Steel tariffs may just be the president’s opening gambit

There was a time when the threat of the US imposing a 25 percent tariff on steel imports might have sent the FTSE stock market index into freefall.

- CHRIS BLACKHURST

Not any more. Yesterday, the news of Donald Trump’s promised strike failed to rattle UK shares. They even rose, buoyed by stake-building in BP from an activist investor.

The days when the UK economy was dependent on metals and manufacturing are long gone. Still, there is no doubt we could do without the president’s manoeuvring. It all adds up, and at present, the last thing the UK needs is further blows.

Indeed, as the new ambassador to Washington prepares to take up cudgels with the Trump administration on our behalf, high in Peter Mandelson’s in-tray will be Trump’s latest pledge to impose hefty charges on all steel and aluminium coming into the US from abroad.

As ever with the new commander-in-chief, the news was delivered in his typical bravura manner, aboard Air Force One, talking to reporters on his way from Mar-a-Lago to watch the Super Bowl. As usual, it invited more questions than it provided answers. Was he serious? Had it been thought through? Can he stomach the subsequent inflation it will cause in the US? Will he temper his comments with a subsequent climbdown? Is it a negotiating ploy?

As yet, we don’t know. Perhaps tellingly, it was not only the UK that shrugged off the announcement – markets in Europe and Asia also rallied.