Foreign
Carney ‘disappointed’ as Trump increases tariffs on Canada to 35%
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Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has said he is “disappointed” by an increased tariff on some exports to the United States.
US President Donald Trump escalated a trade war by boosting the tariff rate from 25% to 35%, saying that Canada had “failed to cooperate” in curbing the flow of fentanyl and other drugs across the US border. The Canadian government says it is cracking down on drug gangs.
However most goods from Canada will dodge the import tax imposed by the US thanks to an existing trade treaty, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
Trump also announced sweeping tariffs on dozens of countries, as he continued his drive to remake global trade.
Economists and financial analysts have warned that the new levies will raise prices for businesses and consumers in the US and weigh on the economy, predictions that the Trump administration has dismissed.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Thursday that Trump was “proving the so-called economic experts wrong at every turn”.
“What we are watching is President Trump rebuilding the greatest economy in the history of the world,” she said.
Most countries affected by the so-called “reciprocal” tariffs will have seven days before they kick in.
Goods that are loaded onto ships by 7 August and those that are already in transit will also not be affected by the rates if they reach the US before 5 October.
Published by the White House, the orders leave most goods coming into the US facing new import taxes of between 10% and 50%.
Few nations have been spared in the latest list of tariff rates. Even small economies like Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea in the Asia-Pacific region were issued 15% duties.
Countries not mentioned on the list face baseline duties of 10%.
The headline new tariff for Canada seems severe but nearly 90% of Canadian goods imported into the US are exempted under the free trade deal.
That includes fresh produce, energy exports and many industrial goods, according to the Royal Bank of Canada.
However, some imports like dairy products, wood and leather may still face tariffs depending on how talks shape up.
The decision, contained in an executive order, increases the tariff rate from 25% and came into effect at 00:01 US Eastern time (05:01 BST) on Friday.
As the clock ticked towards Trump’s Friday deadline to strike trade deals, he announced goods from Mexico would be charged at current rates for another 90 days, avoiding a similar threatened increase from 25% to 35%.
However senior White House officials said their Canadian counterparts were less constructive in negotiations than Mexico, prompting the higher 35% tariff on Ottawa.
Trump has cited matters other than trade in justification of higher rates on one of the closest US trading partners.
Earlier this week, Carney said Canada would consider recognising a Palestinian state if certain conditions are met, a move that Trump said would make a trade deal “very hard”. And in a statement Thursday the White House said “Canada has failed to cooperate in curbing the ongoing flood of fentanyl and other illicit drugs”.
Carney said Canada accounts for only about 1% of fentanyl imports into the US and is making “historic investments” to crack down on drug gangs including thousands of new police and border patrol agents.
Mary Ng, who until March 2025 was Canada’s international trade minister, told the BBC that tariffs would push Canada to continue to seek out trade opportunities with other countries.
“We have a very integrated supply chain between Canada and the United States, built over decades,” she said. “But Canada has already made a decision… about reducing our reliance and overdependence on the United States.”
“There are markets beyond the United States,” Ng said.
The tariffs hit Asian countries hard.
Two major trading partners in the region – India and Taiwan – were hit with levies of 25% and 20% respectively.
Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te said the levy was only “temporary”, vowing to complete talks with Washington for a deal. Taiwan had faced an initial charge of 32% when tariff rates were initially announced in April.
And land-locked South East Asian nation Laos is facing the second-highest rate in this round of tariffs. At 40% it sits just behind Syria’s unenviable 41%.
The US has however reached a deal with South Korea, imposing a lower 15% tariff on its imports in return for investment in the US and other concessions.
The escalation of the tariffs had been telegraphed for months, starting when Trump unveiled sweeping “reciprocal” tariffs in April, saying they would rebalance global trade flows and reduce America’s trade deficit – the gap between what it buys and sells abroad.
The measures added to separate levies targeting key sectors such as steel, aluminium and cars.
After turmoil in financial markets, he suspended some of the most punishing measures, inviting countries to negotiate, while leaving in place a 10% duty on most products.
More than 200 countries reached out to the White House in the months following, according to Trump administration officials, though some struggled to get attention.
Trump officials ultimately reached rough “framework” agreements with eight trade partners, including the UK, China, Japan and European Union, which set tariff rates in exchange for promises of investment in the US or other concessions.
But key aspects of those agreements remain unresolved. Talks with other countries such as India ended without terms. Trump says that in addition to a 25% rate, India will an unspecified “penalty” for its dealings with Russia.
Up until nearly the last moment, many countries were still waiting word on what new tariff rates the administration had settled on.
In a post on social media, Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter said she had a last-minute phone call with Trump, which ended without an accord.
“The trade deficit remains a central concern of his,” she wrote. Switzerland ended up with a 39% tariff.
The United States government has identified a Nigerian national among several individuals and organisations accused of facilitating financial operations for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), as part of a broader crackdown on the group’s global funding network.
In a statement issued by the U.S. Department of State, officials said the action targeted three individuals and six entities operating across Europe, the Middle East, and West Africa, who are allegedly involved in moving funds used to support ISIS activities.
According to the department, the measures are aimed at disrupting the terrorist group’s ability to finance attacks and sustain its international operations.
“Under the leadership of President Trump, the United States is dismantling ISIS’s ability to finance terrorism around the world. We are cutting off the financial lifelines from around the world that enable ISIS to fund attacks, support its regional affiliates, and threaten civilians, including religious minorities,” spokesperson Thomas Pigott said.
The statement noted that the network spans France, Syria, Türkiye, and Nigeria, and is believed to have facilitated the cross-border movement of funds linked to the extremist group.
Officials alleged that the designated individuals include a France-based facilitator connected to explosives-related information shared with ISIS supporters, a Syria-based operator who reportedly used cryptocurrency to transfer funds internationally, and a Nigeria-based facilitator whose money exchange businesses were allegedly used as channels for ISIS financing.
The U.S. government said the designations are part of ongoing efforts to dismantle financial pipelines supporting terrorist organisations and to restrict their global operations.
Britain will have its seventh prime minister in 10 years after Labour leader Keir Starmer was ousted on Monday by his own party.
The party’s self-inflicted wound was a trend set by the Conservatives when they were in office.
Starmer announced his resignation on Monday following months of nose-diving poll ratings and manoeuvring by his own MPs.
Veteran Labour politician Andy Burnham has confirmed he will seek to replace him.
The main opposition Tories went through five prime ministers between 2016 and July 2024 when Starmer swept to power in a landslide general election victory.
The rapid turnover at the top prompted Starmer — before he became prime minister — to call for an end to the “chaos” of chopping and changing leaders.
After less than two years, Starmer has now met a similar fate himself.
Here’s what happened to his predecessors:
David Cameron (May 2010 to July 2016)
Britain’s decision to leave the European Union ended Cameron’s second term as prime minister.
After the country voted to leave in a June 2016 referendum, Cameron, who had campaigned to remain in the bloc, resigned.
Theresa May (July 2016 to July 2019)
Tolga AKMEN / AFP
May took over amid the fallout from the Brexit referendum after a long tenure in the notoriously difficult post of interior minister.
She called a snap election the following year to strengthen her hand in Brexit negotiations, but the move backfired when her party emerged as the biggest in parliament but without a majority.
Unable to get her Brexit deal through parliament, the Conservatives suffered a drubbing in European Parliament elections in May 2019, leading to her resignation.
Boris Johnson (July 2019 to September 2022)
Johnson, a maverick politician famed for making a career out of breaking the rules, had to navigate the coronavirus pandemic and Britain’s departure from the European Union.
He led the Conservatives to victory in the December 2019 snap general election.
But weakened by scandals, he was eventually forced to step down following a cascade of resignations by ministers and aides.
Liz Truss (September 2022 to October 2022)
Truss was prime minister for just 49 days, the shortest on record, before being ousted over her disastrous tax-cutting mini-budget.
Her economic agenda spooked the markets and took the UK to the brink of financial meltdown, losing her the support of her own party.
Rishi Sunak (October 2022 to July 2024)
Sunak was at the helm for 20 months before losing the 2024 general election to Starmer, bringing to an end 14 years of Conservative rule.
He brought some stability following the Truss debacle but failed to stop bitter Tory infighting.
The privately wealthy former financier ultimately failed to connect with regular voters struggling with a cost-of-living crisis.
AFP
The US government says it will stop funding programmes in South Africa intended to tackle the spread of HIV and Aids.
More than eight million South Africans are living with HIV – the highest number of any country in the world.
The US State Department appeared to link the decision to South Africa’s alleged failure to protect the white-minority Afrikaner community – an allegation the South African government has repeatedly rejected.
South Africa’s health ministry responded by saying that though it had not been informed of this decision, it had “long been working on a self-reliance plan”.
Until 2025, the US was supporting South Africa’s efforts to deal with the virus with an estimated $400m (£300m) a year through the President’s Emergency Fund for Aids Relief (PEPFAR).
But since the inauguration of President Donald Trump, relations between the two countries have increasingly soured.
Shortly after he came into office, Trump issued an executive order alleging that “countless” South African policies dismantled equal opportunities and fuelled violence “against racially disfavored landowners”.
This is disputed by the South African government, which says its Black Economic Empowerment policy is needed to correct economic inequality dating from the apartheid era.
The executive order also highlighted South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice and its links to Iran.
The White House said that given these “unjust and immoral practices”, further aid to South Africa would not be provided.
Trump has also falsely alleged that there is a “white genocide” taking place in South Africa, which has led to the administration setting up a refugee programme for Afrikaners – descendants of Western Europeans who settled in southern Africa in the 17th Century.
They are now just about the only refugees being allowed into the US.
The genocide claim has been widely discredited.
Pepfar funding, which had been providing about a fifth of South Africa’s total spending on HIV programmes, got a reprieve last October with what was called a “bridge plan”.
But a US State Department official has confirmed that a “phased drawdown” of Pepfar funding would now start.
This was because of “South Africa’s failure to make demonstrable progress on policy requests by the administration”, the official said.
The US government intended to “foster self-reliance” and reduce dependency on American funding, they added, pointing out that “South Africa is a middle-income country and is more than capable of supporting its own health programs”.
South Africa’s health ministry has said that while Pepfar contributed to the country’s HIV programme, the provision of life-saving antiretroviral drugs was funded entirely separately, with most coming from the government.
Attempts to mend US-South Africa relations have floundered. These include a high-profile White House meeting between Trump and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa just over a year ago, when the US president confronted his counterpart with his claims of white persecution.
The US also boycotted the G20 meeting, a gathering of the world’s major economies, hosted by South Africa last November.
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