UK government to ‘wait and see’ in the face of Trump tariffs announcement | UK news

The UK government will “wait and see” whether tariffs announced by Donald Trump “actually come to pass”, a senior minister said.

The US president announced what he called “reciprocal tariffs” on all other countries on Thursday evening, claiming it was “fair to all”.

But it was unclear how this would apply to the UK, especially as Trump suggested his policy regarded VAT as a tariff.

Pat McFadden, chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and one of Keir Starmer’s most senior ministers, told Sky News it was important not to “overreact” to the announcement from the White House.

Asked what the government’s response to Trump’s announcement was, McFadden said: “Wait and see what it means, it’s the best reaction to everything over the last month.

“Sometimes tariffs are announced, a couple of days later, they are unannounced.”

He added: “The most sensible thing to do with all of these announcements is to digest them, see if they actually come to pass, and then decide what you do.”

McFadden added there were still “a lot of unanswered questions” about the extent of the tariffs. He went on: “We took the decision … that we wouldn’t breathlessly chase every headline that was coming out over the last month.

“I think that’s the right decision.”

Trump has announced a series of tariffs throughout the first few weeks of his presidency, including earlier this week imposing a 25% levy on steel imports.

Having announced tariffs on Canada and Mexico, he later suspended these for 30 days following negotiations.

Canada and Mexico have readied retaliatory tariffs should the duties come into effect, as has the EU, which Trump has repeatedly threatened, while China has already taken retaliatory steps to a 10% tariff on its exports to the US.

McFadden would not be drawn on whether the UK planned to retaliate, saying it was “premature” to talk about the possibility.

He said: “How mature would it be for me to walk into a studio five minutes after some announcements and say ‘yeah, we’re going to retaliate’?

“That’s not the way you make policy.

“We will always stand up for the national interest, it’s a government’s duty to do that, but the best thing in the national interest is to maintain a good trading relationship with everybody that we need to maintain that with, right across the world.”

The tariffs will not come into effect immediately, with the US president ordering his advisers to carry out investigations into other countries’ trade practices before suggesting what measures to impose.

The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) warned that Trump’s plans would “upend established trade norms” and cause “more cost and uncertainty for investors, businesses and consumers across the world”.

The BCC’s head of trade policy, William Bain, has urged the UK government not to “get sucked into a trade war of tit-for-tat tariffs, which could easily spiral out of control”.

UK-US trade is worth around £300bn per year, with Britain importing slightly more from the US than it exports to the country.

The Tory shadow chancellor, Mel Stride, said the “outlook is very uncertain” regarding how the president’s policies will impact Britain, but believes a “resilient economy” would make any incoming headwinds easier to stomach.

“There are risks out there,” he told Sky News.

“The way that you face those risks and get through turbulent times is a strong economy, a growing economy – not an economy in which businesses are being taxed to the point where they’re laying people off.”