Britain ‘on recession watch’ if Trump follows via on Greenland commerce warfare threats amid fears US ‘cannot be counted on’

Britain faces a renewed threat of recession if Donald Trump follows through on his Greenland trade war threats.

Alarm has been raised that the US president’s latest extraordinary salvo at long-standing allies could crush the paltry growth being eked out.

As well as heaping costs on British exporters there could be substantial damage from the international instability caused by Mr Trump. 

There was a sigh of relief last week after better-than-expected GDP figures for November were released.

However, UK plc has still been effectively stagnating for months amid the brutal tax raids by Chancellor Rachel Reeves.

Keir Starmer had boasted his trade deal with Mr Trump put Britain in a good position to weather the US president’s ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs assault on partners.

Keir Starmerhad boasted his trade deal with Donald Trump put Britain in a good position to weather the US president’s ‘Liberation Day’ tariffsassault on partners

The economy scraped into positive territory in the three months to November, having flatlined in the three months to October 

However, there was still a 10 per cent levy on almost all products under those terms, and some of the other provisions have never materialised.

In a bombshell post on his social media site yesterday, Mr Trump said tariffs will be imposed on all Nato allies that do not bow to his demand to take over Greenland – Danish territory.  

The levies will start at 10 per cent – and potentially rise to 25 per cent if they have not capitulated by June. 

He singled out the UK, as well as France, Germany and Denmark.

The intervention drew a furious response from Western leaders, amid fresh fears that Mr Trump is intent on ripping apart the military alliance that has maintained world peace for the past eight decades.

David Henig, director of the UK Trade Policy Project, said confidence in the US sticking to commitments would be shattered.

‘So much for the deals the US already did. They always were likely to be temporary, but now this is proven,’ he posted on X.

He added: ‘Tariffs will always be negative but the fact that US trade policy has been thrown back into chaos is worse. 

‘Total uncertainty for importers and exporters who might have been hoping for a quieter year.’

Marco Forgione, of the Institute of Export and International Trade, told the Telegraph: ‘We’re going to see goods trading with the US suddenly becoming uncompetitive in the marketplace. 

‘So the impact for the UK will be huge, particularly at a time when we are struggling with very anaemic growth.

UK plc has still been effectively stagnating for months amid the brutal tax raids by Chancellor Rachel Reeves (pictured in Darlington last week)

‘If he imposes these tariffs and they remain for any period of time, it is going to put extreme pressure on the UK economy, and could potentially be enough to tip the UK into recession.’

Former Chancellor Jeremy Hunt told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that the tariffs would be damaging for the UK’s critical pharma sector and car manufacturers.

However, he cautioned that it would also impose huge costs on the US.

‘What it says is that Amrica is an unstable market. It’s not a market that you can count on,’ he added.