Colin McLean

ANALYSIS of the US election result emphasises personalities and politics. But, although the economic impact on Scotland might be harder to calculate, it is where attention might now best be focused. The US remains Scotland’s single biggest single trading partner excluding energy, and the prospect of trade fiction driven by higher US tariffs could hit us harder than other countries in Europe. Following Brexit, and the problems that has created for Scotland’s exporters, many had hopes that the US market would fill the gap. Viewed from a US perspective, it is easy to see that its own trade imbalances are fuelling the rhetoric – the UK as a whole exports much more across the Atlantic than it imports in return. This year the US accounts for more than 17% of total UK trade.

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