内容摘要："I think everyone just needs to work together to find a viable solution," they added.

"I think everyone just needs to work together to find a viable solution," they added.

Speaking to Congress on Tuesday, Jamieson Greer, who leads the office of the US Trade Representative, declined to set a timeline for how quickly talks might progress."The president is fixed in his purpose. This trade deficit and offshoring and the loss of jobs has persisted for too long," he said, while acknowledging the measures might lead to a "challenging" economic adjustment.

"It is a moment of drastic, overdue change, but I am confident the American people will rise to the occasion as they have done before," he said.US share prices have been on a downward slide for days. The S&P 500 is now trading at its lowest level in more than a year, after seeing roughly 12% of its value wiped out since the announcement last week.Stock markets from Japan to Germany have also been shaken, as investors assess the wider repercussions of the actions. In the UK, the FTSE 100 has dropped about 10%.

"What I'm really seeing is trepidation, uncertainty, a lot of questions, a lot of people wanting us to predict what will happen next," said Amy Magnus, director of compliance and customs affairs for Deringer, a Vermont-based firm that is one of America's top five customs brokers. "But I have entered into a world that I cannot predict."Erin Williamson, vice-president of US customs brokerage at GEODIS, a global supply chain operator, said on Tuesday afternoon that the uncertainty had prompted some of her firm's clients to simply put shipments on pause.

"One of the top ways that you can confirm that you're not putting your business at risk is really holding off until maybe the dust settles," she said.

The uncertainty is raising the risks to the economy, said Ernie Tedeschi, director of economics of the Budget Lab at Yale, which is not predicting a recession in the US, but still expects tariffs announced so far this year will cost the US 600,000 jobs and lead to a roughly $3,800 hit to purchasing power for the average household.Teachers at three middle schools have announced seven days of strike action in a long-running dispute over potential job losses.

There are plans to switch to a two-tier system in north Northumberland and shut three schools.The education union NASUWT said the planned closure of Glendale, Tweedmouth and Berwick middle schools would put 142 staff at risk with only 50 to 60 jobs to apply for after restructuring.

Northumberland County Council said it was trying to "secure permanent employment" for all staff over the next two years.NASUWT said the latest action would take place from 7 to 10 October and from 21 to 23 later in the month.