Company pulls out of US deal over tariff concerns

A manufacturing company has said it is pulling out of investments in the US, losing $400,000 in revenue over Donald Trump's tariff uncertainty.

The US president has recently doubled down on his threat to take control of Greenland, insisting he will impose tariffs on several countries, including the UK, if they oppose any takeover.

The impact is being felt by Bilston firm Bowers & Jones - which has decided to stop development activities in the US and focus on the UK and European markets.

Managing director Jane Sommerville told the BBC the company pulled out of an upcoming deal because it "no longer stands up".

Sommerville said over the last 12 months, the tariffs were "starting to hit us hard now", with many of the machining company's customers being over in the US.

She said: "We had some plans to open a partnership with a company over there to do machining with a product in the US.

"But that investment no longer stands up. I usually go out two or three times a year to visit customers and do business development activities - but we're just not seeing the return in that investment either now."

An initial wave of tariffs was announced early last year and in June, the UK negotiated a 10% US tariff rate, the lowest so far of any country that has struck a deal with Trump.

Sommerville said: "When the tariffs were initially announced last year - the uncertainty was causing the major issues.

"But then once the deal had been done we found we were one of the favoured nations and had lower tariffs than other countries in the world.

"So we could move forward on that basis and negotiate prices with customers and we won orders on the back of that."

Writing on social media on Saturday, Trump said that he would impose tariffs on the UK, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Finland.

He said they would be charged "a 10% tariff on any and all goods" sent to the US, with the tariff raised to 25% on 1 June.

The new import taxes would "be due and payable until such time as a deal is reached for the complete and total purchase of Greenland" and would begin on 1 February.

Sommerville said now there was uncertainty again of "not knowing what's going on".

She said: "Yesterday we pulled out of a contract we were negotiating because it affects our price with the customer and our customer wants to place the order so we pulled out of it - which was a hit of around $400,00 in revenue for us."

She said last year the company's turnover was down by 20%, and now its growth patterns have had to be rewritten.

Instead, the firm is now looking to develop a new product for the UK market.

Sommerville said: "We're moving the effort and investment in the US to Europe. But then there's the problems with Brexit.

"If the government could focus on making a better deal with us in Europe to make trade easier to flow - it would help."

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