Chaos of Trump tariffs demand new alliances

Never have we seen such international chaos in the global trading market as we have these last few weeks.

We have witnessed a deliberate sabotage of established trading balance that seems to have no winners.

Questions from our manufacturers and exporters are flooding in. When is a component not a component? How much reprocessing has to happen in the UK to make it a UK piece? Will we see cut price goods that couldn’t get into the US dumped on our markets, drowning our own products?

Can the government craft a bilateral deal with Trump that can truly unwind the issues? And if so, at what cost?

It won’t protect us from those goods forced out of the US market and undercutting ours if the rest of the world is left battling the cricket score sized “reciprocal” charges.

With the economic shock leaving the stock market reeling, there’s no Truss style vote of no confidence available to the US, and with both houses republican, there’s no place for dissent to germinate and grow.

So to proactive action – we need to build new alliances, reciprocal deals for ourselves with allies near and far. At least this mutual attack has reopened a positive feeling across the European divide.

More focus on onshoring and friend-shoring is needed, coming closer to self-sufficiency – but this time not because of Russia, but those we thought our friends. 

It’s time for some self-protectionism and deliberate support for UK manufacturers and markets from government, national and regional.

Never has there been a better time for us to be building a Lancashire Combined Authority – with budgets coming locally that really understand a place that builds things