UK readies to protect industry as US tariffs upend global order: Starmer

LONDON: The “world as we knew it” is over, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Sunday, as the world braced for further fallout from the introduction of US tariffs.

US President Donald Trump’s announcement of sweeping tariffs on Wednesday shows that “old assumptions can no longer be taken for granted,” Starmer said in an op-ed for the Sunday Telegraph newspaper.

“The world as we knew it has gone,” he wrote. The new world will be governed less by established rules and “more by deals and alliances,” added the prime minister. The tariffs have already sent markets into a tailspin, and all eyes will be on Monday’s opening with Trump warning Americans of pain ahead. “This is an economic revolution, and we will win,” the Republican president wrote on Truth Social on Saturday. “Hang tough, it won’t be easy, but the end result will be historic.”

The UK leader reiterated his government’s belief that “nobody wins from a trade war” and that the immediate strategy was “to keep calm and fight for the best deal.” However, he insisted a US trade deal will only be struck “if it is right for British business” and that “all options remain on the table” in responding to the tariffs.