American buyers of British exports have paid $1.36 billion in tariffs in the four months since President Trump’s “liberation day” shock, six times more than in the corresponding period of 2024 and more than for several rival European exporting nations, including France and Spain.
Estimates from the US International Trade Commission reveal the scale of the hit to British manufacturers and suggest Britain is being heavily penalised in spite of concessions won by the British government.
Between April and July, US imports from France and Spain were subject to tariffs worth roughly $1.35 billion and $615 million, respectively. The UK’s trade deal with the US, which afforded it lower tariff rates on a range of its exports, including steel and automotive shipments, came into effect at the end of June.
Trump raised the tariff rate on exports from the European Union to 15 per cent from August 7, which is yet to be reflected in the trade commission’s data, while the tariff rate for British exports has remained unchanged at 10 per cent.
Imports from China garnered the most tariff revenue, collecting $36 billion over the four months, more than double the same period in 2024. This was followed by Mexico, whose exports to the US were subject to duties worth roughly $7.6 billion, and imports from Japan, from which the US collected roughly $6.5 billion.
British exports faced the 12th-highest level of duties of any country, more than six times the $211 million collected over the same period in 2024.
• Tariffs blamed as Britain’s exports to US drop to lowest since 2022
A government spokesman said: “The UK was the first country to agree a deal with the US on key sectors, secured the lowest tariffs of any country on autos and steel and has received one of the lowest reciprocal tariff rates in the world. We will only ever sign trade deals in the national interest and will continue to work hard to implement this deal with the US to protect British jobs and put more money in people’s pockets.”
Tariffs are taxes collected by the US government from US businesses when they import goods, though the cost of the tariff is often passed along to consumers in the form of higher prices for imported goods.
Trump announcing tariffs in April
ANDREW HARNIK/GETTY IMAGES
While Trump backed down from the high levels of tariffs threatened in April, he has still raised duties to an average effective tariff rate of 18.6 per cent, the highest since 1933, according to Yale University’s Budget Lab.
Based on the trade commission’s data, the Peterson Institute for International Economics, an American think tank, estimated that the US had collected around $122 billion in tariff revenue between January and July this year.
Sam Lowe, a trade expert and partner at Flint Global, the consultancy, said: “In the medium term, [tariff revenue] is likely to grow. Different tariffs have come online at different parts of the year, and there is still possibly more to come.” He added that the rate of growth would then, at some point, flatten out.
“You could expect tariff revenue to continue to grow, but volumes either grow at a slower rate or fall because the tariff itself will have an impact on the amount of trade as well.”
The institute found that between April and July the US collected about $40 billion in tariffs from industrial intermediates and roughly $39 billion from consumer goods. Revenues from capital goods and raw material imports were significantly lower, at just $4.3 billion and $206 million, respectively.