Here’s what Donald Trump’s tariffs mean for people in the UK

The tariffs have kicked in

The UK has got off lightly compared to some countries, having been hit with levies of 10 per cent on goods we sell to the States compared with as much as 50 per cent for some countries.

The £2.3 trillion worth of goods imported to the US every year have all been hit with tariffs.

The 'baseline' is set at 10 per cent and has kicked in straight away.

On top of that, President Trump will slap 'individualised reciprocal' tariffs on all countries it has a trade deficit with, ie those where the States buys more from them than the other way round. In some cases those add-ons are as high as 50 per cent.

The UK has escaped additional tariffs partly because we have broadly balanced trade with the US and negotiations have taken place between the two countries, however, some sectors will be hit harder than others.

Trump has made much of the fact that its tariffs are half that imposed on US exports to each country concerned.

So, if he had really wanted to cut the UK a special deal, it could have been as low as 5%.

The car industry will be hit one of the hardest, as they now face a whopping 25 per cent tariff on UK-made motors sold to the States.

The same applies on steel makers. Those sorts of tariffs have the potential to hammer demand and lead to large scale job losses.

Since the UK is no longer a part of the European Union, we escaped the 20 per cent tariff levied on the rest of Europe.

On the plus side, it appears pharmaceutical exports from the UK to the US - a highly lucrative trade - will stay tariff free, for now.