Trump tariffs to cause ‘untold damage’, UK business groups warn

Consumer goods, healthcare and industrials sectors will be amongst the sectors worst affected by the new measures,

said Field

A 20 percent tariff on all European goods is potentially devastating for many industries, if indeed these tariffs are permanent and fixed in nature. This is unlikely, given that administration officials have intimated that negotiation will be possible. Short-term disruption is inevitable, however, given that the tariffs come into place on April 5, leaving governments no time to stop the process.”

Michael Field, chief equity strategist at Morningstar, said

It does not mean that. It has everything to do with the blunt use of long division that an eight-year-old could do, and no special UK carve out.”

But Simon French of the London-based stockbroker Panmure Liberum said

Trump’s tariff announcement was worse than expected.”

That sentiment resonated with many other observers, including senior analyst at Swissquote Bank Ipek Ozkardeskaya, who told clients

I’ve been following the news constantly, up all night hitting refresh, waiting to see what was coming,

she told Al Jazeera

I can’t say to everyone, ‘Don’t worry, we will be OK.’ Because I don’t know,

she added

The net impact on the US economy may be surprisingly small given the headlines we're seeing,

said Pearce, who warned

Europe and Asia will narrow the gap,

Brusuelas added,

Obviously we've benefited significantly,

said Paul Gruenwald, global chief economist at S&P Global Ratings

There will be a lot more friction,

said Joseph Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM US, a consultancy, who predicted the underlying structure around trade and capital flows will be maintained

This is very clearly going to raise consumer prices,

Michael Pearce, a US economist with Oxford Economics, said of the barrage of levies announced late Wednesday in an unveiling the White House billed as "liberation day."

For decades, our country has been looted, pillaged, raped, and plundered by nations near and far, both friend and foe alike,

he said

Whatever they charge us, we charge them.”

The president now touts his tariffs as mainly “reciprocal”