Faced with the increase in customs duties decided by Donald Trump, the automotive sector is reorganized in the United Kingdom. Starting with Jaguar Land Rover (JLR). The British manufacturer announced on Saturday the suspension in April of its vehicle deliveries to the United States, due to the new customs duties imposed in the automotive sector since April 3 by Washington.
“The United States is an important market for JLR’s luxury brands. While we are working to meet the new commercial conditions with our partners, we implement short-term actions, including a break from shipments in April, “said a group spokesperson in a statement transmitted to AFP.
In April, no Jaguar vehicle built in the United Kingdom will therefore be exported to the United States. According to BFMTV, a quarter of the brand’s 400,000 cars built each year in the United Kingdom are intended for the country led by Donald Trump.
25,000 threatened jobs
As a reminder, the American president announced this Wednesday “reciprocal customs rights”, that is to say individualized by country. The United Kingdom is one of the countries most spared by this new measure, since it is, in general, taxed at 10 %, the floor threshold set by the United States government. Only, the British automotive sector does not do so as well, since it is one of the only two areas subject to customs duties of 25 % in the country.
The automotive sector employs more than 400,000 people in the United Kingdom. Nearly 25,000 of them would be threatened to lose their jobs following the increases imposed by Donald Trump, the United States representing the second largest importer of cars built in Great Britain, just behind the European Union.
The break decided in April should therefore allow Jaguar to study the new conditions, while leaving the government time to find a solution to mitigate these new customs duties. Keir Starmer, the British Prime Minister, has so far decided to answer “with calm and pragmatism” in the United States by not imposing, for the moment, no customs duties in return.