"Anything which injects added cost, complexity and uncertainty into the global economic trading system is never good for growth, prosperity or rising living standards, and the imposition of tariffs is no exception to that. The announcement by the US President will probably have wiped out the Chancellor's hopes for an uplift to UK growth this year and thrown her fiscal plans into jeopardy.
“That said, it is striking that the UK has faced the minimum global tariff imposed by the US administration. This is no doubt due to the intense economic diplomacy undertaken in recent days and weeks by the UK Prime Minister and Business Secretary. It would be wrong for the government to have a knee-jerk, tit-for-tat response to last night's news. Efforts to take tension out of the situation and calm the global trade system should be the priority of the UK government, and it appears that Keir Starmer and Jonathan Reynolds have worked to achieve that."
On the implications for services exports:
“It should be noted that for the UK tariffs directly impact goods, not services. The US, just like the UK, has a trade surplus on services, instead of a deficit like it does on goods.
“Given that the UK is primarily a services economy, this rapidly changing trading environment reinforces the need for a greater focus on supporting this key export.”
ENDS
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