Image source, Getty Images

The price of gold continues to reach record highs, amid uncertainty surrounded the global economy in the wake of Trump's tariff war.

By Wednesday afternoon, the spot price for a gold ounce surged to $3,118 (£2,392), a climb of 0.3%.

The reason for the jump is not just linked to the trade uncertainty, but also is partly due to turmoil in the Middle East and Europe.

Earlier this month, the cost of a gold ounce hit $3,000 for the first time.

Gold is seen as a safer asset for investors and is often sought after in times of economic instability.

Read more here.

Peter Hoskins
Business reporter, BBC News Singapore

Major stock markets in the Asia-Pacific opened lower on Thursday morning.

Japan's benchmark stock index, the Nikkei 225, was down by 4% in early trading.

It comes after the US president announced a 24% tariff on imports from Japan.

Meanwhile, Australia's ASX 200 was around 2% lower, after Trump imposed a baseline 10% tariff on the country.

The US Senate has narrowly voted to approve a bill that would block Trump's previously announced 25% tariff on Canada from going into effect.

The bill passed the Republican-controlled Senate by a vote of 51 to 48. Four Republicans crossed party lines to support the Democrat-sponsored bill.

Analysts say it is extremely unlikely to be taken up by the House of Representatives, which is also controlled by Trump's party. Even if it were to pass the House, Trump could veto the bill.

Susan Collins, a Republican Senator from Maine who was among those to vote for the bill, warned recently: "The tariffs on Canada would be detrimental to many Maine families and our local economies."

The other Republicans who supported it were Rand Paul of Kentucky, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

Earlier today, Trump took to social media to call on the Republicans to "fight the Democrats wild and flagrant push to not penalize Canada".

Senator Tim Kaine, the Virginia Democrat who sponsored the bill, wrote in the Washington Post last week that the law Trump has invoked for his tariffs - the National Emergencies Act of 1976 - includes a provision that allows any senator "to force a vote to block emergency powers being abused by the president".

US-Canada trade is heavily intertwined, and economists have warned of dire consequences if Canada retaliates and a trade war with a close ally unfolds.

The rare rebuke of Trump by Republicans in Washington DC may be symbolic, but it offers a sharp contrast to his White House speech hours ago proclaiming today "liberation day".

Jonathan Josephs
BBC business reporter

Since President Trump came back to the White House in January, both China and Canada have taken their complaints against his tariffs to the World Trade Organization.

The Geneva-based body is designed to decide the rules of international trade and enforce them. However, for the last five and a half years, it has been limited in its ability to do that.

President Trump blocked the appointment of any new judges during his first term, and there now aren't enough to address appeals.

The United States claims the system overreached its jurisdiction to the detriment of the US. President Trump has also argued that the WTO system allowed China an unfair advantage in the global trade system.

With the organisation at an impasse, it is hard to see what action other countries might take in response to the latest tariffs beyond imposing their own trade barriers.

Peter Hoskins
Business reporter, BBC News Singapore

US stock market futures have fallen sharply after Trump unveiled sweeping import taxes on countries around the world.

Investors are concerned about the threat of a global trade war and its potential impact on the American economy.

Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were down by around 1,000, or 2.4%, while S&P futures fell 3.5%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures were 4.4% lower.

Futures are contracts to buy or sell an underlying asset at a future date. In this case, they are an indicator of how US stock markets are expected to trade when they open on Thursday.

Ali Abbas Ahmadi
Reporting from Windsor, Ontario

I have been speaking to Manny Cardoso, the secretary and treasurer for the union at the Stellantis automobile plant, Windsor’s largest employer.

He paints a picture of a tightly interconnected community, and highlights how tariffs impacting Windsor’s three car plants would have huge knock-on effects on the city.

“If you take those employers out, we would look like Flint, Michigan probably pretty fast,” he says, referencing the US city that has struggled for decades after several car manufacturing plants shut down in the 1990s.

Ana Faguy
US Reporter

Image source, Ben Maurer

Before Donald Trump was elected, Ben Maurer, a Pennsylvania man, was talking about tariffs.

He's long thought they were the solution to America's hardships and so when he heard about Trump's latest - and steepest - tariffs today, he described it as a "necessary evil".

"We're probably going to feel some pain for about six months and I would be willing to bet, after about six months, there will be noticeable changes," says Maurer, who works as a trucker.

Maurer says the US has been taken advantage of in the global trade market.

He speaks fondly of decades past when his Pennsylvania town had two steel mills that employed many. Both have since closed, but with tariffs like the kind Trump imposed today, Maurer thinks the US will get those jobs and others back: "It's a step in the right direction," he says.

"[Trump's] out to prove a point, that we're here to get stuff done and we're going to get stuff done."

Rating agencies that give countries credit scores are weighing how Trump's tariffs will affect the US and other economies.

So far, it's not looking good.

Olu Sonola, head of US Economic Research, at Fitch Ratings, said that the US tariff rate on all imports is now roughly 10 times last year's rate, around 22%. The country hasn't had levies that high in more than 100 years.

"This is a game changer, not only for the US economy but for the global economy," Sonola wrote.

"Many countries will likely end up in a recession. You can throw most forecasts out the door, if this tariff rate stays on for an extended period of time."

Fitch cut the credit score of the US in 2023.

Moody's Analytics has been warning the US could tip into a recession soon, and has also said the country's finances may experience a multi-year decline from its growing budget deficits and expensive debt.

Its chief economist Mark Zandi told AFP on Thursday that a trade war resulting from Trump's tariffs would damage the US economy.

"If this trade war continues through Labor Day (on 1 September), the US economy will likely suffer a recession this year," he said.

Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from the White House

The scene outside the White House is fairly quiet, despite the high-profile event this afternoon. There was, however, one lone protester, quietly walking past the main entrance where the media go in and out.

Image source, BBC / Bernd Debusmann Jr

Lisa Lambert
BBC News

The US stock market may be currently closed for trading but is still reeling from Trump's tariffs announcement.

Analysts at Wedbush Securities, a major Wall Street investment firm and brokerage, is calling the slate of tariffs "worse than the worst case scenario" that many in the financial world had been fearing.

It said that the 34% tariff on Chinese goods was the "jaw dropper" and the tariffs of 32% on Taiwan and 20% on the EU were also "major".

Two of the biggest tech companies in the US - Apple and Nvidia - could feel the pain of the China and Taiwan tariffs, given that Apple produces its iPhones in China and chip makers like Nvidia rely on both countries. Apple recently announced plans to expand its US operations, which raises the possibility that Trump could exempt them from the taxes.

"For now the White House will say they are not looking for deals...but we continue to believe there are off ramps and major negotiations that will be happen over the coming months with various countries and companies to navigate this new world of tariffs," it wrote.

The White House has told our colleagues at CBS News that Trump's tariffs are additive.

This means that they can be stacked together with other tariffs issued by Trump.

The example they gave is China. The new tariff announced today is 34%, which will come in addition to the 20% tariffs that Trump has previously imposed.

This would put China's tariff rate at 54% - unless the White House decides that a certain product falls under Section 232 of the tariffs act, which would limit the rate to 25% for certain imports like steel and aluminium.

Trump's executive order notes that certain goods will be exempted from the his tariff plan.

These include steel and aluminium parts, copper, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, "lumber articles", bullion, and "energy and certain minerals that are not available in the United States".

Ken Roggoff, the former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund has shared his assessment of President Trump's new tariffs on BBC's World Business Report

"He just dropped a nuclear bomb on the global trading system."

The economist predicts that the chances of the US, the world's largest economy, falling into recession had risen to 50% on the back of this announcement

The consequences for this level of import taxes on imports into the US "is just mind-boggling", Roggoff says.

Jonathan Josephs
BBC business reporter

European Union wine makers are clearly hugely concerned about the impact US tariffs will have. Last year 28% of EU wine exports went to the US, that was worth about $5.28bn.

Those numbers explain why the CEEV (Comité Européen des Entreprises Vins) which represents EU wine makers say the US wine market “is fundamental for the economic stability” of their industry.

Their bottles now face a 20% tariff, which means higher prices if neither the winemakers nor the retailers are prepared to take a hit to their profits. Many Americans may now decide a bottle of imported European wine is a luxury they can manage without.

It’s another blow for European winemakers just days after the EU proposed a support package to help them deal with a raft of challenges including falling consumption at home and climate change.

It’s little wonder the CEEV’s secretary-general Ignacio Sánchez Recarte urged the the EU and the US “to renew efforts to find a negotiated solution that would prevent tariffs from being applied to wine products”.

Tom Madrecki, vice president of Campaign and Special Projects at the Consumer Brands Association, says that despite how much is already made in the US, "we still have an inherent reliance on goods coming from overseas".

Because of that, Madrecki expects the cost of a variety of daily goods to go up.

"Cocoa, coffee, oats from Canada, specific types of steel that go into making the cans that are used for hair spray, to a soup... you still can't get those products here," he says.

"And so a tariff, at the end of the day, just increases the cost of production, and inevitably, that's going to be felt by consumers."

Image source, Getty Images

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney tells reporters that his country will combat Trump's tariffs with countermeasures.

"It's essential to act with purpose and with force, and that's what we will do," he says, on his way to a cabinet meeting.

Vishala Sri-Pathma
BBC News

The UK’s biggest business groups have been reacting to the news that UK exports to the US will be hit with 10% tariffs.

The Confederation of British Industry described the announcement as “deeply troubling for businesses”, while the director general of the British Chambers of Commerce said it was “a lose-lose situation for everyone”, adding that “orders will drop, prices will rise and global economic demand will be weaker as a result”.

The Federation of Small Business said that with 59% of small exporters selling into the US market, tariffs would cause “untold damage” to small firms.

Jonathan Josephs
BBC business reporter

Tariffs are the word of the day, but "non-tariffs barriers" are among the reasons why China has been singled out for higher tariffs.

Since President Trump’s first term, the world’s two biggest economies have charged tariffs on more than half of what they sell each other.

However, American companies have long complained about the non-tariff barriers that make life difficult for them in China.

It means they can’t sell and operate as freely as many would like in a country with huge potential because of its sheer population size.

These restrictions can include a lack of protection for their intellectual property, which makes it hard to stop Chinese companies copying products.

There are also limits on what foreign companies can own in certain industries, and the question of whether the Chinese government gives unfair financial help to some of its companies to help them compete internationally. It’s often denied doing so.

Both the US and China have increased various economic restrictions, particularly on technology, in recent years. And President Trump’s newest tariffs mean a further decoupling is likely.

Image source, Getty Images

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is warning countries not to respond to Donald Trump's latest round of tariffs.

"My advice to every country right now is, do not retaliate," Bessent tells Fox News.

"Sit back, take it in, let's see how it goes. Because if you retaliate, there will be escalation," he warns.

"If you don't retaliate, this is the high watermark."