Retaliating to Trump's tariff would lead us up a dead end

The government has only a few days to help prevent some serious damage to the British car industry. They will be well aware that the UK exports some 6bn worth of vehicles to the US, and the trade is vulnerable to the 25 per cent tariffs planned and indeed publicly signed into force – by Donald Trump, due to come into effect on 2 April.

- SEAN O'GRADY

As you read this, consignments of Range Rovers and Bentleys are hurriedly making their way to the United States to beat the tax. It’s not enough to kill off growth in the UK economy – the car industry represents 0.2 per cent of GDP, and it’s not going to be wiped out entirely – but it doesn’t help post-Brexit, and it will hurt badly in certain areas. The Wolverhampton constituency of Pat McFadden, for example, one of Keir Starmer’s closest cabinet colleagues, would be one, with many there depending on the Jaguar Land Rover engine plant for their livelihoods. Jobs will be lost.

It feels like an act of economic war, and that is what it is. The trade wars Trump is triggering are against almost the whole world, including America’s most active trading partners and investors. It will depress the world economy, and it is not rational. As Trump sees it, “allies are often worse than enemies”, singling out Canada and the European Union for particular ire. They seem ready to reciprocate, and things can quite easily escalate, as they did in the 1930s.