American consumers could be set to pay the price of the Trump administration's tariff policies which will drive up the cost of everyday goods, according to a British business expert, who warned that the Unites States' global reputation has also been heavily dented by the trade measures.
Chris Southworth, secretary general of the International Chamber of Commerce UK, gave his assessment of U.S. President Donald Trump's aggressive tariff strategy in recent weeks in an interview with China Central Television (CCTV), in which he noted the major disruption the move has caused on the international markets.
Earlier this month, Trump signed an executive order to implement so-called "reciprocal tariffs" which imposed a 10-percent "minimum baseline tariff" on all imports, before announcing higher rates on certain trading partners. After days of chaos on the global markets, Trump then moved to suspend these higher rates for 90 days on all countries except China.
Southworth warned that the Trump administration's trade protectionism measures will ultimately backfire by inevitably affecting U.S. consumers, who he believes will soon bear the burden of rising living costs.
"We don't support tariffs in any way in this kind of form, from the International Chamber of Commerce. And I think for U.S. consumers, they're going to feel a lot of price inflation in all sorts of areas, whether it's fruit, food or drink, or cars or coffee, or all these sorts of everyday retail [items]. It's going to impact everybody in lots of practical ways over the coming weeks," he said.
Southworth also noted that the UK's post-Brexit shift away from the European Union towards closer trade ties with the U.S. has now become less feasible, as the unreasonable tariffs imposed by the Trump administration have damaged global trust in the country.
"When the UK left the EU, there was a sort of line of thinking that 'let's leave the EU and do more trade with the U.S.' Well, that's clearly come to an end in the last few weeks, that type of thinking. It's very hard to see how the U.S. will rebuild its reputation," he said.
Amid the current global economic uncertainty, British businesses are now also looking to deepen their collaboration with China, with a view to building a more stable and reliable global trading system, according to Southworth.
"There's an enormous opportunity for the UK to work with China on digitalizing, modernizing, and driving the digital transformation of global trade, but we need to do this as a global community. And we've got to start think like that so that the global trading system doesn't fragment any further than it already is," he said.
Hard to see how US can rebuild reputation after tariff turmoil: UK trade expert
