Caught in the middle: UK firms brace for fallout from Trump’s global trade war

Cranes at Liverpool’s Seaforth dock container terminal. Business leaders hope the UK can avoid sweeping US tariffs, but experts say the fragmentation of the international trading order would still have a chilling impact on a relatively small, open economy such as Britain. Photograph: Adam Vaughan/EPA

“We’re vulnerable at the moment,” says Fiona Conor, the managing director of Trust Electric Heating, a Leeds-based radiator manufacturer, who has been considering expanding into the US market.

After a predictably unpredictable start to Donald Trump’s second term as US president, Conor is worried her options could be limited, as businesses across the UK brace for a global trade war.