Overnight you will have all seen the news that Donald Trump has been elected as the 47th President of the United States. While there will be a range of views, expectations and concerns about what impact this election will have, I want to focus on the impact on our sector, and your businesses.
North America is a huge export market for British luxury, representing 24% of all exports – roughly £13bn. The lion’s share of this trade is with the United States.
During the campaign, President Trump raised the prospect of a 10% (or at times even 20%) tariff on all imported goods. This would be a clear threat to the success of British luxury brands, and the hundreds of thousands of highly skilled jobs which our sector supports. Likewise, it is highly damaging for American customers, who will end up paying higher prices across the board.
Walpole is currently working to assess the potential impact of these tariffs, and is engaging with the UK Government and other industry stakeholders to ensure that the interests of your businesses are represented.
The additional challenge for our Government is to navigate Trump’s expectation, backed by the threat of tariffs, that the UK align with his trade policies that target China, and the prospect of the EU enacting retaliatory tariffs on the US should it fall under the auspices of Trump’s tariff regime.
In light of this, there is a material risk that the UK find itself in the eye of the storm of a tripartite trade war between three of our biggest export markets, the US, EU and China.
Those of you who remember the impact of the Boeing/Airbus dispute that saw tariffs on whisky, cashmere and tailoring will know how damaging US tariffs on our products can be.
As part of the work Walpole is doing to engage the Government on this issue, we are collecting member data about two issues.
Firstly, any feedback you can provide about the potential impact of the proposed tariffs will be anonymised and used in our evidence back we share with the Government.
Secondly, if any members have data regarding the impact of the previous tariffs – which emerged from the Airbus/Boeing dispute, please do share these as well.
Please send this information, and any other views or concerns you have to our policy team.
Alongside our representation work, Walpole’s trade mission to New York next March is now more important than ever for brands looking to build their business in the USA.
> Contact the Public Policy team on [email protected]
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