'Trade bazooka' urged for UK amid US tariff threats

A United Kingdom trade organization that represents 50,000 companies employing 6 million people has called on the nation's government to do more to protect enterprises from United States President Donald Trump.

The British Chambers of Commerce, or BCC, which is an umbrella organization for 53 regional chambers of commerce throughout the UK, said the country's "inadequate economic security" is putting GDP growth and jobs at risk.

After Trump threatened last week to impose an additional "big tariff" on the UK in response to its levying a digital services tax on US technology companies, the BCC urged London to give itself the option of hitting back through the use of a "trade bazooka" like the one developed by the European Union.

The EU's trade bazooka, or anti-coercion instrument, allows the bloc to impose restrictions on trade with states it deems economic aggressors.

Restrictions include limiting aggressor states' access to public procurement programs and financial markets, and curtailing their ability to purchase property and engage in foreign direct investment.

The report said the addition of a "trade bazooka" to the UK's "arsenal of responses" would help offset" years of neglect by successive governments".

The BCC said recent increasing trans-Atlantic tension is only the latest problem for UK businesses, following government neglect, the UK's decision to leave the EU, the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and the fighting in Iran. It said the turbulence has damaged supply chains and reduced access to raw materials.

"The government must add a 'trade bazooka' to its arsenal of responses to threats of economic coercion," the BCC's report said.

The report says UK companies should also be helped by being guaranteed a larger role in the country's defense industry.

And the BCC report said Prime Minister Keir Starmer should create a new Cabinet committee to focus entirely on economic security.

The Guardian newspaper quoted Shevaun Haviland, the BCC's director-general, as saying the time has come for the UK government to push back against threats coming from the US.

"The UK's inadequate economic security has become a drag on growth, competitiveness, and national strength; yet it is still not given the focus and urgency it demands," she said.

Meanwhile, on Monday, Britain's King Charles III began a state visit to the US despite a shooting two days earlier at a dinner attended by his host, Trump. The four-day trip by King Charles and Queen Camilla is intended to honor historic ties between the two countries as the US marks its 250th anniversary, according to the British government.