Ireland’s deputy prime minister Simon Harris said that Donald Trump’s suspension of higher tariffs “will come as a relief to many businesses in Ireland”.

Speaking after a meeting with US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick in Washington today, Mr Harris said: “It was a timely, valuable and substantive meeting that took place shortly after President Trump’s latest announcement in respect of tariffs.

“We discussed that announcement and the likely next steps. I welcomed the fact that the President has announced the suspension of the higher tariffs announced on April 2 for a period of 90 days. This I know will come as a relief to many businesses in Ireland.

While his comments appeared to signal that the 25 per cent tariffs against the EU are among those paused for 90 days, despite Brussels moving this week to retaliate with levies of its own, Mr Harris said: “I recognise that further engagement and clarification is required between the European Commission and the administration on the detail of this.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has claimed the climbdown was part of Donald Trump’s negotiating strategy.

Ms Leavitt claimed the media “clearly failed to see what President Trump is doing here”, adding: “You tried to say that the rest of the world would be moved closer to China, when in fact, we’ve seen the opposite effect.

“The entire world is calling the United States of America, not China, because they need our markets.”

Donald Trump told reporters earlier that he would consider tariff exemptions for some companies hit particularly hard by the stock market chaos of the past weekcaused by his tariffs.

But asked he would make those determinations on which companies should be exempt, he said: “Just instinctively, more than anything else. You almost can’t take a pencil to paper. It’s really more of an instinct I think than anything else.”

US tariffs are set to cause an “uneven storm” across the UK with Coventry expected to be the worst affected, a think tank has warned.

The West Midlands, the home of British car manufacturing, and Wales, which is a significant contributor to British steel, are likely to take the brunt of the economic impact caused by Donald Trump’s escalating trade war, a study by Centre for Cities shows.

My colleague Rebecca Whittaker reports:

Donald Trump changed course again on Wednesday and announced a 90-day pause of his so-called “reciprocal” tariffs while hiking other duties on China to 125 percent.

The US president’s decision followed several days of sharp losses on the stock market. In a Truth Social post, Trump claimed that his reversal was a result of what White House officials have claimed are dozens of foreign nations reaching out with the intention of re-negotiating trade policy with the United States, rather than implementing tariffs of their own.

He said on Wednesday afternoon that his decision was made in response to days of market panic and rippling effects across various economic sectors, which Trump and other White House officials spend days unsuccessfully trying to quell.

“I thought that people were jumping a little bit out of line. They were getting yippy, you know, they were getting a little bit yippy, a little bit afraid,” Mr Trump told reporters at a White House event with NASCAR drivers on Wednesday afternoon. “I’ve reversed it. It’s for a short period of time.”

John Bowden and Andrew Feinberg have the full report, from Washington DC:

The UK and India have agreed 90 per cent of their free trade agreement, businesses were reportedly told on Tuesday during a briefing with negotiators from the UK’s Department for Business and Trade.

The Guardian cited a government source as saying that the contentious issue of mobility – which involves visas for Indian workers – had largely been resolved, adding: “We are nearly there. We are as close as we’ve ever been, but conversations at the political level cut both ways.”

Businesses were told on Tuesday’s call that some of the outstanding issues related to whisky and cars, according to the newspaper – two areas of the UK economy which are heavily exposed to US tariffs.

Goldman Sachs has cut its probability of a US recession from 65 to 45 per cent after Donald Trump’s announcement of a 90-day pause, with the investment bank saying the tariffs left in place were still likely to result in a 15 per cent increase in the overall tariff rate.

Analysts said the sudden spike in Wall Street stock values may not undo all of the damage from Mr Trump’s so-called “Liberation Day” tariffs announcement.

Surveys have found slowing business investment and household spending due to worries about the impact of the tariffs, and a Reuters/Ipsos survey found that three out of four Americans expect prices to increase in the months ahead.

The US tariffs on goods imported from Mexico and Canada will not be affected by the 90-day pause announced by Donald Trump, a White House official said.

Washington’s 25 per cent tariff on goods it imports from Mexico and Canada that are not covered under the region’s USMCA trade pact remains in effect, the official said – adding that energy and potash from the two countries will also continue be tariffed at 10 per cent.

The bulk of goods from Mexico and Canada that are covered under the trade agreement have been excluded from the United States’ wide ranging tariff policies.

Speaking on the typically Trump-friendly Fox Business, journalist Charlie Gasparino said in no uncertain terms that it was the US president “who capitulated” in his global tariffs showdown, as a result of uncertainty in the US bond market – which had prompted talk of a possible intervention by the US Federal Reserve.

Mr Gasparino said: “Let’s be clear what happened, who capitulated here and why … it is the White House who capitulated based on everything I hear and all my sources, and the reason why is because of the bond market and what happened last night.”

Writing on social media, he added: “Top money managers say it was Japan, not China, selling last night that upended the bond market and forced Trump’s hand into a pause.”