75 per cent of the agency’s civil rights office, previously called the office of diversity, equity and inclusion, will be cut and its remaining employees will move under a separate office.

Trump has passed executive orders aimed at dismantling DEI initiatives that he has labelled discriminatory. Civil rights groups have condemned the actions, saying DEI measures help in addressing historical and generational inequity.

The email said the mass layoffs would take place in phases.

They come amid the busiest time of the year for the IRS, with the filing deadline for most individual tax returns falling on April 15.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has spoken to Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni about the approach to US tariffs, saying they agreed an “all-out trade war would be extremely damaging”.

It came as Chinese officials said they would retaliate over US President Donald Trump’s tariffs with additional imposts of 34 per cent on US goods, escalating a trade war that has rattled investors and fed fears of a recession.

In separate calls, the United Kingdom leader said it had 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,” a spokesperson from his office said in a statement.

“They all agreed that an all-out trade war would be extremely damaging and is in nobody’s interests, while agreeing to keep in close contact in the coming days.”

Issuing a readout of the separate discussions on Friday, a Downing Street spokesperson said Starmer “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.

with PA