It’s been another ‘Manic Monday’ for savers and investors.

Having woken up at the start of recently to the game-changing news that an unknown Chinese start-up had developed an inexpensive expert system (AI) chatbot, they discovered over the weekend that Donald Trump truly was going to perform his threat of launching an all-out trade war.

The US President’s decision to slap a 25 per cent tariff on goods imported from Canada and Mexico, and a 10 percent tax on deliveries from China, sent out stock exchange into another tailspin, just as they were recuperating from last week’s rout.

But whereas that sell-off was mainly confined to AI and wiki.lafabriquedelalogistique.fr other innovation stocks, this time the impacts of a possibly lengthy trade war could be much more destructive and extensive, and possibly plunge the international economy - consisting of the UK - into a slump.

And the decision to delay the tariffs on Mexico for one month provided just partial break on global markets.

So how should British investors play this highly volatile and bphomesteading.com unpredictable scenario? What are the sectors and possessions to avoid, and who or what might become winners?

In its easiest form, a tariff is a tax imposed by one country on goods imported from another.

Crucially, the duty is not paid by the foreign company exporting however by the getting company, which pays the levy to its federal government, offering it with beneficial tax earnings.

President Donald Trump speaking with press reporters in Washington today after Air Force One touched down at Joint Base Andrews

These might be worth as much as $250billion a year, or 0.8 per cent of US GDP, according to experts at Capital Economics.

Canada, Mexico and China together account for $1.3 trillion - or 42 per cent - of the $3.1 trillion of goods imported into the US in 2023.

Most economic experts hate tariffs, mainly because they cause inflation when business hand down their increased import expenses to customers, sending out costs higher.

But Mr Trump loves them - he has actually explained tariff as ‘the most stunning word in the dictionary’.

In his recent election campaign, Mr Trump made no trick of his plan to enforce import taxes on neighbouring countries unless they curbed the prohibited circulation of drugs and migrants into the US.

Next in Mr Trump’s sights is the European Union, where he’s said tariffs will ‘certainly take place’ - and perhaps the UK.

The US President states Britain is ‘method out of line’ but an offer ‘can be exercised’.

Nobody needs to be shocked the US President has actually chosen to shoot very first and ask concerns later.

Trade delicate business in Europe were also struck by Mr Trump’s tariffs, including German carmakers Volkswagen and BMW

Shares in European customer products companies such as beverages giant Diageo, which makes Guinness, fell sharply in the middle of worries of greater expenses for their items

What matters now is how other nations respond.

Canada, Mexico and China have already struck back in kind, triggering fears of a tit-for-tat escalation that could engulf the whole global economy if others follow match.

Mr Trump yields that Americans will bear some ‘short-term’ pain from his sweeping tariffs. ‘But long term the United States has actually been swindled by essentially every nation worldwide,’ he added.

Mr Trump says the tariffs enforced by former US President William McKinley in 1890 made America thriving, introducing a ‘golden era’ when the US overtook Britain as the world’s greatest economy. He wants to repeat that formula to ‘make America terrific again’.

But specialists say he runs the risk of a re-run of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 - a disastrous step introduced simply after the Wall Street stock exchange crash. It on a broad swathe of goods imported into the US, causing a collapse in worldwide trade and intensifying the results of the Great Depression.

‘The lessons from history are clear: [mariskamast.net](http://mariskamast.net:/smf/index.php?action=profile