US to impose additional tariffs on China and push ahead with Canada and Mexico levies

Good morning and happy Friday. In today’s newsletter:

• Trump’s latest push for tariffs

• Bangladesh student protesters launch a new party

• How DeepSeek ‘changed everything’ for Chinese AI

Donald Trump said yesterday he would impose an additional 10 per cent tariff on imports from China and press ahead with levies on Mexico and Canada from next week, raising the spectre of a global trade war.

The president had halted his proposed tariffs on Mexico and Canada earlier this month, just hours before they were due to begin, giving the US’s two biggest trading partners a month-long reprieve.

But in a post on Truth Social yesterday, Trump wrote that the proposed tariffs would “go into effect, as scheduled” on March 4. The president added that he also planned to hit China with an additional 10 per cent levy on the same day, on top of 10 per cent tariffs that he imposed this month.

The Chinese embassy in Washington criticised the new tariffs, saying there were “no winners” in a trade war. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his country would respond to any “unjustified tariffs” with a “strong, immediate and certain answer”.

Meanwhile Mexico extradited dozens of prisoners to the US yesterday including a drug trafficker wanted since the 1980s as President Claudia Sheinbaum’s cabinet held high-level security meetings in Washington with Secretary of State Marco Rubio to try to ward off Trump’s tariffs.

• Trump-Starmer meeting: Trump said he is working on a trade deal with the UK and suggested that Britain could escape tariffs if the countries secure one, but the allies failed to agree on US security guarantees for Ukraine.

• What closer US-Russia ties mean for China: Trump’s rapprochement with Moscow over the war in Ukraine serves Beijing’s aim of a multipolar world order, but also raises dangers for Xi Jinping, analysts said.

Here’s what else we’re keeping tabs on today:

• Economic data: India reports its third-quarter GDP estimate while Japan publishes industrial production figures for January.

• India-Europe relations: EU chief Ursula von der Leyen will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi.

• Ukraine: Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to meet Trump in Washington to sign a deal on critical minerals.

How well did you keep up with the news this week? Take our quiz.

Five more top stories

1. Student protesters in Bangladesh who led a revolt that toppled former leader Sheikh Hasina last year are set to form a new political party, challenging the country’s entrenched political duopoly. The new “National Citizen party” plans to launch today and will be led by Nahid Islam, a prominent student leader.

2. The founding family of 7-Eleven’s parent group has abandoned a $58bn buyout attempt, raising the likelihood that Canada’s Alimentation Couche-Tard will succeed with its unsolicited bid for the Japanese convenience store company. Shares of Seven & i plunged after it said a group led by the Ito family was unable to secure financing.

3. Microsoft has warned Donald Trump’s administration it risks making a “strategic mis-step” if it pushes ahead with export controls on artificial intelligence chips. Brad Smith, Microsoft’s president, warned they would push allies to use Chinese technology instead while adversely impacting allies such as Israel, India and Singapore.

4. China’s securities regulator has clamped down on small companies listing on New York stock exchanges, viewing them as prone to market manipulation. Analysts said the crackdown was Beijing’s latest effort to reduce financial ties with the US.

5. Indonesia is set to lift its ban on iPhone 16 sales after striking a deal with Apple to bring investment of about $320mn to south-east Asia’s largest economy. The final figure is considerably less than Apple’s $1bn offer last month to manufacture accessories in the country, which was rejected by Jakarta.

News in-depth

DeepSeek’s advances have sparked a nationwide push in China to deploy its technology everywhere from hospitals to local governments, with even the most traditionally conservative institutions throwing their weight behind the new national AI champion. Today’s deep dive looks at how the start-up “changed everything” for Chinese AI.

We’re also reading . . . 

• Japan’s baby boomers: The practical impact of mass ageing has suddenly become more dramatic and potent, writes Leo Lewis.

• The end of hanging out?: Recent trends have combined to worsen public spaces. Happily, we can do better, writes Simon Kuper.

• US housing: Today’s Big Read explores how developers are tackling the twin challenges of severe weather and a housing shortage.

Chart of the day

The number of babies born in Japan last year fell to the lowest level since records began 125 years ago as the country’s demographic crisis deepens and government efforts to reverse the decline continue to fail.

Take a break from the news . . . 

Get on board Tanzania’s 33-hour slow train with Sophy Roberts to experience one of the last old world trains on its 800-mile journey west across the country before it is eclipsed by its electrified high-speed replacement.