London, England – Louise Verity, a 42-year-old businessman from Northampton in the heart of England, has been worried about Trump’s tariffs since first heard in January that they were being brewed.
Her business, Bookishly, sells literary gifts to book lovers – prints, art, stickers, and more are all related to classical literature.
Over 60% of her sales are in the US. Now they are subject to 10% tariffs. This is milder than taxes levied on other countries, but still quite serious.
“I’m constantly following the news, I’m going to give a refresh all night and wait for what’s coming,” she told Al Jazeera.
“The UK’s 10% tariffs can get worse. The way I feel is, if it’s 30%, I’m waiting to give up everything and collapse. There’s still a lot to try to absorb. What else is, what do you say to the customer?
She expects big companies to just hand over the extra costs to consumers and feel she can’t. “I can’t tell everyone, ‘Don’t worry, we’re fine.’ I don’t know,” she added.
Verity is trying to see if thousands of large and large business owners around the world trying to do math, despite the tariffs, they are floating.
Tina Mackenzie, policy chair for the Federation of Small Businesses, said, “The news of a 10% tariff on UK-US trade is a major blow to small businesses. Currently, 59% of UK small exporters are being sold to the US market.
She predicted that fallout would “suppress growth, hurt opportunities and place serious dents on the global economy. Now we need to look into fine prints to resolve the exact meaning of British small exporters.”
The condemnation is spreading.
Australia-based economics professor Stephen Hale, after discussing “superficially rational arguments” in support of Trump’s tariff strategy, said “we can’t find such a consistent argument. There is no grand plan that has any meaning.”
The sentiment resonated with many other observers, including senior analyst at Ipek Ozcaldeskaya at Swiss Kroto Bank, who told clients that “Trump’s tariff announcement is worse than expected.”
“While the universal tariffs were set at 10% in line with expectations, the tariffs imposed on major trading partners are much higher than that: 34% in China, 20% in Europe and about 24% in Japan’s imports.
In theory, countries can now negotiate with the US to lower their fees.
The market’s response to all this is bad and predictable. The market has fallen everywhere. A decent measure of expected global growth, oil prices fell below $70 per barrel.
Nike’s shares, which manufactures many of its shoes at its Vietnamese factory, fell 14% after tariffs were announced.
“Short-term confusion is inevitable”
Initially there was a easing in the UK where tariff rates were lower compared to the EU.
Some viewed this as evidence that the UK has a stronger ties with Washington, particularly amid growing tensions between the Trump administration and the EU.
But Simon French of London-based stockbroker Panmur Liberam said, “That doesn’t mean that. It has something to do with the dull use of long divisions that an eight-year-old can have, and the special Britain won’t carve out.”
“We’ve been working hard to get the better of our customers,” said Michael Field, chief equity strategist at Morningstar. “The 20% tariffs on all European goods are potentially devastating for many industries. If these tariffs are in fact permanent and fixed. This is unlikely to speculate that negotiations are possible.
There is talk of the government needed to protect jobs and wages, particularly in search of the help of small businesses.
“The consumer goods, healthcare and industrial sectors will be one of the sectors that will be affected by the new measures,” Field said. “What’s worse, it’s probably a response by the EU, and a response by the US government. All of these will increase the damage to business exports and imports. Over the next few weeks we’ll tell you whether this event could restructure global trade, or if there’s work to do, as many people have predicted.”
British Prime Minister Kiel Starmer said he would “keep a cool head.”
Whether he can turn the cards into a cooler looks like a long shot.
One of the old economic cliches is that when the US sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold. It is supposed to explain how the US recession will spill outward.
However, among the places facing 10% tariffs are the McDonald’s and McDonald’s Islands in Antarctica. These are only home to penguins, so it seems unlikely that the US will raise extra taxes from the area.
