Economist: UK less affected by tariffs

Economist Laurie Laird says the UK will suffer less from US tariffs compared to countries like Germany, France, or Italy.

Transcript

00:00Let's start with the FTSE 100. It suffered its biggest daily drop in more than five

00:05years since 2020. Are we surprised that this is happening?

00:10I'm a little bit surprised, to be honest. FTSE down about 4.3%. Now, the DAX in Germany

00:16down about 4.2%. So, a similar fall. The French benchmark down about 3.7%.

00:23But I am a little bit surprised to see the FTSE falling as much as these European markets simply

00:28because the UK got off a little bit more lightly on tariffs than Europe did. Tariffs of 10%

00:36onto UK goods going into the US. The EU hit at a much higher rate. Also, the UK sends proportionately

00:44more services to the US. We're not quite sure, but it doesn't appear that services will be hit

00:51with tariffs in the way goods will. So, if you compare the UK to its European partners,

00:58competitors, depends on what day of the week it is for that one. But if you compare the UK economy

01:03to the others in Europe, it's not going to, on the surface, suffer as much as, say,

01:09Germany or France or Italy, which also exports a lot of goods to the US, shouldn't get hit that badly.