1 week Ago By Hugo Gye
Britain’s leading carmakers are ramping up pressure on Sir Keir Starmer to win a carve-out from Donald Trump’s 25 per cent tariffs amid fears about the future of the industry.UK officials are locked in talks with the White House about whether the country can be exempted from the full brunt of the tariffs, which amount to a “baseline” 10 per cent on most exports but go up to 25 per cent for cars and steel.The priority is currently to protect those areas worst affected by the trade war with No 10 uncertain whether or not the baseline tariff can be negotiated away, The i Paper understands.
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addToArray({"pos": "inread-hb-ros-inews"}); }This week Starmer announced a watering down of the mandate for zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs), which will ban the sale of new cars powered by petrol and diesel from 2030, in a bid to boost the automotive industry.The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) has called for trade talks to happen “at pace”. SMMT chief executive Mike Hawes said car manufacturers “hope a deal between the UK and US can still be negotiated”.
The group represents all Britain’s major car manufacturers such as Aston Martin, Ford, Nissan, Jaguar Land Rover, Toyota, Volkswagen and McLaren.David Bailey, professor of business economics at the University of Birmingham, said it was “hugely frustrating” for the UK manufacturers that the 25 per cent tariff still applies.if(window.
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adverts) { window.adverts.addToArray({"pos": "mpu_tablet_l1"}); }The car industry expert said it was realistic for Sir Keir Starmer’s Government to push for a deal to remove all UK-US car tariffs “within weeks”.
Professor Bailey said: “They need to focus on a deal – it should be number one priority for trade policy. t’s a realistic goal that it can be done quickly. It’s a relatively easy hit for the UK Government to ameliorate some of the madness.
”A spokesman for Ford UK told The i Paper it was “carefully reviewing the implications” of US tariffs, but added that there was “no doubt these tariffs will have an impact” on the industry.A Jaguar Land Rover spokesman said the company “was pleased to hear the Prime Minister say he will ‘back you [JLR] to the hilt’ and that the changes to the ZEV mandate are ‘a down payment’ and ‘a statement of intent’ of the support the Government will give the UK automotive sector as it faces tariffs”. They added: “This is now a critical piece of work we need UK Government to resolve.
”The i Paper understands that car manufacturers are pushing the government to look incentives for consumers to switch to electric cars – including tax breaks – as well as further easing of the existing targets and fines.Speaking the day after Trump rowed back on the so-called “reciprocal” tariffs imposed on many US trade partners but doubled down on his trade war with China, Starmer warned that the economic disruption was here to stay.#color-context-related-article-3635318 {--inews-color-primary: #3759B7;--inews-color-secondary: #EFF2FA;--inews-color-tertiary: #3759B7;} Read Next square PATRICK COCKBURN Trump's Liz Truss moment will hurt America foreverRead MoreHe said: “I’m clear that this is a change which isn’t, in my view, temporary and therefore we’ve got to do the margins of making sure we turbocharge our own economy.
” The Prime Minister defended his decision not to retaliate by slapping new levies on the US, saying that “a trade war is in nobody’s interest”.if(window.adverts) { window.
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adverts.addToArray({"pos": "mpu_tablet_l2"}); }Gordon Brown has called for an “economic coalition of the willing” to promote trade outside the US in an echo of the global response to the 2008 financial crisis, when he was in No 10.Meanwhile, the deputy governor of the Bank of England warned that the chaos caused by Trump’s tariffs would harm growth in Britain but said it was too early to determine whether that would lead to lower interest rates.
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