While it prefers a trade deal over a trade war with President-elect Donald Trump, the British government is prepping retaliatory tariffs on American products such as motorcycles, blue jeans, and whiskey, Politico reported Tuesday.
Officially, U.K. officials aren't commenting on "what if" scenarios on Trump tariffs, but they're prepared to reimplement taxes on Jack Daniels whiskey, Harley Davidson motorcycles and Levi's blue jeans, among other products, according to the report.
"We're not going to get ahead of ourselves and talk about how we should respond to something before there's something to respond to," a government official told Politico.
Because the British government only indefinitely suspended tariffs on American products in 2022, the U.K. could reinstitute them quickly without an investigation by the Trade Remedies Authority, Politico reported. Britain's tariffs, in response to Trump's tariffs on European steel, were still in place when it left the EU in February 2020, according to the report.
U.K. Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds told members of Parliament last week that tariffs would be "difficult."
"I don't think speculating about how we should respond before there is anything to respond to is in the U.K.'s interests," Reynolds said, Politico reported. "But to state the obvious, tariffs on U.K. goods entering the U.S. would be a difficult thing for us to have to contend with."
Their top priority is to convince Trump not to hit its imports with tariffs, with Exchequer Chancellor Rachel Reeves talking about "free and open trade" during a speech this month, according to the report.
"I look forward to working closely with President-elect Trump, and his team, to strengthen our relationship in the years ahead," Reeves said.