Now Trump is targeting the U.K. with tarriffs how should Sir Keir handle a response?

I think the entire world has slept walked into expecting our commodities to be as cheap as chips and hey ho China has stepped in to provide our needs, be it technology gadgets, clothes etc.

It’s not China exploiting the world, it’s the world not keeping its eyes open and letting China and it’s population do the jobs others do not want to do.

POTUS Trump appears to want to grow the USA’s ability to manufacture more of what its citizens want .

Is this wrong? I don’t think so.

Is he going about it in rhetoric correct way? Only time will tell.

FGT China et al do, indeed have some very poor working conditions.
I am not sure that the treatment of migrant workers in the USA bears close scrutiny, either.
However, with mass deportations causing a labour shortage, one state has come up with a thoughtful, considered idea - making it legal for children of 14 + to work night shifts: problem solved.

David49

FriedGreenTomatoes2

Lord Bamford said: “JCB has been in business for 80 years this year and we are well accustomed to change.

“The United States is the largest market for construction equipment in the world and President Trump has galvanised us into evaluating how we can make even more products in the US, which has been an important market for JCB since we sold our first machine there in 1964.”

Mr JCB would say that, he’s got a factory in the US so the tariffs don’t affect him, he also has factories in India, South America and other places too.

Having your manufacturing bases located in different countries is sound business sense.

Lord Bamford might be a marmite character but he is a canny businessman.

FriedGreenTomatoes2

Lord Bamford said: “JCB has been in business for 80 years this year and we are well accustomed to change.

“The United States is the largest market for construction equipment in the world and President Trump has galvanised us into evaluating how we can make even more products in the US, which has been an important market for JCB since we sold our first machine there in 1964.”

Mr JCB would say that, he’s got a factory in the US so the tariffs don’t affect him, he also has factories in India, South America and other places too.

Any Trump supporting outliers please take a minute to explain why ( if you have time in your busy days)

Same as Farage, nobody can or has the guts to say what it't really about.

A system?
edition.cnn.com/2025/04/03/politics/trump-tariffs-chaos-competence/index.html

Well, he has done it with a system.

And with none of his usual whims or tantrums.

And to be fair to him, other Countries already had tariffs in place against the US. He is playing catch up.

I’m pretty surprised at the crude way Trump has applied Tarrifs, all he’s done is is put the highest tariff's on the countries with the highest trade deficit, without any other allowances. There is going to be a great many negotiations get to a sensible policy.

I understand the US needs to reduce its trade deficit, its borrowings are 125% of GDP which is not sustainable, chaos is not the way to do it.

This is a relatively straightforward video about tariffs (37 minutes):

ifs.org.uk/articles/do-tariffs-work

Elegran

*Top 10 UK export markets (for goods and services) in the 12 months ending September 2024*
Rank . Market . . . .£ billion . . . .% of total exports
1 United States . . . . 182.6 . . . . .21.7 <---- To the US
2 Germany . . . . . . . 59.5 . . . . . .7.1%
3 Netherlands . . . . .49.4 . . . . . .5.9%
4 Ireland . . . . . . . . . 49.3 . . . . . .5.8%
5 France . . . . . . . . . .5.5% . . .. . . .5.5%
6 China . . . . . . . . . . 32.0 . . . . . .3.8%
7 Belgium . . . . . . . .26.4 . . . . . . .3.1%
8 Switzerland . . . . .26.2 . . . . . . .3.1%
9 Spain . . . . . . . . . . .19.7 . . . . . . .2.3%
10 Italy . . . . . . . . . . .18.6 . . . . . . .2.2%
__EU . . . . .346.1 . . . . .41.1% < - To the EU as a whole
__Non-EU .496.5 . . . .58.9%
__World1 . . .842.7 . . . .100.0%

These however, are simply the amounts America decided to buy from elsewhere. How will the American public feel when they can no longer get these cheaper goods, can’t work because they are losing their jobs, and risk imprisonment if they voice their opinion - and then find swathes of them have been deprived of the right to vote?

FriedGreenTomatoes2

I think attracted is a strange word to use.
I’ve explainedthat I like the fact that he sticks to his word. He’s strong and is passionate about doing the best he can for his fellow Americans. Millions of Americans have voted for him to be POTUS - against all odds.

Kamala who?

I know I’m an outlier on here but it doesn’t make me wrong.

But he doesn't stick to his word. He changes it from day to day. Not only does he chop and change but he knows so little about the world. It's forgivable that your average American has such an unrealistic view of their own country in relation to others but not from Trump.

Listening to John Sopel we can learn that American citizens are much more exposed to the stock markets than we are, and it's they who he is elected by, not us. They will have their minds on their 401 pensions as they watched this drop by 10% from six weeks ago, knowing its going further down.

Those who are not blinded by the big baboon will know prices are going to go up and everything is going to cost more. If seems Trump can still convince some that black is white and I think, you include yourself in this.

You genuinely don’t understand do you FGT2. Look at table 2.3, and explain how you think the UK will be affected by a 20% tariff being imposed by the USA on the EU?
www.gov.uk/government/statistics/uk-trade-in-numbers/uk-trade-in-numbers-web-version

If we could get a decent trade deal with US - work at it Starmer - European business would move from Europe to set up in UK.
Sweet, sweet Brexit.

Lord Bamford said: “JCB has been in business for 80 years this year and we are well accustomed to change.

“The United States is the largest market for construction equipment in the world and President Trump has galvanised us into evaluating how we can make even more products in the US, which has been an important market for JCB since we sold our first machine there in 1964.”

That was me being ironic Elegran.

JCB plans to double the size of its new US factory after being “galvanised” by Donald Trump’s new trade tariffs.

Lord Bamford, chairman of the British digger maker, announced plans to expand JCB’s new factory currently under construction in Texas to 1m square feet and shift production from Europe to the US.

It came as British manufacturers urged Sir Keir Starmer to move quickly to strike a deal with the US on free trade to lessen the impact of the new levies. The president has already handed the UK lower tariffs than much of the rest of the world, something that has been hailed as a “Brexit dividend”.

Mike Hawes, the chief executive of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, said: “If you could negotiate some sort of economic agreement that gives us a competitive advantage compared to other manufacturing locations, that could be a real benefit.”

"Who knew Trump lies when it suits?". Everyone does.

The New York Times lists pages and pages of them..
www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/06/23/opinion/trumps-lies.html
23 Jun 2017 — We have catalogued nearly every outright lie he has told publicly since taking the oath of office.

Thank you Elegran. When I read what you’d said I thought 🤔🤔
It doesn’t take much to confuse me as it is! 🤣

Top 10 UK export markets (for goods and services) in the 12 months ending September 2024
Rank . Market . . . .£ billion . . . .% of total exports
1 United States . . . . 182.6 . . . . .21.7 <---- To the US
2 Germany . . . . . . . 59.5 . . . . . .7.1%
3 Netherlands . . . . .49.4 . . . . . .5.9%
4 Ireland . . . . . . . . . 49.3 . . . . . .5.8%
5 France . . . . . . . . . .5.5% . . .. . . .5.5%
6 China . . . . . . . . . . 32.0 . . . . . .3.8%
7 Belgium . . . . . . . .26.4 . . . . . . .3.1%
8 Switzerland . . . . .26.2 . . . . . . .3.1%
9 Spain . . . . . . . . . . .19.7 . . . . . . .2.3%
10 Italy . . . . . . . . . . .18.6 . . . . . . .2.2%
__EU . . . . .346.1 . . . . .41.1% < - To the EU as a whole
__Non-EU .496.5 . . . .58.9%
__World1 . . .842.7 . . . .100.0%

FGT Apologies - you are partly right, and I got my post partly wrong. I said "Where did you read that, FGT? "We do more exporting to the USA than Europe I read earlier." It must have been a lot earlier, because several people have posted recently the exact opposite - we export more than twice as much to the USA as we do to Europe." I have had three stitches in my eyelid, which stops me seeing exactly what I have written (is damn tender too) and I had typed USA and EU the wrong way round.

I had already posted the complete table of exports to various markets throughout the year ending September 2025, which makes it very clear that although each country within the EU received a much smaller amount than the States, the whole of Europe - which acts as one trading market in regard to tariffs, requirements and so on, receives more than twice as much from us as the States do.

I will repeat posting the table, as it is a useful picture of what close ties we still have with the European market.

If a major trading partner uses slave labour and unequal practices to undercut everything you make while others use a variety of unfair blocks on your goods.
Do you simply throw a large proportion of your workforce onto the scrap heap and borrow money to import cheap goods, or do you take long term effective countermeasures?

There has to be some deficit somewhere with people who idolise Johnson, Farage and Trump

Trump wants his nation state to function in a way which benefits its members. The fact that he sees the nation state as a good thing is revolutionary in today’s world. Let’s see what happens next.

Even if I disregard everything else I know about Trump, I will never understand how women can support him after the 'grab 'em by the pussy' comment.

glasshalffullagain

PoliticsNerd

FriedGreenTomatoes2

A week later, he made a show of confused displaying cartons of eggs, bacon, milk and other grocery products outside his New Jersey golf course as he railed against the Biden administration's policies.

"When I win, I will immediately bring prices down," Trump said at the time.

He said yesterday on live tv that egg prices had come down 59% and thanked his (? agricultural aide) for “all his hard work” in this. 🤔

Could you try to explain your absolute need to believe this man FGT.

Some deep psychological deficit.

😂
Me & the millions of people who voted for him?

The scales have fallen from my eyes.
Who knew Trump lies when it suits? Did the Americans who voted for him?