00:00What you've got to remember about tariffs, which of course is the base of what trade
00:04wars are, are sort of levied on the goods coming into your country. What you try and
00:08do is to sort of to make them sort of higher, to sort of give your sort of domestic producers
00:13a sort of, if you like, a head start of sorts. Now, of course, the difficulty with that is
00:17your domestic suppliers may not have the sort of production facilities. And indeed, if we're
00:22talking about China, for instance, where the sort of the wage rates are sort of much lower,
00:27if we produce the same goods in our own country, of course, they sort of commensurate go up,
00:31which of course, you know, means the supply has to go up. So whatever happens, it does
00:36mean that there's going to be a sort of a price increase, because the tariffs are not
00:39sort of laid or put onto sort of the producers in the overseas country. It's when they sort
00:46of come into the country by the sort of seller. So in the sense, as I say, it's a way, if
00:51you like, of manipulating the market. So my sort of prediction is that sort of inflation
00:55will go up in all countries that sort of engage in this game. Because, of course, you
01:00know, if you impose tariffs on one country, they're going to do exactly the same to you.
01:07So this idea, it's going to sort of create a sort of balance. Well, there will be a lot
01:10of sort of pain in the process of so doing.
01:13So just how important is the UK's relationship with the United States? Well, currently, the
01:19UK exports approximately £60 billion in goods to the US, making it Britain's largest
01:25export market. The US, in turn, exports around £58 billion in goods to the UK, with key
01:32sectors including machinery, vehicles and pharmaceuticals. This robust exchange underscores
01:40the significance of the transatlantic trade relationship in supporting jobs and businesses
01:47across both nations.
01:50The fact is, though, so what Trump says one day, what may happen the next day or even
01:54the sort of next hour, given the sort of the increasingly erratic way that this man
01:59is operating, you just do not know. So who knows? I mean, we may sort of, as a consequence
02:05of the so-called special relationship, benefit from sort of a preferential sort of treatment.
02:11But the way things are going, I wouldn't sort of put too much sort of stock in that. So
02:14I think the sort of, you know, there is a storm economic coming. But, of course, economic
02:19wars have a habit, if you like, of lurching into sort of something even far more serious.
02:23I have to say, if I was to meet Trump and he told me the sky was blue, I would go and
02:28have a look outside.
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