Trump has Britain in a bind over car tariffs

The government has less than a week to decide how to respond to Donald Trump’s announcement of 25 per cent tariffs on car imports to the US. Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves still seem to think that Trump might exempt Britain, but there is little sign of that coming out of Washington. Unless Peter Mandelson turns out to possess rather more diplomatic skills than most people will credit him with, the Prime Minister will be faced with an uncomfortable choice: does Britain retaliate, thus risking an escalation of the transatlantic trade war, or does it suck it up and watch as Britain’s beleaguered car industry suffers even more than it is already under the government’s net zero policies?     

There is no good option. The US accounted for 17 per cent of UK car exports in 2023, worth £6.4