Law and business news round-up: Trump, China tariffs, UK 2017 forecasts

Our round-up of the first commercial developments in 2017 picks up very much where 2016 left off. The maverick methods of President-elect Donald Trump are having a marked impact on the thinking of major businesses, while tensions between China and other economies continue to increase. There is also a mixture of encouraging and not-so-rosy omens for the UK economy to pick through.

• Let’s start with Trump, who is continuing the prolific exploitation of Twitter that marked his election campaign to exert influence even before he assumes presidential office. From publicly threatening carmakers Ford and General Motors with heavy tariffs if they moved manufacturing outside the United States (hours later, Ford announced the scrapping of its plans to build a plant in Mexico in favour of boosting its US operations), to lambasting Boeing and Lockheed Martin about sensitive government contracts, Trump’s approach to US industrial strategy seems so far to involve using social media to put public pressure on companies to conform to his protectionist manifesto.
• Concerned about Trump’s protectionist agenda, China has moved to criticise “extreme” tariffs on its exports as it faces the possibility of Trump sticking to his pledge to place a tariff of up to 45% on Chinese goods being sold in the United States. Last year also saw the European Union hit China with a steel tariff to protect its own struggling steel industry from the “dumping” of huge quantities of Chinese steel into the market. Those who would sleep better without two of the world’s largest economic and military powers growing ever more hostile to one another will not be thrilled at the news that Trump has appointed economist Peter Navarro, author of a book entitled The Coming China Wars, to direct US industrial and trade policy.
• On to UK matters and the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) has revealed that sales of new cars hit an all-time high in 2016. However, the SMMT has also said that the past few years of sales growth, driven by pent-up demand created by the recession which began in 2008, has peaked – sales are expected to fall by 5-6% in 2017.
• Retailer Next’s shares have fallen by 12% after its lower-than-expected sales during the festive season, as well as predictions of a tough 2017 from the company’s famously frank and outspoken chief executive, Lord Wolfson. The gloomy forecast also hit the shares of other retailers including Marks and Spencer, Debenhams and Associated British Foods, the owner of Primark.
• Bank of England figures show that UK household debt has risen to its highest level since the immediate aftermath of the financial crash in 2008. Personal debt, including credit cards and bank loans (but not mortgages or student loans) has been growing at an annual rate of 10% for the last six months, prompting Bank of England Governor Mark Carney to express concern at the high levels of debt in many households.  

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