Bbc
Anthony Wills directs the Kilchomanian distillery and says that he will try to maintain the prices despite the prices
President Donald Trump has unveiled a list of prices on the countries of the world which send their products to America. The United Kingdom will be subject to 10% prices.
We have spoken to companies that export to the United States from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland of what they think that the impact on their business will be.
“ We will try to keep the price of the shelf as is ”
For Scottish whiskey manufacturers, the United States is its largest market abroad – worth 971 million pounds sterling per year.
Anthony Wills directs the Kilchome distillery on the island of Islay and says that he feels “deflated” at the prospect of the prices. “It’s a hard blow for industry,” he said.
“For us personally, this represents 10% of our sales. It will therefore clearly be a blow, especially with the current economic winds that we all live, we will all find it very difficult and very difficult.”
The industry has already been struck by American prices, with a 25% levy from singles in 2019. The Scottish Whiskey Association estimates that during the 18 months, the prices were in place, the industry lost 600 million pounds sterling of sales.
Mr. Wills says he divided the cost of the price with his American importer so that the price would remain the same for their American customers.
“I imagine that we will do what we have done the last time and try to keep the shelf’s price as before,” he said.
“We have to react and discuss it with our importer and decide the best way to follow.”
‘I do not panic – they do not make our products in the United States’
Denise Cole does not think that prices will have a negative impact on the valve manufacturer where she is financial director
Wales sold 2.2 billion pounds sterling of goods in the United States last year – most were machines and equipment manufactured by small businesses.
The company based in Newport, Tomoe Valve, manufactures high performance butterfly valves that are used in a wide variety of projects around the world.
The company reached 6 million pounds Sterling sales in 2024/25 and its largest order worth 1.2 million pounds Sterling (1.6 million dollars) came from the United States – a huge valve for a battery plant.
Financial director Denise Cole says she doesn’t want her products but understands why President Trump has brought them.
“I saw the decimated British manufacturing and the same thing happened in America, so he takes care of his family, which is exactly what he says about the tin with Trump.”
She says there was a lot of panic on the prices and that the changes could be “short -lived”.
“I really don’t think that impacts us in a negative way,” she said. “The specialized products we sell, they do not make in the United States anyway, they would find it difficult to obtain them elsewhere.
“Our own government has done more damage to me by increasing the national employment insurance contributions,” she said. “This added £ 35,000 at my expense – it is the wages of an entire person. I would have taken a new staff member this year because we have big orders, but I will not be able to do it now.”
The Treasury previously declared that it delivered the stability that companies had to invest and develop.
‘This could endanger jobs in the automotive industry’
Matt Harwood
Matt Harwood concerns risky prices to risk jobs in the automotive supply chain
A new 25% import tax on cars entering the United States has come into force today, and automotive parts will be faced with the same tax at a given time in the coming months.
Some 17% of British cars exports went to the United States last year, making it the second largest export market after the EU.
Barkley Plastics in Sutton Coldfield provides parts to car manufacturers, including Jaguar Land Rover, Nissan, Toyota and Mini.
The managing director Matt Harwood says: “The new prices will greatly affect (car manufacturers), which in turn affects companies like us in their supply chain.”
He says that the UK automotive industry was already under pressure before the prices were announced. The United Kingdom has produced more than 1.5 million cars per year before the pandemic – it is now 800,000 per year.
Mr. Harwood says: “COVID-19, shortages of fleas and wider disturbances of the supply chain have made unpredictable volumes in recent years. These new American tariffs threaten to push this number even lower, which would be particularly damaging for small suppliers like us, who operate on narrow margins.
“Another slowdown in demand could quickly result in job losses or even business closings,” he said. “So our main concern is how American rates put tens of thousands of jobs in danger in the British automotive supply chain.”
“This could affect my sales in the United States”
Peter McAuley
Peter McAuley had hoped to develop his surveillance activity in the United States, but thinks that prices could spoil his plans
In 2022, Northern Ireland exported goods worth 1.9 billion pounds sterling in the United States, making it the third largest outdoor market for goods behind Britain (11 billion pounds sterling) and Ireland (4.6 billion pounds sterling).
Belfast Watchmaker Nomadic is 22% of its sales in the United States.
Its founder Peter McAuley says that there was enormous potential for his business to grow in the United States, but it is now in doubt.
He says that America is a solid market with a good commercial environment, but he thinks that prices will have an impact on sales – although it remains confident about the future of the commercial relationship between Northern Ireland and the United States.
Additional Oliver Smith and Jennifer Meierhans report.
