Donald Trump has claimed Britain is “very happy” with the tariffs they received this week.
On Wednesday, Trump unveiled a raft of worldwide tariffs, made up of a universal 10% tariff on global imports to the US, along with higher duties for the “worst offenders.” This includes the European Union and China, who have been hit with duties of 20% and 54% respectively.
Unlike the EU, the UK has been hit with the 10% tariff, which will come into effect on April 5.
And it seems that Trump reckons the Keir Starmer and the UK are grateful to him for this.
Speaking to reporters on Air Force One, Trump said the Prime Minister was “very happy about how we treated them with tariffs.”
He added: “We have a very good dialogue.”
All week, the UK government has said it will be taking a calm and measure approach to the tariffs, a message repeated by the prime minister yesterday.
However, business secretary Jonathan Reynolds told parliament the government is launching a consultation with businesses on how taking retaliatory tariff measures against the US would impact them.
The minister told the Commons the Labour government still believes a deal with the US is “possible” and “favourable”
But he said the UK would reserve the right to take any action it deems necessary if an agreement is not secured.
The government will seek the views of stakeholders until 1 May on products that could potentially be included in any tariff response, and will draw up an “indicative list” of American products that the UK could put tariffs on.
Since Trump made the tariffs announcement, the global stock market has slumped dramatically. Overnight Asian markets took a hit, whilst in the US the Dow Jones and the S&P 500 dropped by nearly 4% and 5% respectively.
On opening this morning, the FTSE 100 opened more than 0.3% lower, before dropping to 0.68%, the BBC reports.
Trump has said things are going “very well” and that the “markets are going to boom.”
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