7:04 pm, April 5, 2025
Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is to ‘pause’ the delivery of cars to the US as it examines how to ‘address the new trading terms’ of president Trump’s tariffs.
On Thursday (Apr 3), a 25% levy on all foreign cars imported into the US came into effect, while a wider ‘baseline’ 10% tariff on goods imported from around the world kicked in on Saturday morning.
In a statement on Saturday (Apr 5), a JLR spokesperson said: ‘The USA is an important market for JLR’s luxury brands.
‘As we work to address the new trading terms with our business partners, we are taking some short-term actions including a shipment pause in April, as we develop our mid- to longer-term plans.’
JLR and Mini are most affected by the 25% levy on imported cars, while, according to data from the Society of Motor Manufacturing and Traders (SMMT), the US is the UK’s second largest export market after the European Union.
Some 16.9% of UK car exports cross the Atlantic to the US, representing £7.6bn a year.
On Wednesday, analysis from the Institute For Public Policy Research (IPPR) said the tariffs have the potential to ‘completely destabilise the UK car manufacturing industry’, and 25,000 jobs could be axed.
Commenting on Thursday, the day that the tariffs struck, SMMT chief Mike Hawes said: ‘These tariff costs cannot be absorbed by manufacturers, thus hitting US consumers who may face additional costs and a reduced choice of iconic British brands, whilst UK producers may have to review output in the face of constrained demand.’
Meanwhile, trading across the world has been hammered in the aftermath of the president’s tariff announcement at the White House on Wednesday.
The FTSE 100 plummeted on Friday in its worst day of trading since the start of the pandemic, while markets on Wall Street also tumbled.
All but one stock on the FTSE 100 fell – with Rolls-Royce, banks and miners among those to suffer the sharpest losses.
Sir Keir Starmer is expected to spend the weekend taking calls from foreign leaders about the tariffs after discussions with the prime ministers of Australia and Italy on Friday in which the leaders agreed that a trade war would be ‘extremely damaging’.
Issuing a read-out of their separate conversations on Friday, Number 10 said the leaders ‘all agreed that an all-out trade war would be extremely damaging’.
A spokesperson said the PM ‘has been clear the UK’s response will be guided by the national interest’ and officials will ‘calmly continue with our preparatory work, rather than rush to retaliate’.
‘He discussed this approach with both leaders, acknowledging that while the global economic landscape has shifted this week, it has been clear for a long time that like-minded countries must maintain strong relationships and dialogue to ensure our mutual security and maintain economic stability,’ the spokesperson added.
London’s top stock market index shed 419.75 points, or 4.95%, to close at 8,054.98 on Friday, the biggest single-day decline since March 2020 when the index lost more than 600 points in one day. The Dow Jones fell 5.5% on Friday as China matched Trump’s tariff rate.
Ministers are still seeking to strike a deal with the US in the hope that it could secure some exemption from the tariffs.
Rachel Reeves said on Friday that the government is ‘determined to get the best deal we can’ with Washington.
‘Of course, we don’t want to see tariffs on UK exports and we’re working hard as a government in discussion with our counterparts in the US to represent the British national interest and support British jobs and British industry,’ the chancellor said.
