Trump tariffs live updates: EU delays implementing first retaliatory tariffs, including on whiskey

US President Trump's tariffs are reshaping US trade policy and overhauling decades of free-trade agreements with friend and foe alike.

Here's the latest on where things stand on various fronts:

Steel and aluminum: A 25% US tariff on imports of steel and aluminum from all countries took effect on Wednesday, March 12.

European Union: The EU has responded to those metals duties with counter-tariffs on $28 billion in US goods from April, bringing Trump's trade war across the Atlantic. However, on Thursday, the EU delayed the implementation of some of those tariffs until mid-April — including a 50% duty on American whiskey, which had prompted Trump to threaten a 200% tariff on European spirits.

Canada and Mexico: Trump's 25% across-the-board tariffs on its US neighbors went into effect on Tuesday, March 4. Just two days later, Trump confirmed the US would pause tariffs on goods and services compliant with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) until April 2. For its part, Canada retaliated to the steel and aluminum tariffs with new duties on about $20 billion of US goods. The two countries have agreed to new trade talks.

China: Trump has enacted new blanket tariffs of around 20% on top of existing 10% duties that went into place during Trump's first term. China has responded with up to 15% duties on US farm goods such as chicken and pork, which went into effect Monday, March 10.

Meanwhile, Trump is just more than a week away from potentially imposing so-called retaliatory tariffs on all US trade partners. That could happen as soon as April 2, a day Trump has taken to calling "Liberation Day." The like-for-like tariffs would aim to fulfill a frequent campaign promise and raise revenue as Republicans ready a tax and spending bill.

Read more: What are tariffs, and how do they affect you?

The European Union has pushed back its planned 50% tariff on US whiskey until mid-April, alongside steel and aluminum duties, giving officials extra time to rethink which US goods to hit and allowing room for further negotiations.

Originally set to kick in on April 1, the delay gives both sides more time to negotiate, according to an EU Commission spokesperson.

The European Commission had planned to reinstate 2018 tariffs on $4.9 billion worth of US goods starting April 1, with an additional $19.5 billion in tariffs set to take effect on April 13.

"We are now considering to align the timing of the two sets of EU counter-measures so we can consult with member states on both lists simultaneously, and this would also give us extra time for negotiations with our American partners," European Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic told a hearing at the European Parliament on Thursday.

Copper prices briefly breached the $10,000 per ton milestone and continued to hover around that level Thursday as investors race to reprice the metal ahead of expected tariffs.

Bloomberg reports:

Read more here.

Global central bank officials have sung a common tune in recent weeks: Uncertainty is intensifying, and trade wars could lead to higher inflation and lower growth.

And that uncertainty may only grow as countries prepare to see how far President Trump will go in imposing global reciprocal tariffs ("the big one," Trump says) on April 2 ("Liberation Day").

On Wednesday, Fed Chair Powell said that the “arrival of the tariff inflation” may delay progress toward the Federal Reserve’s 2% inflation goal. Yahoo Finance’s Ben Werschkul has a nice recap of Powell’s comments on tariffs, which contrasted with his statements at previous meetings.

On Thursday, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde also underscored the potential impact of tariffs on inflation and growth, stating that a 25% tariff on European imports to the US would lower eurozone growth by about 0.3 percentage points and up to half a percentage point if retaliatory measures are taken, Reuters reported.

Also on Thursday, the Bank of England kept rates unchanged as Governor Andrew Bailey warned rising tariffs could pose a significant threat to the UK economy. “There’s a lot of economic uncertainty at the moment,” Bailey said.

The alerts this week come after the Bank of Canada trimmed its policy rate by 25 basis points last week and said the central bank would need to “proceed carefully” due to upward pressures on inflation and downward pressures on growth from tariffs.

"We ended 2024 on a solid economic footing, but we're now facing a new crisis," Governor Tiff Macklem said in a press conference, referring to the escalating trade war between the United States and Canada.

Washington’s tariff relief under US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) has sparked a surge in US companies seeking exemptions. Industry experts report businesses rushing to qualify before the April 2 deadline. Many are now verifying if their products already meet exemption criteria.

Reuters reports:

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European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde warned that a trade war with the US could slash eurozone growth by up to 0.5 percentage points and boost inflation by a similar margin.

Reuters reports:

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The Federal Reserve kept its interest rates at the same level on Wednesday, but it did offer a new outlook on inflation and growth as trade war concerns have shaken confidence in the economy lately.

Fed officials now expect inflation, as measured by the core Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) index, will be 2.8% at the end of 2025, lower than their previous estimate of 2.5%.

In a press conference Wednesday, Fed Chair Powell acknowledged that the higher inflation outlook partly reflects the current and expected tariffs, though Powell noted that it's difficult to unpack the impact of tariffs with precision.

"A good part of [higher inflation expectations] is coming from tariffs," Powell said. "But we'll be working, and so will other forecasters, to try to find the best possible way to separate non-tariff inflation from tariff inflation."

Powell added that further progress toward the Fed's 2% inflation goal could be delayed with the arrival of tariffs but that, ultimately, the central bank expects tariff inflation to be transitory.

Watch Fed Chair Powell's full press conference here.

President Trump has said coming reciprocal tariffs on April 2 will be "the big one." What does that mean? One way it could play out, according to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, is by assigning each country a “number,” or a new tariff rate, based on whether that country has a higher or lower effective tariff rate on the US.

Yahoo Finance's Rick Newman dug into the numbers to get an idea of what the April 2 tariffs could look like:

Read more here.

The Trump administration has shown it favors developing artificial intelligence. However, tariff policies could impede the growth of data centers powering it.

As hyperscalers such as Amazon.com (AMZN) and Microsoft (MSFT) rush to build new AI data centers with equipment largely imported from abroad, analysts warn they could run into higher costs and exacerbated shortages from esctrade wars.

Bloomberg reports:

Read more here.

The US is bracing for a surge of copper shipments as global suppliers race to beat potential Trump tariffs. A rush to get ahead of trade barriers is driving record inflows. Ports are set to handle a wave of metal before new duties hit.

Bloomberg News reports:

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In March, Trump and TSMC’s (TSM) C.C. Wei announced a $100 billion investment to revive US chipmaking. For Trump, 43 days into office, it was a victory. For Taiwan’s tech firms, it signaled a manufacturing shift to the US, driven by sanctions and looming trade barriers.

Bloomberg News reports:

Read more here.

Bank of America's latest Global Fund Manager Survey showed that investors dumped US stocks in March and increased their allocations to cash.

The rotation from stocks came as participants cited a trade war tipping the world into a global recession as the top risk for markets.

Yahoo Finance's Josh Schafer reports:

Read more here.

We're just two weeks out from President Trump's next wave of tariffs. Although investors have the deadline for reciprocal tariffs, plenty of uncertainty remains on how far Trump will go, and the risk is that any surprise on the tariffs could upend markets.

Yahoo Finance's Ben Werschkul writes:

Read more here.

Trump's trade warriors have a mammoth task of tariff setting ahead — and only two weeks to get it done.

The president has promised to lay out the plan for reciprocal tariffs on April 2, vowing "what they charge us, we charge them". But figuring out matching duties for every country the US trades is a big job, and aides are scrambling to make it more manageable, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The WSJ reported:

The plan — for high, medium, and low rate tiers — was one of many discussed and ditched last week by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and others, the report said.

On Tuesday, Bessent said: "What's going to happen on April 2 — each country will receive a number that we believe that represents their tariffs. For some countries, it could be quite low. For some countries, it could be quite high."

He went on to suggest trading partners could avoid a "tariff wall" when they get their customized proposal, by negotiating on the factors the White House sees as unfair.

Reuters reported:

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Reuters reports:

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Silver futures (SI=F) have risen about 19% over the past year, with prices stacking up gains as the global market comes under pressure from Trump's tariffs.

About 70% of US imports of silver come from Mexico and Canada, big targets in the US trade offensive. While supplies of the metal are still flowing into New York, traders are concerned they could dry up.

Bloomberg reports:

Read more here.

Toronto's Mayor Olivia Chow has pulled financial incentives for Tesla (TSLA) vehicles purchased for ride-sharing or taxi services, Reuters reports.

The city has been reducing licensing and other fees for drivers who purchase electric vehicles in an effort to reduce emissions. But as of March 1, Tesla vehicles no longer qualify, Chow said.

Toronto's mayor added in a press conference that the exclusion was due to US-Canada trade tensions and will continue until the spat is resolved.

Read more here.

US beer consumption has hit a 40-year low as more Americans switch to hard seltzers, canned cocktails, or quit drinking altogether. Barley farmers now worry that tariffs will shrink export markets, driving up costs to grow their crops even as beer demand continues to fall.

Reuters reports:

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Ireland may be vulnerable to additional tariffs after President Trump said the country is taking advantage of the United States and that he is seeking more "fairness."

Trump met with Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin last week for St. Patrick's Day festivities and noted Ireland's booming pharmaceutical manufacturing industry. Ireland's trade surplus with the US hit a record high of $52 billion in 2024, largely driven by drug exports, according to Reuters.

Bloomberg reports:

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The OECD warned that Trump's tariffs will slow growth in the US, Canada, and Mexico while pushing inflation higher. The organization cut its global outlook, cautioning that an extended trade war could weaken growth even further.

Reuters reports:

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This president's still not ready to "bend at all," even as his escalating trade war rocks US stock markets.

On Sunday, Trump was asked whether he was looking at creating exemptions from 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum that came in last week. "I have no intention of it," he told reporters on Air Force One, per CNN.

At the same time, the president signaled that additional tariffs on specific sectors will be imposed on April 2, alongside the reciprocal blanket measures expected.

"In certain cases, both," Trump said when asked if he would be imposing sectoral and reciprocal tariffs on April 2. "They charge us, and we charge them. Then, in addition to that, on autos, on steel, on aluminum, we're going to have some additional," he said, according to Reuters.

Those metals duties triggered immediate tariff retaliation from the EU and Canada last week and prompted other countries to step up talks to try to get off the hook. The economic toll of the tit-for-tat measures on the US is expected to be heavy — but is seen as transient by the White House.