US tariffs threaten UK growth and stymie Reeves and BoE's plans

FTSE remains defensive

Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ fiscal headroom and the Bank of England’s future interest rate path could both be inhibited by the raft of global trade tariffs unveiled by the White House last Wednesday (2 April).

From Capitol Hill, US President Donald Trump paraded a poster board of percentages, revealing the additional levies set to be charged on imports from major US trading partners as part of his ‘America First' agenda.  The reciprocal tariffs imposed by President Trump on 'Liberation Day' Credit: The White House Due to the UK's narrow goods trade surplus with its transatlantic historic ally, it was slapped with the lowest global baseline tariff of 10%, meaning that "relatively speaking, the UK got off lightly", in the eyes of Tim Sarson, KPMG's UK head of tax policy.  In the past 24-hou...