During the first three weeks of President Trump’s second term in office, there have already been major adjustments to US tariffs, so let’s clear up the impact on the UK.
Firstly, it is worth pointing out that comments from Trump last week, when questioned about the UK, seem to be relatively positive for most exporters to the US. Trump suggested that he was confident the UK situation “can be worked out”, which is widely understood to mean without tariffs.
However, some UK businesses will be impacted by tariff amendments that have already been imposed by Trump.
The executive order to impose a 10% duty hike on products from China went live on February 4th, which will add to the costs of any UK businesses that source from China and sell those products in the US market.
Additionally, Trump announced a 25% tariff on US imports of steel and aluminium this week, which comes into effect on March 12th, and stated there would be no exceptions. If this is the case, and the British government is unable to negotiate an exemption, then this will be a blow for some UK steel exporters.
The UK exported around 170 thousand tonnes of steel, with a revenue of £400 million, to the US last year. However, while the US is the UK’s second largest export market, it is dwarfed by sales to the EU and only accounts for around 5% of the steel export trade.
Currently, these are the only changes that affect the UK, but the US tariff situation is very much in a state of flux right now. The team at Regal Crown are keeping a close eye on developments.
