Dr Fragkiskos Filippaios, an associate dean in the University of Kent’s Faculty of Social Sciences, said Brexit put the UK in a advantageous position as it is poised to negotiate a trade deal with the US.
Yesterday the US President confirmed his plans to impose a 25 per cent tariff on imported steel and 10 per cent on imported aluminium, sending ricochets around the globe.
Critics fear the move will trigger a response in the form of similar taxes on American exports, with Jean-Claude Juncker, European Commission President, already having declared retaliation was “inevitable”.
The tariffs are due to come into force in 15 days, although neighbours Mexico and Canada will be spared pending ongoing trade negotiations.
Dr Filippaios said Mr Trump was using tariffs and other trade barriers as a “pressure mechanism” to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Mexico and Canada, which he claims is an “unfair” deal.
Mr Trump is also a vocal critic of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), which has been the subject of negotiations between the US and EU since 2013.
Dr Filippaios added: “Unfortunately, due to internal EU disagreements and the protectionist approach of the Trump administration there has been no significant progress on the agreement.
“On one hand UK is in a beneficial position with Brexit being able to negotiate a separate agreement with the US once the process of exiting from the EU is complete.
“There can be a focus on a bilateral trade agreement that is not going to be determined by the interests of another 27 member states.”
However, he cautioned that there were also pitfalls for the UK as a result of Mr Trump’s stance.
He explained: “The UK is a much smaller player in global trade than the EU. In trade agreements the economic power of the two parties plays a major role.
“From a US perspective having a free trade agreement with the EU would have been far more beneficial than an agreement with the UK alone.
“At the moment US have only 20 free trade agreements and these are primarily with smaller Latin American countries.
“The ones that stand out are the one with Australia, Israel, Korea and Singapore. Given the current President Trump rhetoric we would expect the focus in the next few years to be towards renegotiating all these agreements to ensure better terms of trade for the US before any substantial new agreement is put in place.
“These two issues make the case of the UK a difficult one. First, the economic power will be much smaller than an integrated EU and second the agreement with the UK might not be at the top of the Trump administration’s agenda.”
Mr Trump suggested that trade wars are “good” and “easy to win”.
However, Dr Filippaios warned: “A trade war will increase protectionism and will force countries to behave in a tit-for-tat way.
“Consumers and industries that rely on intermediate goods will definitely lose by facing higher prices.
“A trade war could easily push an, already fragile, global economy into recession.
“Trade wars have always losers on both sides and are not easy to win especially when you rely on global trade for a substantial amount of merchandise goods as US currently does.
“The economy will not adjust overnight to produce those goods and even if an adjustment comes gradually this will come with a significant cost for consumers.”