{"id":2015,"date":"2025-07-31T03:01:53","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T03:01:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ft365.org\/index.php\/2025\/07\/31\/the-curious-economist-trade-win-or-tariff-trap-trumps-uk-deal-raises-questions-on-costs-and-growth\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T03:01:53","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T03:01:53","slug":"the-curious-economist-trade-win-or-tariff-trap-trumps-uk-deal-raises-questions-on-costs-and-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ft365.org\/index.php\/2025\/07\/31\/the-curious-economist-trade-win-or-tariff-trap-trumps-uk-deal-raises-questions-on-costs-and-growth\/","title":{"rendered":"The Curious Economist | Trade Win or Tariff Trap? Trump\u2019s UK Deal Raises Questions on Costs and Growth"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

President Trump has called his new trade pact with the UK a \u201cmaxed out deal.\u201d But behind the headlines, the fine print reveals something less exciting for economists and trade experts: a 10% baseline tariff that could shape all future US deals\u2014and raise the cost of trade.<\/p>\n

While this new agreement replaces some harsher levies and could offer short-term relief for businesses, a 10% tariff is still significantly higher than the 3% average seen before Trump\u2019s second term. And according to the Centre for Economic Policy Research, this baseline tariff will likely stick\u2014not just for the UK, but for all US trade partners.<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s the economic concern? First, tariffs are a form of protectionism<\/i>, where governments place taxes on imports to protect domestic industries. In theory, this should boost domestic production and employment. But in practice, tariffs often raise prices for consumers, increase production costs for firms, and invite retaliatory measures from trading partners. Economists call this a lose-lose<\/i> situation\u2014where global efficiency falls and everyone is worse off.<\/p>\n

What usually happens with tariffs is businesses will pay more for the same goods and pass that cost onto customers. That matters, especially in the US, where consumer spending drives 70% of GDP. Higher prices mean weaker demand, and that puts pressure on business growth, investment, and jobs.<\/p>\n

More deals are in the works, including a high-stakes meeting with China, where current tariffs sit at a jaw-dropping 145%. Trump hinted they could come down to 80%\u2014still the highest since World War II.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Trump has called his new trade pact with the UK a \u201cmaxed out deal.\u201d But behind the headlines, the fine print reveals something less exciting for economists and trade experts: a 10% baseline tariff that could shape all future US deals\u2014and raise the cost of trade. While this new agreement replaces some harsher levies<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-global-economy"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/ft365.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/70-ChatGPT-Image-May-12-2025-11_40_04-AM.jpg",1536,1024,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/ft365.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/70-ChatGPT-Image-May-12-2025-11_40_04-AM-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/ft365.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/70-ChatGPT-Image-May-12-2025-11_40_04-AM-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/ft365.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/70-ChatGPT-Image-May-12-2025-11_40_04-AM-768x512.jpg",640,427,true],"large":["https:\/\/ft365.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/70-ChatGPT-Image-May-12-2025-11_40_04-AM-1024x683.jpg",640,427,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/ft365.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/70-ChatGPT-Image-May-12-2025-11_40_04-AM.jpg",1536,1024,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/ft365.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/70-ChatGPT-Image-May-12-2025-11_40_04-AM.jpg",1536,1024,false],"morenews-featured":["https:\/\/ft365.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/70-ChatGPT-Image-May-12-2025-11_40_04-AM-1024x683.jpg",1024,683,true],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/ft365.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/70-ChatGPT-Image-May-12-2025-11_40_04-AM-825x575.jpg",825,575,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/ft365.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/70-ChatGPT-Image-May-12-2025-11_40_04-AM-590x410.jpg",590,410,true],"crawlomatic_preview_image":["https:\/\/ft365.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/70-ChatGPT-Image-May-12-2025-11_40_04-AM-219x146.jpg",219,146,true]},"author_info":{"display_name":"henry","author_link":"https:\/\/ft365.org\/index.php\/author\/henry\/"},"category_info":"The Global Economy<\/a>","tag_info":"The Global Economy","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ft365.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ft365.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ft365.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ft365.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ft365.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ft365.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ft365.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ft365.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ft365.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ft365.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}