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