Donald Trump has said he will not allow Israel to annex the occupied West Bank, rejecting calls from some far-right politicians in Israel who want to extend sovereignty over the area and in doing so make impossible the establishment of a Palestinian state.
“I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank. Nope, I will not allow it. It’s not going to happen,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, adding “There’s been enough. It’s time to stop now.”
Trump made the comments as Benjamin Netanyahu was arriving in New York to deliver an address to the United Nations on Friday.
There has been widespread speculation in Israel and elsewhere over how Netanyahu intends to retaliate for the recognition of Palestine as a state earlier this week by the UK, Australia, France, Canada and Portugal.
Map shows area of Israeli and Palestinian territories, focusing on the occupied West Bank and East and West Jerusalem.
Officials in Jerusalem have said that anything Netanyahu does will be cleared first with Trump. Options include full annexation of the West Bank, or of smaller portions such as a strip of territory along the border with Jordan or shuttering British, French and other consulates in East Jerusalem, analysts said.
Earlier this week, British officials said they feared Trump would recognise Israeli control over illegal settlements on the West Bank in retaliation for the moves by the UK and others.
Trump says he will ‘not allow’ Israel to annex the West Bank – video
Arab and European leaders were engaged in an intensive lobbying operation to make sure he did not go through with the recognition of West Bank settlements.
Netanyahu has faced significant pressure from far-right factions who are part of his ruling coalition to annex the West Bank, prompting alarm among Arab leaders, some of whom met on Tuesday with Trump on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
Arab and Muslim countries warned Trump about the grave consequences of any annexation of the West Bank – a message the US president “understands very well,” according to Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud.
Israeli settlements have grown in size and number since Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 war and then imposed a military occupation. They stretch deep into the territory with a system of roads and other infrastructure under Israeli control, further slicing up the land. A widely condemned Israeli settlement plan known as the E1 project, which would effectively bisect the occupied West Bank and cut it off from East Jerusalem, received final approval in August. It will cut across land that the Palestinians seek for a state.
Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, an ultra-nationalist, said at the time that a Palestinian state was “being erased from the table.”
About 700,000 Israeli settlers live among 2.7 million Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which Israel annexed in a move not recognised by most countries.
Most of the international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law. Israel disputes this, citing historical and biblical ties to the area and saying the settlements provide strategic depth and security.
While international leaders gather at the United Nations in New York, the US presented a 21-point Middle East peace plan in a bid to end the nearly two-year-long war in Gaza.
Trump, who remains Israel’s staunchest ally on the world stage, said that he spoke with representatives from Middle Eastern nations and Netanyahu on Thursday and that a deal on Gaza could happen soon.
“We want the hostages back, we want the bodies back and we want to have peace in that region. So we had some very good talks,” he said.
Israel has drawn global condemnation over its war in Gaza, which was triggered by a Hamas raid into Israel in 2023 in which militants killed 1,200, mostly civilians. The conflict has caused major destruction and killed more than 65,000 Palestinians, also mostly civilians. A UN backed hunger monitor says part of the territory is suffering from famine.
Former UK Prime Minister Sir Tony Blair has been involved in discussions about leading a post-war transitional authority in Gaza, the BBC understands.
The proposal, which is said to have backing from the White House, would see Blair lead a governing authority supported by the UN and Gulf nations – before handing control back to Palestinians.
His office said he would not support any proposal that displaced the people of Gaza.
Sir Tony, who took the UK into the Iraq War in 2003, has been part of high-level planning talks with the US and other parties about the future of Gaza.
In August, he joined a White House meeting with Trump to discuss plans for the territory, which US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff described as “very comprehensive” – though little else was disclosed about the meeting.
The plans could see Blair head a body named the Gaza International Transitional Authority (Gita), according to reports in the Economist and Israeli media. It would seek a UN mandate to be Gaza’s “supreme political and legal authority” for five years.
The plan would be modelled on the international administrations that oversaw East Timor and Kosovo’s transitions to statehood. It would initially be based in Egypt, near Gaza’s southern border, before entering Gaza once the Strip is stable, alongside a multinational force.
As PM, Blair took the decision to commit British forces to the 2003 Iraq War that was heavily criticised in the official inquiry into the conflict, which found he had acted on flawed intelligence without certainty about the production of weapons of mass destruction there.
After leaving office in 2007, Blair served as Middle East envoy for the Quartet of international powers (the US, EU, Russia and the UN). He focused on bringing economic development to Palestine and creating the conditions for a two state-solution.
Reports of discussions about his involvement in a transitional authority for Gaza come after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Thursday that he was ready to work with Trump and other world leaders to implement a two-state peace plan.
Abbas stressed his rejection of a future governing role for Hamas in Gaza and demanded it disarm.
Throughout the conflict, varying proposals for the future of Gaza have been tabled by multiple parties.
In February, Donald Trump floated plans – which since appear to have been dropped – for the US to take “a long-term ownership position” over Gaza, saying it could be the “Riviera of the Middle East”.
The idea would have involved the forced displacement of Palestinians in the territory and be in violation of international law. The US and Israel said it would involve “voluntary” emigration.
In March, the US and Israel rejected an Arab plan for the post-war reconstruction of the Gaza Strip that would allow the 2.1 million Palestinians living there to stay in place. The Palestinian Authority and Hamas welcomed the Arab plan, which called for Gaza to be governed temporarily by a committee of independent experts and for international peacekeepers to be deployed there.
In July, a French and Saudi-led international conference in New York proposed a “transitional administrative committee” for Gaza which would operate “under the umbrella of the Palestinian Authority”. Neither the US nor Israel attended. The so-called New York Declaration was backed by a majority of the UN General Assembly in a resolution earlier this month.
Earlier this week, the UK formally recognised the State of Palestine, alongside France, Canada, Australia, and several other countries.
In his speech, Abbas thanked them for taking the step, including, he said, Denmark, though that country has not yet recognised Palestine. It says it will only do so if certain conditions are met.
The UK and others reiterated calls for a two-state solution, which would see the creation of an independent Palestine in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital, alongside Israel.
Israel and the US criticised the move as a “reward for Hamas”.
The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.
At least 65,502 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry. A UN commission of inquiry has said Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, which Israel denies.
Correction 26 September 2025: An earlier version of this story said Denmark was among countries which have already recognised Palestine. This has been amended to make clear that such recognition is conditional and has not yet happened.
As Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyhu took the stand at the United Nations general assembly on Friday in New York, scores of delegates walked out of the hall amid boos and cheers.
Dozens walk out during Benjamin Netanyahu’s United Nations speech – video
Netanyahu rebukes Western nations from UN stage for embracing Palestinian statehood
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu sharply denounced western countries on Friday for embracing Palestinian statehood and accused them of buckling under pressure from activists and others who have accused Israel of war crimes against Palestinians in Gaza.
Speaking at the United Nations general assembly, the Israeli leader pushed back in harsh terms against a flurry of diplomatic moves by leading US allies that deepened Israel’s international isolation over its conduct of the nearly two-year-old war against Hamas militants in Gaza.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during the 80th session of the United Nations general assembly at the UN headquarters. Photograph: Stefan Jeremiah/AP
Netanyahu said:
This week, the leaders of France, Britain, Australia, Canada and other countries unconditionally recognised a Palestinian state. They did so after the horrors committed by Hamas on 7 October – horrors praised on that day by nearly 90% of the Palestinian population.
With more countries joining the list of those endorsing Palestinian independence, the most right-wing government in Israeli history has made its strongest declaration yet that there will be no Palestinian state as it pushes on with its fight against Hamas.
Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has accused world leaders of “appeasing evil” rather than supporting Israel. He claimed that “many leaders who publicly condemn Israel, thank us behind closed doors”.
Addressing the United Nations general assembly in New York, Netanyhu claimed Israel were applying more measures to minimize civilian casualties than any military in history.
“Would a country committing genocide plead with the civilian population it is supposedly targeting to get out of harm’s way?” he asked.
Netanyhu said Israel had dropped “millions of leaflets, sent millions of text messages [and] made countless phone calls urging civilians to leave Gaza City”.
Israel ‘must finish job in Gaza as fast as possible’, Netanyahu tells the UN
In his speech to the United Nations general assembly in New York, Netanyahu said that “Israel must finish the job in Gaza as fast as possible”.
He said the “final remnants of Hamas are holed up in Gaza City”.
Speaking to the Israeli hostages remaining in Gaza, via loudspeakers facing towards the territory, Netanyahu said he would not rest until all the hostages are brought home. To Hamas, he said:
Lay down your arms. Free all [the] hostages now … If you do, you will live. If you don’t Israel will hunt you down.
‘We’ve not forgotten you,’ Netanyahu tells hostages in speech broadcast by troops into Gaza
Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking at the United Nations on Friday, vowed to continue Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip and told the hostages still held by the Palestinian militants they were not forgotten as his speech was broadcast on loudspeakers towards Gaza.
Speaking in Hebrew, the Israeli leader said:
We’ve not forgotten you – not even for a second.
Netanyahu catalogued Israeli victories against Hamas and other militant groups backed by Iran in a speech that detailed Hamas’s actions on 7 October 2023, when the militant group attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and took hostages, 48 of whom remain in Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
“Much of the world no longer remembers 7 October. But we remember,” Netanyahu said.
Israel’s military response has killed more than 65,000 people in Gaza, according to local health officials, and left much of the territory in ruins.
Scores of delegates exited the hall as Netanyahu took the stage while attendees in the balcony rose to their feet to give him a standing ovation.
Netanyhu thanks Trump for ‘his bold, decisive action against Iran’
Netanyahu thanked US president Donald Trump for “his bold, decisive action against Iran”. The Israeli prime minister told the UN general assembly that “Iran’s enriched uranium stockpiles must be eliminated”.
He urged delegates to “remain clear-minded, vigilant [and] not allow Iran to rebuild [its] nuclear capabilities”.
Netanyhu added that Israel had “removed an existential threat of Iran” to his country.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday cataloged Israeli victories against Hamas militants, Iran and their supporters in a speech at the United Nations that reminded the world of Hamas’s actions on 7 October 2023.
He said Israel had “devastated” Iran’s atomic weapons and ballistic missiles programme. He said Israel had also “hammered” the Houthis, “crushed the bulk of Hamas” and “crippled” Hezbollah.
Netanyhu begins speech at UN general assembly as scores of delegates walk out
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is now speaking at the UN general assembly in New York.
Before he started speaking, dozens of delegates in the hall walked out. There were boos and cheers.
As Netanyahu started talking about Iran, there was some shouting from the crowd. There has also been applause in reaction to Netanyahu’s comments about Israel’s war with Iran.
You can watch the speech live via the feed at the top of the page.
Delegations walk out as Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is about to addresses the 80th United Nations general assembly. Photograph: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has said that on his orders, troops will broadcast his speech at the UN headquarters to Palestinians in Gaza from loudspeakers mounted on trucks on the Israeli side of the border.
Benjamin Netanyahu to address the UN general assembly in New York
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu will address the United Nations general assembly soon. He is expected to speak at 2pm BST (9am local time in New York).
Here are some images via the newswires of scenes in New York when Netanyahu arrived yesterday:
A person waves a Palestinian flag during a protest against Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu prior to his arrival to a hotel in Manhattan. Photograph: Carlos Barría/ReutersPro-Palestinian protesters chant against the arrival of Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who is scheduled to address the UN general assembly in New York. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty ImagesA pro-Palestinians protester holds up an image of Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who is scheduled to address the UN general assembly amid growing international isolation for his country. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
UN identifies 158 firms linked to Israeli settlements
The United Nations on Friday released a long-awaited update of its database of companies with activities in Israeli settlements, listing 158 firms from 11 countries, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Big firms such as Airbnb, Booking.com, Motorola Solutions and Trip Advisor remained on the list, while several companies including Alstom and Opodo were removed, the non-exhaustive database showed, according to AFP.
Most of the companies were based in Israel, while others were based in Canada, China, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, the UK and the United States.
The report called on companies to “take appropriate action to address the adverse human rights impacts” of their activities.
The UN high commissioner for human rights chief Volker Türk has condemned Israel’s policy of settlements on Palestinian territory in the occupied West Bank as a war crime. Türk said in a statement as his office published the database:
This report underscores the due diligence responsibility of businesses working in contexts of conflict to ensure their activities do not contribute to human rights abuses.
The list was first produced by the UN human rights office in 2020 amid harsh Israeli criticism, in response to a human rights council resolution four years earlier demanding a database of firms that profited from business in occupied Palestinian territory.
The UN rights office was asked to list companies found to be taking part in any of 10 specific activities, including construction, surveillance, demolitions and destruction of agricultural land in settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. It has stressed that listing companies in the database was “not, and does not purport to be, a judicial or quasi-judicial process”.
Despite a requirement for the database to be updated annually, it has been revised just once before, in 2023, when only the 112 firms that had figured on the original list were reviewed. Fifteen of them were removed for various reasons, leaving 97.
Friday’s release marks the first update that includes fresh names. The rights office said:
A total of 68 new companies were added to the list published in 2023, while seven of those … were removed as they were no longer involved in any of the activities concerned.
The exercise has been contentious from the start, reports AFP. In 2020 Israel and its main ally Washington fiercely condemned the creation of the database, with then Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz describing it as “a shameful surrender to pressure from countries and organisations who want to harm Israel”.
Palestinians, carrying their belongings by vehicle or on their backs, continue to flee toward southern Gaza via al-Rashid Street earlier today.
Palestinians, carrying their belongings by vehicle or on their backs, continue to flee toward southern Gaza via al-Rashid Street after intensified Israeli attacks and ground operation amid forced evacuation orders in Gaza City, Gaza on 26 September 2025. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
Philip Oltermann
The European Broadcasting Union has confirmed it will hold an online vote in November that could see the Israeli broadcaster Kan expelled from next year’s Eurovision song contest.
In a letter sent to participating broadcasters on Thursday, the EBU president, Delphine Ernotte Cunci, wrote there was an “unprecedented diversity of views” on Israel’s participation in Eurovision, and the issue required “a broader democratic basis”.
In a statement, the EBU said:
We can confirm that a letter has been sent from the executive board of the European Broadcasting Union to directors general of all our members informing them that a vote on participation in the Eurovision song contest 2026 will take place at an extraordinary meeting of the EBU’s general assembly to be held online in early November.
The decision comes after several European broadcasters, including those from Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, Iceland and Slovenia, threatened to boycott the next edition of the world’s largest live music event if Israel was allowed to take part.
Russia was banned from Eurovision after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Meanwhile Israel, which has won the contest four times since its debut in 1973, has continued to compete for the past two years despite disputes over its participation.
Yuval Raphael represents Israel at the 2025 Eurovision song contest in Basel, Switzerland. Photograph: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images
Both the 2024 contest in Malmö, Sweden, and this year’s event in Basel, Switzerland, were marked by pro-Palestine protests around the concert halls.
Next year’s Eurovision, the 70th anniversary of the song contest, is due to be held in the Austrian capital, Vienna, in May.
The Abu Dhabi royal family is to take a stake in TikTok’s US business after Donald Trump signed an executive order brokering a deal valuing the social media company at $14bn (£10.5bn).
MGX, a fund chaired by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, will take a 15% stake and gain a board seat when TikTok US is spun out.
The US president signed an executive order on Thursday night approving the deal and providing a 120-day window to finalise the details.
Larry Ellison’s Oracle, the private equity group Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi’s MGX will control roughly 45% of TikTok US. Overall, American companies are expected to control just over 65% of the company, with Trump also naming the personal computer pioneer Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch’s Fox as other investors.
“[TikTok US] will be majority-owned and controlled by United States persons and will no longer be controlled by any foreign adversary,” Trump said. “We have American investors taking it over, running it [who are] highly sophisticated, including Larry Ellison. Great investors, the biggest. They don’t get bigger. This is going to be American-operated all the way.”
TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, will retain a 19.9% stake in the US operation.
China has not publicly made clear whether it will approve the deal, although Trump said that he had “had a good talk” with the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, who “gave us the go-ahead”.
JD Vance, the US vice-president, said the deal valued TikTok US at $14bn. “There was some resistance on the Chinese side,” Vance said. “But the fundamental thing that we wanted to accomplish is that we wanted to keep TikTok operating but we wanted to make sure that protected Americans’ data privacy as required by law.”
He added: “This deal really does mean that Americans can use TikTok, but actually use it with more confidence than in the past. Because their data is going to be secure and it’s not going to be used as a propaganda weapon against our fellow citizens.”
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The $14bn valuation of the US business is far lower than the valuation for ByteDance overall, which is estimated to be about $330bn. By comparison, Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, is valued at $1.8tn.
The future of TikTok US had been uncertain since last April when Congress passed a law mandating ByteDance sell it because of privacy and national security concerns. Trump repeatedly extended deadlines for a sale to be agreed – or the shutdown of TikTok US – to try to broker a deal.
US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he would not allow Israel to annex the West Bank, rejecting calls from some far-right politicians in Israel who want to extend sovereignty over the area and snuff out hopes for a Palestinian state.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has faced some pressure from allies to annex the West Bank, prompting alarm among Arab leaders, some of whom met on Tuesday with Trump on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
“I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank. Nope, I will not allow it. It’s not going to happen,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
“There’s been enough. It’s time to stop now,” he said.
Read: Pakistan condemns Israel’s attempt to annex West Bank
France, Britain, Canada, Australia and Portugal are among the countries that have recognized a Palestinian state in the last few days, in part to help keep the possibility of a two-state solution alive. Israel has condemned the moves.
Trump made the comments as Netanyahu was arriving in New York to deliver an address to the United Nations on Friday.
Netanyahu’s office said the prime minister would wait until he returns to Israel to address Trump’s remark.Israeli settlements have grown in size and number since Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 war. They stretch deep into the territory with a system of roads and other infrastructure under Israeli control, further slicing up the land.
Read more: Muslim leaders reject Gaza displacement
A widely condemned Israeli settlement plan known as the E1 project, which would bisect the occupied West Bank and cut it off from East Jerusalem, recieved final approval in August. It will cut across land that the Palestinians seek for a state.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, an ultra-nationalist in the ruling right-wing coalition that keeps Netanyahu in power, said at the time that a Palestinian state is “being erased from the table.”
Most of the international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law.
Israel disputes this, citing historical and biblical ties to the area and saying the settlements provide strategic depth and security.
Gaza deal talks
While international leaders gather at the United Nations in New York, the U.S. presented a 21-point Middle East peace plan in a bid to end the nearly two-year-long war in Gaza between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas.
It was shared with leaders and officials from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Indonesia and Pakistan on Tuesday, according to US special envoy Steve Witkoff.
Trump, who remains Israel’s staunchest ally on the world stage, said that he spoke with representatives from Middle Eastern nations and Netanyahu on Thursday and that a deal on Gaza could happen soon.
“We want the hostages back, we want the bodies back and we want to have peace in that region. So we had some very good talks,” he said.
Israel has drawn global condemnation over its war in Gaza, which is nearing the two-year mark with no ceasefire in sight. The conflict has caused major destruction and killed more than 65,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities.
A global hunger monitor says part of the territory is suffering from famine.
Also read: Abbas pledges to work with Trump on Gaza
On the ground, Israeli forces advanced deeper into Gaza City on Thursday and Israeli strikes killed at least 19 people across Gaza, local health authorities said.
International efforts are also continuing to send assistance to help civilians as Israel appears increasingly isolated.
Italy and Spain on Thursday deployed naval ships to assist an international aid flotilla that has come under drone attack while trying to deliver aid to Gaza. The Global Sumud Flotilla is using about 50 civilian boats to try to break Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza.
Shares in some European truckmakers have fallen in early trading, after Donald Trump announced a 25% tariff on imports of all heavy-duty trucks.
Daimler Trucks, the major commercial vehicle manufacturer, has dropped by around 4%.
The TratonGroup, whose brands include Scania, MAN, International, and Volkswagen Truck & Bus, are down 2.1%.
NeilShearing, group chief economist at CapitalEconomics, says Mexico could be most affected by the new tariffs:
The US sources 78% of heavy truck imports from Mexico and 15% from Canada, so a key question is whether there will be exemptions for USMCA-compliant products.
This is unclear at present, but it’s worth noting that most product-specific tariffs (with the exception of auto parts) have not had USMCA exemptions. If there’s no USMCA exemption, then Mexico will be most heavily affected by the large truck tariffs.
UK pharma stocks drop
Shares in UK pharmaceuticals giant AstraZeneca have dropped by 1.4% at the start of trading in London.
AstraZeneca are the biggest faller on the FTSE100 share index.
That’s a slight surprise (to me, anyway), as AstraZeneca recently announced it will invest $50bn (£37bn) in the US by 2030. That ought to satisfy Trump’s position that taxes could be avoided by companies if they built manufacturing plants in America.
Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB, explains:
UK Pharma giant AstraZeneca could be better placed than some of its European rivals, due to promised extra investment in the US that has already been announced, and the President’s promise to treat the UK differently when it comes to pharma tariffs.
Thus, the FTSE 100 could be a relative ‘safe haven’ in the middle of this latest tariff storm.
Shares in fellow pharma firm GSK are close behind, -0.9%.
The overall FTSE100 is flat in early trading.
As tariffs are paid by importers, not exporters, Trump’s new levies could sharply push up the cost of some medicines for Americans.
Pascal Chan, vice-president for strategic policy and supply chains at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, warned that the tariffs could harm Americans’ health with “immediate price hikes, strained insurance systems, hospital shortages, and the real risk of patients rationing or foregoing essential medicines”.
“We are already being crushed by the highest prescription drug costs in the world and this will cause them to skyrocket further,” 314 Action, a US advocacy group that tries to elect scientists to office, said in a statement.
“If [Trump] goes through with these tariffs, people across the country will die.”
More here:
Introduction: Trump rattles markets with new tariffs on pharmaceuticals, trucks and kitchen cabinets
Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.
Donald Trump has opened up a new front in his global trade wars, jolting investors.
Overnight, the US president announced tariffs of 100% on medicines and pharmaceutical goods imported into the US, dropping a shoe that had been dangling over the pharma industry for months.
In a wide-ranging move, Trump also announced 25% tariff on imports of all heavy-duty trucks, 50% tariffs on kitchen cabinets, a 50% tariff on bathroom vanities and a 30% tariff on upholstered furniture, with all the new duties taking effect from 1 October.
The tariffs announced by Trump do not apply to generic pharmaceuticals, and companies will be exempt if they have begun constructing new manufacturing facilities in the US.
Trump claimed the taxes on imported kitchen cabinets and sofas were needed “for National Security and other reasons”.
He said the new heavy-duty truck tariffs were to protect manufacturers from “unfair outside competition” and said the move would benefit companies such as Paccar-owned Peterbilt and Kenworth and Daimler Truck-owned Freightliner.
He added:
“We need our Truckers to be financially healthy and strong, for many reasons, but above all else, for National Security purposes!”.
The announcement has given investors “a fresh reminder about the trade war, and the impact has already been evident in Asian markets,” reports JimReid, market strategist at Deutsche Bank.
Shares in Asia-Pacific companies with exposure to the US market have dropped today – Japan’s SumitomoPharma are down 4.6%, and Austalia’s biotechnology firm CSL have lost almost 2%.
Shares in Europe’s biggest pharma companies are also set to fall when trading begins; NovoNordisk, Roche, Novartis and Astrazeneca are down betweeen 1.8% and 2% on the Tradegate platform, Reuters reports.
That’s despite the EU agreeing a trade deal with the US which appears to limit tariffs on pharma and semiconductor exports to 15%, in line with most other sectors in the trade deal.
The crackdown on kitchen cabinets has hit stocks too; an index tracking Chinese-listed furniture makers has dropped around 1%.
New US inflation data, due this afternoon, will show whether the trade war is pushing up the cost of living for Americans.
Super Typhoon Ragasa pounded Taiwan, Hong Kong and China before moving into Vietnam on Thursday night, though as a much-weakened storm.
At its peak Ragasa had mean wind speeds of 165mph as it moved to the south of Taiwan, where it brought significant heavy rain resulting in 17 deaths as a barrier lake burst.
The storms then moved westwards just to the south of Hong Kong, before making landfall on Wednesday in the Guangdong province of China, with mean wind speeds of 150mph – equivalent to a category 4 hurricane.
This brought significant disruption as 90 people were injured in Hong Kong as the storm brought 197mm of rain across Tuesday and Wednesday, while in China millions had to evacuate in the cities of Shenzhen, Chaozhou, Zhuhai, Dongguan and Foshan.
Meanwhile, another storm, named Bualoi, has developed across the western Pacific and is forecast to strengthen into a typhoon on Friday before moving into the southern end of the Philippines’ largest island, Luzon. Widespread flooding and landslides are possible and as a result schools have been shut and flights cancelled in the region. This storm will come just days after Ragasa moved to the north of the country, resulting in the death of nine people in the archipelago.
On the other side of the world, the Atlantic hurricane season has finally become more active with tropical storm Humberto, now situated to the north-east of the Caribbean, named on Thursday, while Gabrielle remains a hurricane with mean wind speeds of 85mph.
Humberto is expected to rapidly strengthen as it gradually moves north-eastwards, and will probably become a hurricane this weekend over the tropical south-east Atlantic.
Meanwhile, Gabrielle moved over the Azores on Thursday night, bringing hurricane conditions to the islands with heavy rain, strong winds and a dangerous storm surge likely as a result.
A third system, just to the north of the Dominican Republic, is also expected to develop in the coming days.
