UK has best chance to overturn tariffs, says Reynolds

The UK is best-placed to eventually overturn US trade tariffs set to be announced on Wednesday, the trade secretary has said.

Jonathan Reynolds told the BBC the UK was expecting to be hit by the new raft of import taxes set to be imposed by President Donald Trump.

Reynolds said he expected all countries to be affected by the tariffs, despite his efforts to negotiate an initial UK exemption.

But the business secretary said ongoing talks with the Trump administration meant the UK was in the “best possible position of any country” to have them reversed.

“Some of that comes down to the US and whether they want to do that,” Reynolds told BBC Breakfast.

“I do believe not only can we get to a place where we are avoiding tariffs on each other, but we’re also strengthening that relationship.”

Tariffs are taxes on goods imported to the US.

Trump argues the taxes – which will make it more expensive to import goods into the US – will bring back manufacturing industries and protect American jobs.

But economists expect tariffs to increase prices for consumers, reduce business investment and hit economic growth.

Over the weekend, Trump suggested the tariffs would hit all countries, not just those with the biggest trade imbalances with the US.

On Monday, the prime minister’s official spokesman said talks on an economic deal between the two countries to avoid tariffs had been “constructive” but he did not rule out retaliating if they were imposed on the UK.

Reynolds did not give a timescale on when an exemption might be agreed, and said the UK government was keeping “all options on the table”.

He said: “The longer we don’t have a potential resolution to that, the more we will have to consider our own position.”

He said negotiations that often take years had been done in days.

“And I believe that the framework of an agreement is certainly in place,” he added.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has suggested the UK could change its taxes on big tech firms as part of a deal to avoid US tariffs.

The digital services tax, introduced in 2020, imposes a 2% levy on tech firms, including big US firms such as Amazon, bringing in about £800m in tax per year.

The independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has warned tariffs could wipe billions off economic growth and all but eliminate Reeves’s buffer against her self-imposed rules on spending and borrowing.

The forecaster has warned that a trade war could cut the size of the British economy by 1% in the worst-case scenario.

Trump has already announced a series of tariffs on steel, aluminium and vehicles coming into the US – and unlike other countries, the UK has decided to not to set out plans to retaliate with tariffs of its own.

But ahead of the latest round of expected tariffs, ministers are facing calls to hit back and protect UK business from the impact of Trump’s taxes.

The UK pharmaceuticals industry – which exported £6.6bn of medicine and related products to the US in 2024 – admitted it is “worried” about US tariffs.

Steve Bates, chief executive of the BioIndustry Association trade body, told the BBC: “Half of the world’s market in pharmaceuticals is in the US and for the UK, exports of pharmaceuticals are about the same size of the car industry, give-or-take.”

The Scotch whisky industry is also bracing for tariffs, after being targeted by Trump during his first term.

The US is the biggest market for Scotch exports, which totalled £971m last year.

Annabelle Thomas, chief executive of Nc’nean Distillery on the west coast of Scotland, said large tariffs could put the company off investing in the US.

She told the BBC: “If they are lower than some were expecting, potentially we can absorb them in the short-term”.

“But if they are higher, we as a small challenger brand, just don’t have those resources available to us to absorb them, so we’d either need to think about raising our prices in the US or reducing our investment in the market.”