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Donald Trump’s erratic tariff policy is harder to navigate for British businesses than the mayhem of the Covid pandemic, according to the head of the UK’s export agency.
Tim Reid, CEO of UK Export Finance (UKEF), said major shifts in the White House’s trade policy made it difficult to estimate how many UK businesses are affected and what proportion of exports are at risk.
“There was an immediate disruption to business models. That was very clear during Covid,” Reid told the Guardian. “There is still a lot of uncertainty right now in terms of the impact of this changing world.”
While Trump has put a hold on any further tariff increases for most countries, UKEF is pushing ahead with its plans regardless. “We’re not waiting 90 days … we will be ready to work through this in pretty short order,” Reid said.
It comes after ministers launched an extra £20bn of financing last week to support British businesses impacted by US tariffs.
The new package will include more powers for UKEF to expand its loan support for small businesses who will be able to access loans of up to £2m through the British Business Bank’s ‘growth guarantee scheme’. This provides lenders with a 70% government-backed guarantee to support smaller businesses that would otherwise struggle to obtain traditional financing.
Deutsche Bank economist Sanjay Raja said last week that a full-blown global trade war could cost up to 100,000 jobs in the UK unless the government steps in.
The week ahead
Later today, Kimberly-Clark releases a trading update in the US.
On Wednesday, Reckitt Benckiser and Nichols put out their latest numbers while Danone does the same in Europe.
Unilever is the big fixture on London markets on Thursday alongside Domino’s Pizza. In Europe, Nestle publishes its latest quarterly figures while in the US, investors wait on Procter & Gamble, Pepsico, and Keurig Dr. Pepper.
Friday sees the UK’s retail sales and the GfK UK consumer confidence survey.
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