UK will respond accordingly to Trump’s £24bn VAT tariff threat, minister insists
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/trump-tariffs-vat-us-uk-economy-b2698221.html
Posted by BestButtons
UK will respond accordingly to Trump’s £24bn VAT tariff threat, minister insists
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/trump-tariffs-vat-us-uk-economy-b2698221.html
Posted by BestButtons
27 Comments
well if it is anything shy of standing up to the bully then it will be a mistake.
This will probably centre mostly around trying to get access to our health care and probably mostly focused on removing the responsibilities of tech companies in the online safety bill. Nazi musk will not like this bill at all else how can he spread his hate.
> The US president announced on Thursday that he would impose “reciprocal tariffs” on all other countries, charging the same amount as levies imposed on American exports – claiming such a move was “fair to all”.
> The impact of the announcement on the UK was not immediately clear, but the **policy published by the White House included VAT as a target for reciprocal tariffs** – which analysts have suggested could knock around £24bn off UK Gross Domestic Product (GDP) over the next two years.
Horrible as it may sound, the trade war he is starting with his insane tariffs may be the best thing to happen to bring him down. Prices going up and inflation increasing in the U.S. when he promised to bring them down will hit his voters wallets directly. Add to that his remarks that Fed should lower the interest rates instead of raising them in the face of inflation is a recipe for an economic disaster.
Someone needs to stand up to the orange waffle and his Fourth Reich!
this is why people like Trump. Right now the headlines are “Trump does X”.
No one looks like our MPs or PM, and believes they will do, what they say they will.
I dont have to like anything Trump, to understand why people like someone who does something, rather says they will do something,
How is no one talking about that USA can claim back all VAT on goods?
USA isolated on global trade? Who would have thunk it?
So he wants the UK to sell US supplied goods and services to consumers with no VAT and undercut our own businesses who must charge VAT? B2B trade between the UK and US already has no VAT so he can only mean not charging the end consumer which is an idiotic idea no country with VAT can offer.
I wonder which boot Westminster will choose to lick.
Man if only we were part of some kind of large, wealthy economic block. It could help us in this situation.
Right wingers will be cheering for trumps tarriffs threats. They love when our economy is threatened
I think what a lot of people in the UK don’t understand (including the press) is that the President doesn’t actually impose tariffs, the US Trade Representative does, they can just be ordered by the President to investigate certain things. The USTR does not have dictatorial power, it has relatively limited power as a Federal Institution.
Section 301 for example allows the USTR to “pursue unilateral trade retaliation against countries that impose unfair trade barriers against the United States”. If they impose tariffs because “VAT” they’re being taken to the Court of International Trade by a class action of US importers who will probably win because it’s not an unfair barrier on US trade.
So you need to distinguish what’s being talked about from what’s actually possible.
I don’t understand, all products have VAT added to them, so it’s not like it disadvantages American products in favour of British or any other producrs products. Am I wrong?
UK and USA are supposedly close allies. And to have “special relationship”.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UKUSA_Agreement](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UKUSA_Agreement)
“The United Kingdom – United States of America Agreement (UKUSA, /juːkuːˈsɑː/ yoo-koo-SAH)[1][note 1] is a multilateral agreement for cooperation in signals intelligence between Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The alliance of intelligence operations is also known as the Five Eyes.”
“Besides laying down rules for intelligence sharing, the agreement formalized and cemented the “Special Relationship” between the UK and the US”
There’s an interesting opportunity here for the UK in a world where dependency on the US is becoming a liability.
The US is leading AI development, but if you read the blogs put out by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, they are not *miles* ahead but simply *first*. That’s why China was able to catch up so quickly, because they took the lessons that have already been learned.
If a trade conflict disrupts global access to US-based AI capabilities, the UK is *perfectly* positioned to create a non-China, non-USA aligned ‘global AI’ hub.
We have the universities and the tech sector already. We have good bilateral relations with Canada / Australia / India / Europe. We are a pretty open and regulated environment for investors. Arguably, our tech talent is far more cost effective than in the US as well.
It’s the same reason the UK is a leader in fintech and open banking – the US is too slow and controlled by financial institutions not wanting to share data with each other, and nobody trusts CCP enough to let them control your banking transactions, so the UK just said we’ll do it ourselves.
So if Trump puts up too much friction between USA and the rest of the world, we really should be vicious and thinking how can we best capitalise on this.
UK should ask the US to pay all the parking fines racked up by their embassy staff.
Must amount to a few billion by now!
For every penny we lose in GDP because of this orange shirhead we should bill them for retaining their military, NSA and CIA bases here. Why let them use us as a military asset while trying to damage our economy?
I can’t help but think of that special relationship in the hand of a person who is used to abusive relationships.
This is what the Reform party want to do to Britain.
This is very scary. If Trump gets his way, I might be able to save lots of money and buy lots of products, from iPhones to video games, without paying a bullshit regressive tax.
The United Kingdom, the special or privileged ally of the US… It is difficult to say today that by leaving the EU, which was frankly accommodating, the UK gained in the change
Well, if the Boston tea party is celebrated as an act of defiance in American history; when do we start throwing Budweiser into Cardiff Bay?
For far to long the UK and EU have relied on the US, and the US are now dictating how things will be in Trump World. The UK and EU need to work together to counter the US ambition of world domination.
Honestly, if anything is going to lead us back into the customs union in the next few years, it will be Trump tariffs.
The UK will send the best person they have to go kiss the orange turd’s ass and ask him to be nice.
As a small business owner Trump is fucking our ability to trade with America and Brexit already fucked our ability to trade with the EU. I love this new world built by online shitlords.
Reciprocal tariffs need to end as a measure. Tariffs hurt the country imposing them more than the country they are imposed on. What we need to do is impose reverse tariffs. That is charge 33% on good leaving the UK for the US. Effectively if the US is going to cut off its nose we should help them out. We’d be making their goods more expensive without raise prices for our consumers
Right now all the direct reciprocation is actually strengthening Trump’s message. If tariffs didn’t work then why would they be reciprocating?
can we not just say we’ve had enough and forget about USA and this clown?
We empower him by doing business with him.
What do we get from America that we can’t get elsewhere ?
They can keep their Levi’s and Budweiser