Once again, news related to Trump’s tariffs is dominating the headlines, with The Guardian reporting that Rachel Reeves is not backing calls for the UK government to launch a “buy British” campaign in response to Donald Trump’s tariffs, saying it would make Britain too “inward-looking”. However, Downing Street said the Cabinet Office was examining procurement rules and said there were already policies in place to incentivise using the government’s purchasing power for British companies.
Meanwhile, The Times and others said President Trump had touted “fair deals with everyone” as he backed down over tariffs he imposed on countries around the world less than a day after they came into force. Trump announced a 90-day pause for his “reciprocal” tariffs on all countries but China, after bond and stock markets turned negative. At the same time he increased duties on Chinese goods from 104 per cent to 125 per cent, in the latest escalation of a trade war between the world’s biggest economic powers.
The EU has also played relative soft ball, The Guardian reports, after the bloc dropped plans to hit American bourbon with retaliatory tariffs. It’s escaped EU countermeasures after heavy lobbying from the EU’s drinks-producing countries – such as whiskey-making Ireland and the wine behemoths Italy and France – who feared their alcohol industries would become casualties of a global trade war.
In the same paper, finance editor Nils Pratley wondered who will better absorb the tariff impact in their profit margins, big brands or retailers? After all, he said, it may take at least six months for retailers to know the real-world effects of Trump’s trade warfare.
In further UK news, This Is Money says that UK employers scaled back hiring to the lowest level since the pandemic at the start of this year as Rachel Reeves’s £25bn National Insurance raid took its toll. Just 20% of firms increased their workforce in the first quarter, the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) found, the lowest level since the first three months of 2021. Business leaders have said the rise in employer taxes could lead to job losses, lower wages and price rises this year.
Meanwhile, Sky has learnt that Unilever is facing an investor backlash over its new chief executive’s multimillion pound pay package. It says that ISS, a leading proxy adviser, has recommended that shareholders vote against Unilever’s remuneration report at its annual meeting later this month. Sources familiar with ISS’s report on Unilever’s AGM resolutions say the agency objects to the discount of just €50,000 that the Ben & Jerry’s owner has applied to the base salary of Fernando Fernandez, compared to Hein Schumacher, his predecessor.
Finally, back to the Guardian, which went all misty-eyed over WH Smith, which is set to disappear from high streets after 233 years and will be rebranded under the fictitious “family” brand name TGJones. The paper invited six people to describe what WH Smith means to them and how the stores have changed over the years, from memories of staff choosing which records to play to buying their first Parker pen.
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