US trade deal is not a win for UK automotive industry
Robert Salter, a director at Blick Rothenberg said: “The ‘General terms for the United States of America and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Economic Prosperity Deal’ agreement released on 9 May is not a win for the UK auto industry.”
He added: “While a 10% tariff is clearly better than the ca. 27% that US President, Donald Trump had imposed on British cars being imported into the US previously, the tariff on UK car imports into the US under Joe Biden was only 2.5%.”
Robert said: “This 10% rate will only apply to the first 100,000 vehicles imported into the US each year from the UK. Given that the UK exported around 101,000 vehicles to America last year, this means that the UK cannot freely increase car exports to the US without being hit by a higher rate of tariffs.”
He added: “All the deal currently does is minimize the damage to the UK auto sector and hopefully preserve some car exports and jobs that might otherwise have been lost. But it does not increase or create any opportunities for the UK auto sector in the US market.”
Robert said: “While the agreement might provide a foundation for more meaningful trade terms in other areas, I cannot see this agreement by itself creating any meaningful macro-economic wins for the overall UK economy.”