American companies looking to sell into the huge Chinese market have just taken a big hit. A 34% price increase on all US goods entering the country will knock some out of here altogether.

This is especially bad for US agricultural producers. They already had 10 or 15% tariffs on their produce entering China, in response to the last round of Trump tariffs. Now, if you add 34% on top of that, it is probably pricing most of them out.

Beijing doesn't seem too worried about looking elsewhere for more chicken, pork and sorghum and – at the same time – it knows it is whacking the US president right in his heartland.

Globally, all of this has analysts worried.

The problem is that supply chains have become so international, components in any given product could be sourced from all corners of the planet.

So, when the ripples of economic distress start spreading from country to country, it could have potentially catastrophic consequences for all trade.

Most concerning is that the world's two greatest economies are now at each other's throats with no indication that either is preparing to backdown.

Just take the timing of Beijing's announcement.

The Chinese government revealed its promised "resolute countermeasures" to Trump's latest tariffs in a written statement from the finance ministry at 18:00 local time (10:00 GMT), on a Friday night, which is also a public holiday.

The timing could mean several things.

1. It wanted to somewhat bury the news at home, so as to not spook people too much.

2. It simply made the announcement as soon as its own calibrations had been finalised.

3. Beijing had given up on the hope of using the small window it had before Trump's 54% tariffs on Chinese goods took effect next week to do a deal. So, the government just decided to let it rip.

If it is the last of these reasons, that is pretty bleak news for the global economy because it could mean that a settlement between the world's superpowers could be harder to reach than many had expected.

Another indicator of President Xi's attitude towards President Trump's tariffs can be seen by what he was doing when they were announced.

Elsewhere, governments may have been glued to the television, hoping to avoid the worst from Washington.

Not here.

Xi and the six other members of the Politburo Standing Committee were out planting trees to draw attention to the need to counter deforestation.

It presented a kind of calmness in the face of Trump, giving off a vibe along the lines of: do your best Washington, this is China and we're not interested in your nonsense.

There is still room for the US and China to cut some sort of deal, but the rhetoric does not seem to be heading that way.

Another possible path is for China to increase its trade with other countries – including western nations once seen as close allies of the US – and for these new routes to essentially cut America out of the loop.

Again, this would hurt not only US companies but also US consumers who will already be paying higher prices thanks to Trump's tariffs.

Stock market turmoil deepened on Friday, as China hit back at tariffs announced by US President Donald Trump, raising the likelihood of an extended trade war and damage to the global economy.

All three major stock indexes in the US plunged more than 5%, with the S&P 500 dropping almost 6%, capping the worst week for the US stock market since 2020.

In the UK, the FTSE 100 plunged almost 5% - its steepest fall in five years, while Asian markets also dropped and exchanges in Germany and France faced similar declines.

Trump, who has vowed to remake the global trade order, dismissed concerns about the market shock, noting that the US labour market is strong.

"Hang tough," he urged his followers on social media. "We can't lose."

The global stock market has lost trillions in value since Trump announced sweeping new 10% import taxes on goods from every country, with products from dozens of countries, including key trading partners such as China, the European Union and Vietnam, facing far higher rates.

Analysts say the moves, some of which are due to go into effect as soon as Saturday, amount to the biggest tax increase in the US since 1968.

They expect the measures to lead to a contraction in trade, and have warned they could drive many countries into an economic recession.

China responded to Trump on Friday by hitting US goods with import taxes of 34%, curbing exports of key minerals and adding American firms to its blacklist, describing Trump's actions as "bullying" and a violation of international trade rules.

Other countries appear to be hoping they will be able to negotiate deals, despite conflicting signals from the White House about its appetite for talks.

Maroš Šefčovič, the trade commissioner for the EU, which has been planning to retaliate, said on Friday that he had had a "frank" two-hour exchange with US officials, and wrote on social media the trade relationship needed a "fresh approach".

"The EU's committed to meaningful negotiations, but also prepared to defend our interests," he said. "We stay in touch."

Trump's moves are consistent with promises he made on the campaign trail last year.

But they were more far-reaching than some analysts had expected, triggering the worst week for the stock market since 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic led to global shutdowns and other disruption.

The sell-off started with firms such as Apple and Nike, which rely heavily on suppliers in Asia. But on Friday, it moved into sectors that would typically not face the direct impact of tariffs, such as consumer staples, healthcare and utilities.

"Candidly the mood is pretty sour and it should be," said Mike Dickson, head of research and quantitative strategies at Horizon Investments in the US, warning that it will take weeks to understand the impact of Trump's tariffs.

"What we're really worried about right now is what we saw at 6am-ish [when China retaliated]," he said, "How much more of that is out there?"

In a note to investors, JP Morgan said it now put the odds of a global economic recession this year at 60%, up from 40% previously, noting that the shock from the tariffs could drive growth in the US down by two percentage points this year.

Some investors downplayed the losses, noting that they follow an astonishing run-up in the value of share prices in the US over the past few years.

"These shifts in the market that we're seeing - they're violent because things go down a lot quicker than they go up," said Tim Pagliara, chief executive of Tennessee-based CapWealth.

He said the White House was attempting a "big reset" in global trade but the effort was needed.

"We've talked about trade imbalance my entire career," he said. "Nothing's ever happened. So something has to happen.

"We are going to level the playing field on some of these relationships that have just gotten out of balance."

Speaking on Friday, Jerome Powell, the head of the Federal Reserve, the US central bank, said he thought the economy remained "solid", pointing to the latest data showing strong hiring in the US in March.

But he acknowledged a high degree of uncertainty.

"What we've learned is that the tariffs are higher than anticipated, higher than almost all forecasters predicted," Mr Powell said, warning that growth would slow and prices were likely to rise.

In New Jersey, small business owner Pat Muscaritolo, said the changes may force him to shut down his appliance shop, Jacobson Appliance, after 40 years in business. He has been urging customers to make any necessary purchases now.

"We don't know what the price is going to be at the end of the month," he said, though he is bracing for prices on items such as refrigerators that could be 30% or even 40% higher.

On the markets, housing-related firms were a bright spot, perhaps rallying on bets that the turmoil could lead to lower interest rates for mortgages and help the US housing market.

Shares in Nike, and other clothing retailers, which had been hammered on Thursday, also clawed back some ground on Friday, buoyed by hopes of a deal after Trump said he had a "very productive call" with the leader of Vietnam.

Cambodia also sent a letter offering to reduce tariffs and asking the US to negotiate.

But other parts of the market remained bleak.

Shares in Apple, which relies heavily on China for manufacturing, fell more than 7% on Friday. The iPhone maker's market value has dropped roughly 15% since Wednesday.

• The Dow Jones fell 5.5%, bringing it down 10% from its February peak
• The Nasdaq dropped 5.8%, wiping out roughly a fifth of its value since December, putting it in "bear market" territory
• In the UK, the FTSE 100 index closed 4.9% lower, the biggest one-day drop since 27 March 2020
• In Europe, France's CAC 40 dropped 4.3% while in Germany the Dax fell almost 5%
• Earlier, in Japan, where the prime minister called the situation a "national crisis", the Nikkei 225 fell more than 2.7%
• Brent crude, the international oil price benchmark, also dropped almost 6%

As the rout continued, even some White House allies started to criticise the measures.

On a podcast devoted to tariffs, Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas said Trump's moves could lead to benefits for the US, while warning of "enormous risks".

"If we're in a scenario 30 days from now, 60 days from now, 90 days from now, with massive American tariffs, and massive tariffs on American goods in every other country on earth, that is a terrible outcome," he said.

In the Falkland Islands, an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean, Janet Robertson, the general manager of Consolidated Fishing Limited, was wondering how a new 42% tax on its exports to the US would hit its sales of toothfish.

"At the moment, we're not making any dramatic decisions," she said.

But, she added, fishing is "by far the most important industry in the Falklands".

"The sales of toothfish into the States are a big part of that," she said.

"We're wondering where it will all end up."

Reporting contributed by Tom Espiner, Nada Tawfik, Cai Pigliucci and the BBC's World Service.

US President Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs on Wednesday including a 10% tariff on most countries.

Some of America's biggest trading partners will see even higher tariffs beginning 9 April.

The aggressive shift in trade policy makes clear where Trump stands on tariffs, but has left much of the world wondering what Americans - who are expected to see the side effects - think of the move.

We asked five people what they think.

This Michigan resident thinks the pain Americans will feel will be temporary and worth it.

I know we're all going to get pinched in the pocket for a while. I think in the long run, it's going to get us out of the massive deficit that we're in.

I am concerned about the price of goods going up. I am going to end up being more particular about what I buy, basically I'll tighten the belt for a while.

But then I think it's going to go full circle and it's going to be a good thing for the economy and for people in general.

We've been the world's financial doormat for a while and we've gotta stop it.

This soon-to-be-retiree worries about economic instability prompted by Trump's actions.

I'm very unhappy. I'm probably a couple of years away from retiring and I don't know if I'm going to be able to retire.

My 401k's not doing great, social security is on the line and I don't think the tariffs are going to help America's standing on the world platform.

Trump is not a king and I feel like our Congress and Senate is letting us down, both parties, by not pushing back [on tariffs].

They know better, and they're not doing anything. Why?

This trucker welcomes the incoming tariffs and hopes they can help restore smaller US towns.

I feel like the way to kick start investment back into US manufacturing is exactly this.

It's a necessary evil.

Up until the 70's, there were two steel mills [in my area] and then they closed. And up until the last ten years, the sites have been abandoned

We might not get back everything, but even if we recover 30-40% of it, it's quite a bit of money and jobs.

This retiree says she is on a fixed income and feels Trump administration officials don't appreciate how tariffs will impact her life.

I'm on a fixed income. I'm retired, so things are going to go up and I'm worried. It means less money that I'll have coming in.

What I'm trying to do is stock up on food because I think things are going to get really, really bad as far as shipping. Food is the one thing that you can't really cut from your budget.

If I can be honest, Trump's got all the money. He doesn't have to [worry about] food. Musk has all the things, so this isn't going to affect them. So they don't know about the pain.

They say 'a little pain' but how little is this pain?

Robin says she's trying to hold out hope but she worries the economic turmoil will impact her and her family.

I'm worried. I'm worried about my retirement funds. I'm worried that he's going to make other countries hate us for what he's doing. I just think he's an idiot.

I have a son and he's 30. He has his own family and he's looking for work and he's struggling. This isn't going to help things. He has two children - 18 months and six.

I tend to be a glass half-full type of person, but the president and his ideas are just so crazy sometimes. My financial adviser, who I really trust, did say that some of Trump's plans are good and good for the finance market.

It gives me a little bit of hope, I guess. But then when you see the stock market plunging, it was like "oh, maybe not."

Global stocks have sunk, a day after President Donald Trump announced sweeping new tariffs that are forecast to raise prices and weigh on growth in the US and abroad.

The S&P 500, which tracks 500 of the biggest American firms, plunged 4.8% - its worst day since Covid crashed the economy in 2020. Earlier in the day financial markets fell from Asia to Europe.

Nike, Apple and Target were among big consumer names worst hit, all of them sinking by more than 9%.

At the White House, Trump told reporters the US economy would "boom", as he stood by his decision to impose a minimum 10% tariff on imports, which he argues will boost federal revenues and bring American manufacturing home.

The Republican president plans to hit products from dozens of other countries with far higher levies, including trade partners such as China and the European Union.

China, which is facing an aggregate 54% tariff, and the EU, which faces duties of 20%, both vowed retaliation on Thursday.

Tariffs are taxes on goods imported from other countries, and Trump's plan that he announced on Wednesday would hike such duties to some of the highest levels in more than 100 years.

The World Trade Organization said it was "deeply concerned", estimating trade volumes could shrink as a result by 1% this year.

Traders are also concerned about the global economic impact of Trump's tariffs, which they fear could stoke inflation and stall growth.

On Thursday, the S&P 500 shed roughly $2tn in value, continuing a sell-off that has been ongoing since mid-February amid trade war fears.

The Dow Jones closed about 4% lower, while the Nasdaq tumbled roughly 6%.

Earlier, the UK's FTSE 100 share index dropped 1.5% and other European markets also fell, echoing declines in Asia.

On Thursday at the White House, Trump doubled down on a high-stakes policy gambit aimed at reversing decades of US-led liberalisation that shaped the global trade order.

"I think it's going very well," he said. "It was an operation like when a patient gets operated on, and it's a big thing. I said this would exactly be the way it is."

He added: "The markets are going to boom. The stock is going to boom. The country is going to boom."

On Thursday, Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney said that country would retaliate with a 25% levy on vehicles imported from the US.

Trump last month imposed tariffs of 25% on Canada and Mexico, though he did not announce any new duties on Wednesday against the North American trade partners.

Firms now face a choice of swallowing the tariff cost, working with partners to share that burden - or passing it on to consumers, and risking a drop in sales.

That could have a major impact as US consumer spending amounts to about 10% to 15% of the world economy, according to some estimates.

While stocks fell on Thursday, the price of gold, which is seen as a safer asset in times of turbulence, touched a record high of $3,167.57 an ounce at one point on Thursday, before falling back.

The dollar also weakened against many other currencies.

In Europe, the tariffs could drag down growth by nearly a percentage point, with a further hit if the bloc retaliates, according to analysts at Principal Asset Management.

In the US, a recession is likely to materialise without other changes, such as big tax cuts, which Trump has also promised, warned Seema Shah, chief global strategist at the firm.

She said Trump's goals of boosting manufacturing was a years-long process "if it happens at all".

"In the meantime, the steep tariffs on imports are likely to be an immediate drag on the economy, with limited short-term benefit," she said.

On Thursday, Stellantis, which makes Jeep, Fiat and other brands, said it was temporarily halting production at a factory in Toluca, Mexico and Windsor, Canada.

It said the move, a response to Trump's 25% tax on car imports, would also lead to temporary layoffs of 900 people at five plants in the US that supply those factories.

On the stock market, Nike, which makes much of its sportswear in Asia, was among the hardest hit on the S&P, with shares down 14%.

Shares in Apple, which relies heavily on China and Taiwan, tumbled 9%.

Other retailers also fell, with Target down roughly 10%.

Motorbike maker Harley-Davidson – which was subject of retaliatory tariffs by the EU during Trump's first term as president and has been named as a potential target for retaliation this time – fell 10%.

In Europe, shares in sportswear firm Adidas fell more than 10%, while stocks in rival Puma tumbled more than 9% as key countries where their goods are made were hit with steep levies.

Among luxury goods firms, jewellery maker Pandora fell more than 10%, and LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy) dropped more than 3% after tariffs were imposed on the European Union and Switzerland.

"You're seeing retailers get destroyed right now because tariffs extended to countries we did not expect," said Jay Woods, chief global strategy at Freedom Capital Markets, adding that he expected more turbulence ahead.

President Donald Trump has unveiled plans for sweeping new import taxes on all goods entering the US, in a watershed moment for global trade.

The plan sets a baseline tariff on all imports of at least 10%, consistent with a proposal Trump made on the campaign last year.

Items from countries that the White House described as the "worst offenders", including the European Union and China would face higher rates for what Trump said was payback for unfair trade policies.

Trump's move breaks with decades of American policy embracing free trade, and analysts said it was likely to lead to higher prices in the US and slower growth in the US and around the world.

The White House said officials would start charging the 10% tariffs on 5 April, with the higher duties starting on 9 April.

"It's our declaration of economic independence," Trump said in the White House Rose Garden against a backdrop of US flags.

He argued that other countries were taking advantage of the US by charging high tariffs and erecting other trade barriers against American exports.

Declaring a national emergency, the Republican president said the US had for more than five decades been "looted, pillaged, raped and plundered by nations near and far, both friend and foe alike".

"Today we are standing up for the American worker and we are finally putting America first," he said, calling it "one of the most important days, in my opinion, in American history."

On the campaign trail last year, Trump called for new tariffs that he said would raise money for the government and boost manufacturing, promising a new age of US prosperity.

He has spent weeks previewing Wednesday's announcement, which follows other orders raising tariffs on imports from China, foreign cars, steel and aluminium and 25% on some goods from Mexico and Canada.

The White House said the latest changes would not change anything for Mexico and Canada, two of America's closest trading partners.

Other allies will also face tariffs, including 10% for the UK and 20% for the European Union, said Trump.

Tariffs on goods from China will jump a further 34%, adding to an existing 20% levy, while it will be 24% for Japan, and 26% on India.

Some of the highest rates will be levied on smaller countries, with goods from the southern African nation of Lesotho facing 50%, while Vietnam and Cambodia will be hit with 46% and 49% respectively.

The latter two have both seen a rush of investment in recent years, as firms shifted supply chains away from China following Trump's first term.

The baseline tariffs will apply to more than 100 countries, according to a White House fact sheet, of which some 60 will face a higher "reciprocal" rate.

The White House said the new policy would account for factors that they said also fuelled trade imbalances, such as other countries' currency devaluation and high Value Added Tax (VAT).

Trump also confirmed that a 25% tax on imports of all foreign-made cars, which he announced last week, would begin from midnight.

And he signed an order ending tax-free treatment for small packages, while repeating plans to hit specific items that were exempt from Wednesday's action, such as copper and pharmaceuticals, with separate tariffs.

Together the moves will bring effective tariff rates in the US to levels not seen in decades, potentially setting the stage for Americans facing higher prices on clothing, European wine, bicycles, toys and thousands of other items.

Gustavo Flores-Macias, professor of government and public policy at Cornell University, called it a "dramatic transformation" of the international trade order, which the US had helped to create after World War Two.

"We're seeing that system unravelling," he said.

The stock market was closed for trading when Trump made his announcement.

But in after-market trading shares in major American companies sank sharply.

Apple, which relies heavily on China and on Taiwan, which is facing tariffs of 32%, sank more than 7%.

Amazon was down more than 6%, while shares in Walmart dropped more than 4%.

Donald Trump announced a sweeping new set of reciprocal tariffs on Wednesday, arguing that they would allow the United States to succeed.

Trump's tariffs, which he will impose via executive order, are expected to send economic shockwaves around the world. The White House released a list of roughly 100 countries and the tariff rates that the US would impose in kind.

Here are the basic elements of the plan.

In a background call before Trump's speech, a senior White House official told reporters that the president would impose "baseline tariffs" on all countries.

That rate is set at 10% and will go into effect on 5 April.

Trump argued that Americans were being "ripped off," and that raising tariffs on foreign imports would help restore US manufacturing, reduce taxes, and pay down the national debt.

Trump and White House staffers portrayed the current tariff rates as lenient, compared to the maximum the administration could impose.

Some countries will only face the base rate. These include:

• United Kingdom
• Singapore
• Brazil
• Australia
• New Zealand
• Turkey
• Colombia
• Argentina
• El Salvador
• United Arab Emirates
• Saudi Arabia

White House officials also said that they would impose specific reciprocal tariffs on roughly 60 "worst offenders", to go into effect on 9 April.

These countries impose higher tariffs on US goods, impose "non-tariff" barriers to US trade or have otherwise acted in ways the government feels undermine American economic goals.

The White House official said each tariff would be tailored to the specific targeted country.

"We're being very kind," Trump said at his White House event. The tariffs were not fully reciprocal he said, because he would impose a "discounted" reciprocal rate less than what his staff had determined to fully match the trade impact of a given country's trade policies.

The key trading partners subject to these customised tariff rates include:

• European Union: 20%
• China: 34%
• Vietnam: 46%
• Thailand: 36%
• Japan: 24%
• Cambodia: 49%
• South Africa: 30%
• Taiwan: 32%

Canada and Mexico are not mentioned in these new tariff announcements.

The White House says that they would deal with both countries using a framework set out in previous executive orders, which imposed tariffs on Canda and Mexico as part of the administration's efforts to address fentanyl and border issues.

He previously set those tariffs at 25%, before announcing some exemptions and delays to their implementation.

In addition, the president announced the US would impose a "25% tariff on all foreign made-automobiles".

Those tariffs would go into affect almost immediately, at midnight on 3 April.

US prosecutors will seek the death penalty for Luigi Mangione, the man accused of shooting dead UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement on Tuesday that she had directed federal prosecutors to seek capital punishment for the "premeditated, cold-blooded assassination".

Mr Thompson was shot dead outside a hotel in New York on 4 December. Police arrested Mr Mangione, 26, days later in Pennsylvania after a nationwide manhunt.

He has pleaded not guilty to state charges, and has yet to enter a plea for separate federal charges. He is awaiting trial in a New York prison.

In the press release, Bondi said Mr Thompson's murder "was an act of political violence" and that it "may have posed grave risk of death to additional persons" nearby.

Investigators say Mr Mangione was motivated to kill Mr Thompson, 50, because of anger with US health insurance companies.

A lawyer for Mr Mangione called the decision "barbaric", accused the government of "defending the broken, immoral, and murderous healthcare industry", and said Mr Mangione was caught in a tug-of-war between state and federal prosecutors.

"While claiming to protect against murder, the federal government moves to commit the pre-meditated, state-sponsored murder of Luigi," said Karen Friedman Agnifilo in a statement.

Mr Mangione is facing 11 state criminal counts in New York, including first-degree murder and murder as a crime of terrorism.

If convicted of all the counts, he would face a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

But federal prosecutors have also separately charged Mr Mangione for using a firearm to commit murder and interstate stalking resulting in death. These charges make him eligible for the death penalty.

Prosecutors have said the federal and state cases will move forward parallel with one another.

Mr Mangione is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) Brooklyn.

New York prosecutors have already shared some evidence in their case against him, including a positive match of his fingerprints with those discovered at the crime scene.

According to New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg, Mr Mangione arrived in New York City on 24 November and stayed in a Manhattan hostel using a fake ID for 10 days before carrying out the attack against Mr Thompson.

The healthcare boss was shot in the back by a masked assailant on 4 December as he was walking into a hotel where the company he led was holding an investors' meeting.

A nationwide search led police to Mr Mangione five days later at a McDonald's hundreds of miles away in Altoona, Pennsylvania.

Police said that when they found Mr Mangione, he was in possession of a ghost gun - a firearm assembled from untraceable parts - a fake ID, a passport and a handwritten document indicating "motivation and mindset".

Mr Thompson's killing ignited a fraught debate about how the US healthcare system operates.

Some Americans, who pay more for healthcare than people in any other country, expressed anger over what they see as unfair treatment by insurance firms.

US Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in December that the rhetoric on social media in the wake of the killing was "extraordinarily alarming".

"It speaks of what is really bubbling here in this country, and unfortunately we see that manifested in violence, the domestic violent extremism that exists," he told CBS's Face the Nation.

Donald Trump says tariffs are coming. That message from the US president has been consistent.

But what tariffs and when? Import taxes have come so thick and fast since he took office that it can be hard to keep track.

Trump has already raised duties on Chinese imports, steel, aluminium and some goods from Canada and Mexico. Higher levies on cars are due to go into effect this week.

We're now waiting for Trump to unveil the details of his plan for a wider set of tariffs, which his team has spent the last few weeks developing.

The White House is calling it "Liberation Day". So what might we learn on Wednesday?

The White House has not said how high the tariffs could go, although various possible rates have been floated by analysts.

On the campaign trail last year, Trump backed a 10% across-the-board tariff on all imports coming into the US, sometimes suggesting that could be 20% - even 60% on imports from China.

Once in office, he introduced the idea of "reciprocal" tariffs, suggesting the rates could vary country by country.

"Very simply, it's if they charge us, we charge them," he said in February, shortly before he ordered officials to develop such a plan.

The White House almost immediately complicated the picture, noting that their recommendations would reflect not just tariffs but also other policies they believe are unfair to American businesses, like Value Added Tax (VAT).

It has a led to a scramble, as businesses and political leaders try to get a sense of how big a new tax their products might be facing; and how whatever is announced on Wednesday will interact with other duties, such as those on steel and aluminium, already put into effect by Trump.

Officials in Europe, for example, are preparing for a double-digit tariff on their exports. Trump earlier this year said he planned to hit goods from the bloc with a 25% import tax.

The Trump administration has not confirmed which countries will be hit, although it has trailed Wednesday's announcement as a sweeping one.

On Sunday, the president said the new tariffs could apply to "all countries", suggesting a possible return to the across-the-board tariff he backed in the campaign.

It dashed hopes in some countries, such as the UK, that thought they might float under the radar, though many are still hoping eventually to work out some sort of deal.

But it is still unclear to what extent the tariffs will be universally applied or more targeted.

Last month, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said efforts were focused on the "Dirty 15" - the 15% of countries that account for the bulk of trade with the US and impose tariffs or other rules that put American firms at a disadvantage.

The Office of the US Trade Representative, as it prepared to craft recommendations, identified the countries in which it was "particularly interested".

They were Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the European Union, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, the UK and Vietnam.

Trump himself has reserved some of his harshest criticism for historic allies and major trade partners, such as Canada and the EU.

"Friend has been, oftentimes, much worse than foe," he declared last week.

Tariffs are taxes on imports. So the big question is, who will pay?

Technically, there is a simple answer: the US firms bringing in the goods are the companies that will face the bill, especially if the White House starts levying the tariffs "immediately", as spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt suggested on Tuesday.

But the larger the tariffs are, the more firms will be looking for ways to offset those costs, either by changing suppliers, pushing business partners to share the burden - or by raising prices for Americans.

Many firms have said they are already preparing for that step. But it is a risky game because if companies raise prices too much, buyers will simply stay away.

The dynamics have raised the risks of an economic recession both in the US - and far outside its borders, where many firms rely on American sales.

Trump says companies looking to avoid tariffs can simply do their business in the US, but that's not an immediate, or easy fix, given the high costs of hiring and setting up factories.

Introduce currency swings and retaliation by other countries into the mix, and the repercussions of Trump's bid to reset global trade balances are likely to prove hard to predict long after Wednesday's announcement.

Shares in the US have bounced back, despite tariff fears hitting stocks in Asia and Europe after US President Donald Trump suggested that he was planning import taxes that could hit "all countries".

Trump's comments came as he prepares to unveil a massive slate of import taxes on Wednesday, in what he has called America's "Liberation Day".

These will come on top of Trump's recent import taxes on aluminium, steel and cars, along with increased levies on all goods from China.

The tougher stance from Trump has increased nervousness about a trade war hitting the global economy.

Trump has offered conflicting signals about the scope of the expected tariffs, which have helped drive steep declines in the US stock market over the last month.

Last week, he had raised the possibility that many countries could receive "breaks". But over the weekend, he appeared to be leaning toward a more wide-ranging plan.

"You'd start with all countries," Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday. "Essentially all of the countries that we're talking about."

The UK has said it expects to be affected by US tariffs and is not ruling out retaliating.

The prime minister's official spokesman has said talks on an economic deal between the two countries have been "constructive", but are likely to last beyond Wednesday.

Other jurisdictions, such as the European Union and Canada, have already said that they are preparing a range of retaliatory trade measures.

Concerns about the impact of the measures have unsettled markets and reignited fears of a recession in the US.

In the US, the S&P 500 share index of the largest firms has fallen almost 10% since mid-February, making March the worst month for the index in years.

The Nasdaq is down more than 10%, its worst quarter since 2022.

With significant uncertainty remaining about the 2 April announcement, shares in the US opened lower but ultimately held their ground on Monday.

The Dow closed up 1%, while the S&P ended up 0.5% and the Nasdaq slipped just 0.1%.

Earlier on Monday, Japan's Nikkei 225 benchmark share index closed more than 4% lower, while the Kospi in South Korea ended down 3%.

In the UK, the FTSE 100 index fell nearly 0.9%, while Germany's Dax index closed down nearly 1.3% and France's Cac 40 fell roughly 1.6%.

Gold, which is often seen as a safer investment when the economic backdrop is unstable, rose to another record high, hitting $3,128.06 an ounce.

Shanti Kelemen, chief investment officer at M&G Wealth, told the BBC there could be "quite a lot of uncertainty" for a while given that previous tariff announcements have seen a lot of changes subsequently.

Japan, which is a big player in exports, is among those countries most at risk from the changes, Ms Keleman said.

"They have a lot of automakers and also a very big presence in the semiconductor market, something that hasn't really been targeted yet but that could change," she noted.

Trump sees tariffs - which are taxes imports - as a bargaining chip to get better trade terms, while also raising money and protecting the American economy from unfair competition.

A White House fact sheet published last week also suggested that a 10% tariff on every import could create nearly three million US jobs.

Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro has estimated that all the planned tariffs could raise $600bn annually, about a fifth of the value of total goods imports into the US.

Many firms have said they expect the cost of the new tax to be passed onto customers in the form of higher prices.

But that could lead to lower sales and fuel inflation in the US, a problem Trump had pledged on the campaign to tackle.

Conversely, if companies decide to absorb the cost, it will hit their profits.

Will Butler-Adams is chief executive of Brompton Bicycle, which makes folding bikes and relies on the US for about 10% of its sales.

Brompton's products are not facing additional taxes yet.

But Mr Butler-Adams said tariffs would make his bikes less competitive and force him to re-think his presence in the US.

"We won't continue to invest in the same way that we are now," he said. "We may even shrink; in the extreme, we might pull out."

Mr Butler-Adams said it had been hard to figure out the impact of tariffs that have already gone into effect, which require detailed accounting of how much steel in each item comes from outside the US.

"The reality is we don't [know] actually and the people who are on the borders importing goods into the US don't actually entirely understand how some of these tariffs might be put in," Mr Butler-Adams said.

Separately, Trump said a deal with TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance to sell the app would be agreed before a deadline on Saturday.

He set the 5 April deadline in January for the short video platform to find a non-Chinese buyer or face a ban in the US on national security grounds.

It had been due to take effect that month to comply with a law passed under the Biden administration.

Additional reporting by Dearbail Jordan and Mitchell Labiak