The week’s news has been dominated by US President Donald Trump, announcing sweeping tariffs on goods from countries across the world, on what he called “Liberation Day”. President Trump has claimed that this will help to boost America’s wealth but economists have voiced concerns that this could lead to an uptick in prices for American consumers and the advent of a global trade war.
Tariffs are taxes imposed on goods which are imported from other countries. The companies who bring the foreign goods into a country will meet the amount of the tariff, which is typically levied as a percentage of the value of the goods. Of course, firms can simply opt to pass on some or all of the cost to customers. Alternatively, it may choose to import fewer foreign goods.
President Trump announced a 10% “baseline” tariff on all imports heading to the US and this is the level being applied to UK goods heading across the Atlantic. Other nations were slapped with higher rates, with Chinese goods being subject to 34% tariffs and Vietnamese goods being subject to 46% tariffs.. The cost of EU goods heading to the US, will be forced upwards by 20%.
The 10% tariff on UK goods is probably half of what was expected but it still represents a significant £6bn impact to UK businesses exporting to the US. The prospect of an expanding global trade war will ultimately harm the UK’s economic growth and leads to a “lose-lose” outcome for the global economy.
We join our British Chambers’ of Commerce (BCC) colleagues in calling on the UK government to continue trade negotiations with the US Administration, with the aim of lowering tariffs. Washington has signalled an intent to look at securing a mutually agreeable deal, so there is always hope.
Here in Staffordshire, many of our member businesses are facing difficult choices and we ask the government to do all it can by way of offering practical guidance and support. For any businesses who export goods to the US, we would suggest that they make immediate contact with US customers and negotiate the best way to manage the impact of tariffs.
At a local level, Staffordshire Chambers’ of Commerce continues to offer an Export Documentation service to the local business community. The team is headed up by Allison Tomlinson and not surprisingly, it’s been a busy few days, with a steady stream of calls from concerned exporters.
The team can support your Export Documentation needs and has the capability to process Customs Declarations for UK companies importing/exporting. In the last year alone, our Export Docs team has helped over 300 companies to successfully import and export globally. Exported goods surpassed £350 million pounds in invoice value.
Did you know that our Export Docs team is the third highest performing team in the Chamber network for customs declarations and managed to turn over a high volume of export documents for the British Chambers’ of Commerce team (BCC), completing 5000 export documents and 2500 customs declarations? Not bad for a land locked county which doesn’t have an airport!
If your business needs help with export documentation, feel free to call the team for a friendly chat – 01782 202222 – choose option 2 or visit the dedicated page on our website:
