What repercussions will President Trump’s tariffs have on the UK?

What are the repercussions of Trump’s tariffs on the UK?The Independent

Transcript

00:00The UK is preparing for all eventualities as global stock markets nervously await

00:05the imposition of Donald Trump's sweeping trade tariffs.

00:08Let me be clear with the House, a trade war is in nobody's interest.

00:12The White House has provided no details about the size and scope of Donald Trump's tariffs,

00:18which he is set to announce on Wednesday night.

00:20But analysts are forecasting blanket tariffs of between 20% and 25% on all goods going into the US.

00:27The US accounts for around 17% of car exports from the United Kingdom.

00:34And of course, there are sectors like Scotch whisky as well,

00:37which are reeling from the possibility that they could be slammed with tariffs.

00:43Worst case scenario here is that these British companies selling into America

00:47might see a reduction in demand, their sales will be hit.

00:51When companies have weaker sales, they have no choice but to look at their cost structure.

00:56And that could obviously lead to job cuts in a worst case scenario.

01:00In response, Canada and the EU have said they will fight back against President Trump's tariffs

01:04with reciprocal ones. But the UK doesn't export to the US anywhere near as much as those countries.

01:11When you look at the amount of imports we take from them,

01:14in relation to their overall size of their export market is tiny,

01:18we take around 3% of the US exports overall.

01:22So if we were to put further tariffs on those goods,

01:26we would simply harm consumers in the UK and push up inflation here,

01:31as well as antagonising the US government.

01:33Tariff hikes will go into effect immediately, the White House has said.

01:37So businesses will not have any time to adjust.

01:41Keir Starmer is still hoping to negotiate a UK-US trade deal to mitigate the impact.

01:46One of the UK's bargaining chips is the promised state visit,

01:50which appears to have caught Donald Trump's attention.

01:53One thing that I would do if I was the UK government,

01:56I would postpone the royal visit as much as possible.

01:59Once that is gone, I don't know, because Trump doesn't seem to be the kind of person that

02:05sort of keep his end of the deal when there's no bargaining on the other side.

02:12So, I mean, that seems silly, but this is the times we're in.

02:17When it comes to the UK's response, Starmer said that he will remain calm,

02:21but that nothing is off the table.