LONDON (AFP) – The “world as we knew it” is over, United Kingdom (UK) Prime Minister Keir Starmer said yesterday, as the world braced for further fallout from the introduction of United States (US) tariffs.
US President Donald Trump’s announcement of sweeping tariffs on Wednesday shows that “old assumptions can no longer be taken for granted,” Starmer said in an op-ed for the Sunday Telegraph newspaper.
“The world as we knew it has gone,” he wrote.
The new world will be governed less by established rules and “more by deals and alliances,” added the prime minister.
The tariffs have already sent markets into a tailspin, and all eyes will be on today’s opening with Trump warning Americans of pain ahead.
“This is an economic revolution, and we will win,” the Republican president wrote on Truth Social on Saturday. “Hang tough, it won’t be easy, but the end result will be historic.”
Trump’s 34 per cent tariff on Chinese goods is set to kick in next week, triggering Beijing’s announcement of a 34 per cent levy on US products from April 10.
The European Union and Japan are also among around 60 trading partners set to face even higher rates on April 9, raising fears of recessions in some of the world’s leading economies.
Wednesday’s announcement has sent countries scrambling for a response, and Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa said on Saturday that he would suspend all tariffs on goods imported from the US after being hit with an 18 per cent levy.
The UK has so far got off relatively lightly with a 10 per cent tariff, and Starmer wrote yesterday that the country’s response “demands the best of British virtues – cool heads, pragmatism and a clear understanding of our national interest.”
The UK leader reiterated his government’s belief that “nobody wins from a trade war” and that the immediate strategy was “to keep calm and fight for the best deal.”
However, he insisted a US trade deal will only be struck “if it is right for British business” and that “all options remain on the table” in responding to the tariffs.
The new levies mark “the most sweeping tariff hike since the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, the 1930 law best remembered for triggering a global trade war and deepening the Great Depression,” said the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
In an immediate sign of the fallout, UK luxury car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover said on Saturday that it will “pause” shipments to the US in April as it addressed “the new trading terms”.
Recognising the shifting global economic sands, Starmer said that he was now prepared to use direct state intervention to protect certain sectors.
“This week we will turbocharge plans that will improve our domestic competitiveness,” he wrote, ahead of an expected major announcement on industrial strategy.
