From Land Rover Defenders to combustion engines, from pharmaceutical chemicals to insurance services – the UK exports billions of pounds worth of goods to the US every year as our biggest export partner. But that may be about to take a hit.
President Trump has slapped tariffs of 25% on its closest trading partners Mexico and Canada, although these are now delayed for 30 days. But tariffs of 10% on Chinese goods come into place immediately – and of course, China has retaliated. President Trump has also threatened the EU next and has said that while the UK is somehow behaving 'out of line', a deal could nevertheless be worked out.
This news isn't a shock – Trump is simply being consistent with his first administration (where he put a tariff on Chinese goods) and with threats he made in his election campaign. But this is proof that he is perfectly content to be muscular and obnoxious to friends and foes alike.
Canadian President Trudeau reacted straight away with his own threats, which might be why Trump seems to have temporarily backed down – although Trump loyalists would deny that.
One writer in The Times has labelled this the economic equivalent of hovering a finger above the nuclear button. The Wall Street Journal named this Trade War the 'dumbest in history'.
Economists call this a protectionist approach to trade. The hope is that taxing foreign goods makes them more expensive than US-made goods, boosting American industry and reducing reliance on other nations, especially China's huge manufacturing power. It is also tackling trade deficits with those countries, where the US imports more goods from them than it exports to them.
But critics say this will simply make everything more expensive for ordinary Americans. As foreign goods prices increase, American goods face less competition from abroad, so have less pressure to keep their prices low. It also doesn't recognise the complexity of the modern world economy where some goods could be made in America but with components shipped in from elsewhere.
While the Canadians responded defiantly, the UK government seems to be scrambling to appease Donald Trump and avoid tariffs on British goods. They are in desperate need of an economic good news story, given a lack of business confidence and stuttering growth. Taxes slapped on British export goods to our biggest trade partner, and the resulting sales reduction, would not help one bit.
In many ways this is simply Trump being Trump: talking and acting tough on the world stage, taking on rivals and worrying old friends.
Rightly or wrongly, this is another helping of disruption for a world racked with recession, war, and discord. America's friendship as a trade partner and military ally can apparently no longer be assumed. There are few certainties left.
Is an increasingly isolated, protectionist America in denial of a basic reality? That the world, more than ever, is bound together with great complexity. Economically, politically, culturally, militarily.
No nation can strike out on its own. Even the likes of Finland and Sweden – historically neutral – joined NATO last year. The Covid pandemic was a reminder of this too. We're all intricately interconnected.
The temptation to withdraw is there in other aspects of world politics. International aid is a good example. What responsibility, the isolationist might ask, does my country have for a country on another continent? Or climate change. Why should we take a hit for reducing emissions when other economies overtook our pollution levels decades ago?
The temptation to withdraw is also there for us as Christians. Shouldn't we stick to our comfortable familiarity and sit tight until Jesus returns? Well, no, because we are saved to be a blessing and to point others to Christ – and we can't do that from inside a hermitage. The Gospel compels us not only to intellectual assent to Christ's Lordship, but to faith-filled action. We are bound by love to our neighbours whether they want it or not. Christians should be those most deeply ingrained in the lives of their communities and neighbourhoods.
There was a fascinating spat on X over the weekend between new US Vice President JD Vance and former Conservative Minister (and my former neighbouring MP) Rory Stewart, debating whether it is Christian to love and care for our families and immediate neighbours before thinking about those elsewhere in the world.
Of course we have the deepest affection and responsibility for those closest to us. But I rather feel that VP Vance was playing the part of the expert in the law in the parable of the Good Samaritan – seeking to place limits on who he can consider as his neighbour.
But loving your neighbour means more than having affection for them. It is an attitude, a posture. It means recognising the dignity and worth of all people, as awesome beings made in God's image, before we are tempted to treat them as a threat, danger or less than human. It is also about ensuring as far as possible – whether as a government, church or individual – that our actions do not cause active harm to others.
So in a time where world leaders are choosing to isolate and withdraw, let's do the opposite.
Tim Farron has been the Member of Parliament for Westmorland and Lonsdale since 2005 and served as the Leader of the Liberal Democrat Party from 2015 to 2017. Tim is also the host of Premier's 'A Mucky Business' podcast, which unpacks the murky world of politics and encourages believers around the UK to engage prayerfully. He is the author of A Mucky Business: Why Christians should get involved in politics.
