Donald Trump’s latest round of tariffs has put UK businesses at a disadvantage against the EU even though the overall tariff for British goods has not changed, experts have said.
Tariff details
In the levies, announced late on Thursday and said to be aimed against countries that engage in forced labour, the EU’s previous 15% near blanket tariff is reduced to 10%, the same level as the tariff deal struck by Keir Starmer and Peter Mandelson last year.
The UK welcomed the deal, announced by the US trade representative, Jamieson Greer, and said there was “no change” to the headline 10% tariff or preferential rates in the car, pharmaceutical and aerospace sectors concluded in the UK’s economic prosperity deal (EPD).
Union calls for Airbus contract
One of the Labour party’s biggest union backers has called for Andy Burnham to award a £2.4bn military satellite contract to the European manufacturer Airbus rather than a US rival, Lockheed Martin, amid concerns that as many as 600 jobs may be at risk.
Sharon Graham, the general secretary of the Unite union, said it would be a “massive mistake” to go for a US company over Airbus, which is headquartered in France but designs and builds satellites in Stevenage in Hertfordshire and Portsmouth in Hampshire.
Volkswagen profit fall
Volkswagen has reported a steep fall in profits and cut its revenue forecast amid a sales slump in China, as the German carmaker pushes through a brutal cost-cutting programme that includes axeing up to 100,000 jobs.
VW said it expects sales revenue to fall by up to 3% this year, a reversal of a previous forecast for a 3% increase on last year’s €321.9bn (£275.3bn), because of a sales slump in the highly competitive Chinese market.
The sales slump will increase pressure on the world’s second-largest maker of vehicles to cut costs. Earlier this month VW’s supervisory board rejected the plans by the chief executive, Oliver Blume, to shut four factories in Germany, as the manufacturer confirmed it was raising the job cuts target to 100,000, double the number already agreed by unions.
