Tariffs 'were a terrible idea but shunning the US is a big mistake'

Manufacturers and investors have pivoted away from the US, the world’s biggest economy. That’s a mistake, says Matthew Lynn

US President Donald Trump
(Image credit: Omar Havana/Getty Images)

British businesses, along with many others across Europe, have always seen the US as the one market they really wanted to crack. It was where they could turn themselves from a regional into a global company. That has started to change.

The US has dropped out of the top three destinations for British manufacturers for the first time in a decade, according to a survey by Made UK. Only 4% of UK-based manufacturers said they would currently consider setting up an operation in the US. Investors are looking elsewhere as well, with a flood of fresh money moving into Europe as the major funds rotate out of US assets. British exports to the US dropped by £2 billion in April, according to the Office for National Statistics, the largest monthly fall on record.

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Matthew Lynn

Matthew Lynn is a columnist for Bloomberg, and writes weekly commentary syndicated in papers such as the Daily Telegraph, Die Welt, the Sydney Morning Herald, the South China Morning Post and the Miami Herald. He is also an associate editor of Spectator Business, and a regular contributor to The Spectator. Before that, he worked for the business section of the Sunday Times for ten years. 

He has written books on finance and financial topics, including Bust: Greece, The Euro and The Sovereign Debt Crisis and The Long Depression: The Slump of 2008 to 2031. Matthew is also the author of the Death Force series of military thrillers and the founder of Lume Books, an independent publisher.