The UK government has hit back at suggestions the tariff agreement it reached with the US last week could be damaging to China.

It said there was “no such thing as a veto on Chinese investment” in the deal.

The UK-US agreement rowed back on big hikes in tariffs on metals and cars imposed by President Donald Trump, but it also included conditions requiring the UK to “promptly meet” US demands on the “security of the supply chains” of steel and aluminium products exported to America.

Beijing fears this could see it being excluded from supplying US-bound goods to the UK, telling the Financial Times it was a “basic principle” that bilateral trade deals should not target other countries.

At a regular press conference on Tuesday China’s foreign ministry spokesperson was asked about the UK’s trade agreements with the US and India.

Lin Jian said: “As for the trade agreement… between the UK and relevant countries, I would like to point out that cooperation between countries should not target or harm the interests of third parties.”

China is the world’s second biggest economy and the UK’s fifth biggest trading partner. In 2024 total bilateral trade hit £98.4bn.

In response to the latest comments from China, the UK government said the agreement with the US was “in the national interest to secure thousands of jobs across key sectors, protect British businesses and lay the groundwork for greater trade in the future”.

Any “external provisions” in the agreement were “not designed to undermine mutually beneficial economic relations with any third country”, it said.

“As the Chief Secretary to the Treasury clearly stated, there is no such thing as a veto on Chinese investment in this trade deal.”

It added that “trade and investment with China remain important to the UK.”

Under the UK-US deal Trump’s blanket 10% tariffs on imports from countries around the world still applies to most UK goods entering the US.

But the deal has reduced or removed tariffs on some of the UK’s exports, including steel and aluminium.

The terms of the agreement say the UK will “work to promptly meet US requirements on the security of the supply chains of steel and aluminum products intended for export to the United States and on the nature of ownership of relevant production facilities”.

The US and China have been engaged in a tariffs war since the beginning of this year.

The US buys much more from China ($440bn) than it sells to it ($145bn), which is something Trump has long been unhappy with.

His reasoning in part for introducing tariffs, and higher ones on countries which sell more to the US than they buy, is to encourage US consumers to buy more American-made goods, increase the amount of tax raised and boost manufacturing jobs.

However, on Monday, Trump said talks over the weekend between the US and China had resulted in a “total reset” in terms of trade between the two countries, with tariffs either being cut or suspended on both sides.

The result is that additional US tariffs on Chinese imports – that’s the extra tariffs imposed in this recent stand-off – will fall from 145% to 30%, while recently-hiked Chinese tariffs on some US imports will fall from 125% to 10%.

The move is seen as helping to defuse the trade war between the world’s two biggest economies.

Japanese carmaker Nissan has said it will cut another 11,000 jobs globally and shut seven factories as it shakes up the business in the face of weak sales.

Falling sales in China and heavy discounting in the US, its two biggest markets, have taken a heavy toll on earnings, while a proposed merger with Honda and Mitsubishi collapsed in February.

The latest cutbacks bring the total number of layoffs announced by the company in the past year to about 20,000, or 15% of its workforce.

It was not immediately clear where the job cuts will be made, or whether Nissan’s plant in Sunderland will be affected.

Nissan employs about 133,500 people globally, with about 6,000 workers in Sunderland.

Two-thirds of the latest job cuts will come from manufacturing, with the rest from sales, administration jobs, research and contract staff, said the company’s chief executive, Ivan Espinosa.

The latest layoffs come on top of 9,000 job cuts Nissan announced in November as part of a cost saving effort that it said would reduce its global production by a fifth.

In February, talks between Nissan and its larger rival Honda collapsed after the firms failed to agree on a multi-billion-dollar tie-up.

The plan had been to combine their businesses to fight back against competition from rival firms, especially in China.

The merger would have created a $60bn (£46bn) motor industry giant, the fourth largest in the world by vehicle sales after Toyota, Volkswagen and Hyundai.

After the failure of the negotiations, then-chief executive Makoto Uchida was replaced by Mr Espinosa, who was the company’s chief planning officer and head of its motorsports division.

Nissan also reported an annual loss of 670 billion yen ($4.5bn; £3.4bn), with US President Donald Trump’s tariffs putting further pressure on the struggling firm.

Mr Espinosa said that the previous financial year had been “challenging”, with rising costs and an “uncertain environment”, adding that the results were a “wake-up call”.

The car giant did not give a forecast for income in the coming year due to the “uncertain nature of US tariff measures”.

It said it expected flat profit this year even without accounting for the impact of tariffs.

Last week, Nissan announced it had scrapped plans to build a battery and electric vehicle factory in Japan as it cuts back on investment.

The firm has been in trouble in key markets, including China where growing competition has led to falling prices.

In China, many foreign carmakers have struggled to compete with homegrown firms such as BYD.

China has become the world’s biggest producer of electric vehicles, with some established car-making nations having failed to anticipate demand for the new technology.

In the US, another major market for Nissan, inflation and higher interest rates have hit new vehicle sales, although Nissan retail sales rose slightly last year.

But sales fell 12% in China, and also dropped in Japan and Europe.

The US and China have agreed a deal that will significantly cut the import tariffs they have imposed on each other, in a major de-escalation of their trade war.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said both countries would lower their reciprocal tariffs by 115% for 90 days.

The announcement came after the two countries held talks in Switzerland, the first between the two countries since US President Donald Trump had levied steep tariffs on Chinese imports last month.

Shares jumped on news of the deal. Last month, the imposition of the tariffs had caused turmoil in financial markets and sparked fears of a global recession.

The trade war between China and the US intensified last month after President Trump announced a universal baseline tariff on all imports to the US, on what he called “Liberation Day”.

Around 60 trading partners, which the White House described as the “worst offenders”, were subjected to higher rates than others, and this included China.

China retaliated with tariffs of its own, and this ratcheting up of levies ultimately led to the US imposing a 145% tariff on Chinese imports, while Beijing had a 125% levy on some US goods.

Under the new agreement, the US and China have both suspended all but 10% of their Liberation Day tariffs for 90 days and cancelled other retaliatory tariffs.

This will cut US tariffs on Chinese imports to 30%, while Chinese tariffs on US imports will be cut to 10%. The pause will begin on 14 May.

The US measures still include an extra 20% component aimed at putting pressure on Beijing to do more to curb the illegal trade in fentanyl, a powerful opioid drug.

The huge tariffs imposed had raised the prospect of trade between the two countries slumping, with US ports reporting a sharp drop in the number of ships scheduled to arrive from China.

Meanwhile Beijing has become increasingly concerned about the impact the tariffs could have on its economy. Factory output has already slowed and there are reports some firms were having to lay off workers as production lines of goods bound for the US began to grind to a halt.

Announcing the agreement, Bessent said: “The consensus from both delegations this weekend is neither side wants a decoupling.

“What had occurred with these very high tariffs was the equivalent of an embargo, and neither side wants that.

“We do want trade, we want more balanced trade, and I think that both sides are committed to achieving that.”

China’s commerce ministry said the agreement reached with the US was an important step to “resolve differences” and “lay the foundation to bridge differences and deepen co-operation”.

Neil Shearing, group chief economist at Capital Economics, said the agreement represented a “significant de-escalation” of the trade war.

“We’ve come from a place where tariffs imposed… were so high as to almost preclude trade in the long run between the world’s two largest economies,” he told the BBC.

However, he added, while trade will now continue, “it will happen at a higher price and that higher price will be borne by US consumers and US businesses”.

News of the agreement boosted stock markets, with Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng Index ending the day up 3%. China’s Shanghai Composite Index had closed before details of the deal came out, and ended 0.8% higher.

European stocks rose and early indications were that the main US stock markets will open up by 2-3%.

The deal has boosted shares in shipping companies, with Denmark’s Maersk up more than 12% and Germany’s Hapag-Lloyd jumping 14%.

Maersk told the BBC the US-China agreement was “a step in the right direction”.

“We hope it can lay the foundation for the parties to also reach a permanent deal that can create the long-term predictability our customers need.”

However, the gold price – which has benefited from its safe-haven status in recent weeks given the disruption caused by the tariffs – fell 3% to $3,224.34 an ounce.

In a joint statement, both countries said they would establish “a mechanism to continue discussions about economic and trade relations”, led by Scott Bessent and China’s Vice Premier He Lifeng.

It added that both countries believe that “continued discussions have the potential to address the concerns of each side in their economic and trade relationship”.

President Trump has long been unhappy with the fact that the US buys substantially more goods from China than it sells it.

Other concerns include a lack of protection for the intellectual property rights of American companies in China including the forced transfer of technology.

There’s also unhappiness about alleged Chinese government subsidies that give their companies an unfair advantage – something Beijing says Washington also does.

When President Trump first announced the tariffs, he argued they would boost American manufacturing and protect jobs.

But many economists argued they would hit growth in the global economy, and make many products more expensive for US consumers.

Last month, the International Monetary Fund cut its growth forecast for the global economy for this year to 2.8% from 3.3%, arguing that the uncertainty caused by the tariffs would hit supply chains and lead to firm’s either pausing or cutting investment.

The UK and US reached a deal last week over tariffs on some goods traded between the countries.

The blanket 10% tariffs on imports entering the US from countries around the world still applies to most UK goods, but the deal reduced or removed tariffs on some UK exports, including cars, steel and aluminium.