Donald Trump has reportedly asked the EU to levy tariffs of up to 100% on India and China, in order to increase pressure on Russia to end its war in Ukraine.
The US president made the demand after he dialled into a meeting on Tuesday between senior US and EU officials gathered in Washington, the Financial Times, Bloomberg News and other media reported.
One US official said, according to the FT: “We’re ready to go, ready to go right now, but we’re only going to do this if our European partners step up with us.”
According to the Financial Times, a second US official said Washington was prepared to “mirror” any tariffs on China and India imposed by the EU, potentially leading to a further increase in US levies on imports from both countries.
Trump’s proposal comes as the White House is becoming frustrated with its efforts at brokering a peace deal and Russia’s recent heavy aerial attacks on Ukraine.
“The president came on this morning and his view is that the obvious approach here is, let’s all put on dramatic tariffs and keep the tariffs on until the Chinese agree to stop buying the oil. There really aren’t many other places that oil can go,” the first US official said.
The US president later told reporters he expected to have a call with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, “this week or early next week”.
The Ozempic and Wegovy maker Novo Nordisk announced that it will cut 9,000 jobs and trimmed its profit forecast for this year, as it struggles against competition from the US rival Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro weight-loss injection.
The job cuts amount to 11% of the drugmaker’s workforce of 78,400. About 5,000 of the job losses will happen in Denmark.
Novo Nordisk said the move would save 8bn Danish kroner (£930m) a year, although it will also lead to one-off costs of 8bn kroner this year. As a result, it expects to produce operating profit growth of 4% to 10% at constant exchange rates, down from 10%-16%.
Today’s key events
• 9am BST: Italy Industrial production for July
• 10am BST: UK Treasury gilt 2031 auction
• 1.30pm BST: US producer prices for August
We’ll be tracking all the main events throughout the day on our business live blog …
