Trump’s trade war pushes exports and people to UK
President Donald Trump’s brutal tariffs have pushed Canadian exporters across the pond, fresh data has shown, with further US policies on immigration also expected to draw more workers towards the UK.
Official figures by Statistics Canada show that the country’s exports to the UK spiked by as much as 63 per cent in the months since Trump stepped into the White House in January.
Data suggested that Canada was sending more products from the energy, critical minerals and transportation sector than previously.
It has made the UK Canada’s second-largest export market as a single country, making it larger than China.
The UK may be enjoying the benefits of having a former Bank of England Governor as prime minister in Canada, with a meeting between Keir Starmer and Mark Carney in Ottawa drawing on the prospects to build ties in trade as “reliable partners”.
US immigration to the UK
Analysts also believe Trump’s tough line on immigration has also led to an increase in the numbers of Americans applying for citizenship in the UK.
In the second quarter of the year, some 2,194 US applications for UK citizenship were made, according to official data.
Nick Warr, Taylor Wessing‘s UK senior partner and private client partner, said the increase of around 12 per cent compared to the first three months of the year showed Americans were more concerned about “political discourse and the increasing social tensions in the US”.
“Sadly for Americans this [UK] regime means little due to their worldwide taxation,” Warr said.
The extent of the exodus following the changes to the non-dom regime was far greater than most anticipated although statistically it will not become apparent for over 18 months.
“While it is heartening to see an inflow, we are still seeing a significant imbalance between the immigration versus emigration with another wave of people now leaving after the rumours of a wealth tax or exit tax.”
Mayor Sadiq Khan has hailed the inflow of liberal US citizens to London as a sign that the capital city’s diversity was a “strength, not a threat to society”.
Immigrants and firms in the US will now have to weigh up whether to pay higher costs on worker visas after Trump added a $100,000 fee to applications for the H1-B visa, the main nonimmigrant visa for some occupations in the US that allows employers to temporarily employ foreign workers.
On Friday night, the Trump administration signed a proclamation that was aimed at ensuring that migrant workers were “actually highly skilled, and that they are not replaceable by American workers”.
“No more will these big tech companies or other big companies train foreign workers,” US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick said.
Researchers at the growth-focused think tank Centre for British Progress have suggested that the Trump administration’s shift on business immigration was “incredibly low hanging fruit for UK prosperity”.
Earlier this week, tech leaders including Nvidia’s Jensen Huang praised the UK’s “goldilocks moment” for AI investment as Trump visited Starmer‘s estate in Chequers and signed a £150bn tech partnership deal.