LONDON — No matter who wins Tuesday’s presidential election, the future will most likely remain challenging for British and European firms looking to do business with the U.S., according to Allyson Stewart-Allen, who argues that domestic issues will dominate the agenda in a Joe Biden, or a second Donald Trump, term.
“Since Trump took office, the U.S. has been seen as a much more nationalistic and isolationist place: The messages around ‘America first’ and ‘Make America great again’ are about prioritizing the U.S. before any other place or country. You also have the messages of ‘We don’t want immigrants.’ If you combine all of that, you perceive the U.S. brand as much less welcoming, open and tolerant.
She said U.K. businesses in particular will be vulnerable because the country will be out of the European Union as of Jan. 1, and negotiations with the U.S. about a free trade deal are ongoing. If Trump wins, there’s a good chance a deal could be hammered out by the first quarter of 2021; if Biden wins, who knows what could happen?
Both countries have seen onerous tariffs slapped onto their luxury goods exports by the U.S. due to the ongoing Airbus-Boeing subsidies spat. The dispute predated the Trump administration by more than a decade, and it’s not finished yet. The European Union still has room to retaliate with tariffs of its own.
“My clients in the U.K., and in Continental Europe, used to aspire to the American commercial model — our version of ‘Winner takes all’ capitalism and ‘If you win, you win big’ mentality. Scaling is a concept that has historically been admired, but now, the views I get are that America is a sorry and sad place. This isn’t a COVID-19 thing, it is a longer-term view that America’s brand of capitalism is broken.
No way. A Biden win = global economic and climate wellness ✅✅