“This week, after much speculation, Trump has announced that his administration will levy a 25% import tax on all steel and aluminium products entering the United States from the 12th March.

Tariffs are effectively taxes on consumers. They are bad for businesses, worse for consumers, and incredibly harmful to the global trading system.

The exact impact on Britain is yet to be seen. UK steel has already called on the Government to retaliate, with the Director General of the industry body calling for “stronger action” against the “sledgehammer to free trade”.

Not only will these tariffs hinder UK exports to the US, but they may put downward pressure on the price of steel in the UK. As larger exporters of steel, such as Canada, sell less to the US, the global supply of steel outside of the US may significantly increase, resulting in the price of steel in the UK to dramatically fall. Perhaps a happy consequence for UK builders.

That being said, the tariffs announced this week are primarily going to hurt Americans. In his first term, tariffs on Chinese imports cost Americans over $800 per household on average.”