How will the US election affect UK businesses?

With both candidates in the US election ramping up their campaigns, now is a good time to look at what impact the US election could have on UK businesses.

These are the things we think are worth keeping an eye on over the next few weeks.

Trade deal

With Brexit on the horizon, the UK is looking to do a number of trade deals. By far the biggest is the one which we’d like to secure with the US. After the EU, the US is the 2nd largest economy that we export too – so it makes sense to have a deal with them.

President Trump is known to be in favour of Brexit, so would be happy to see a deal done quickly. However, Joe Biden is potentially more likely to favour rebuilding the relationship with the EU. He has been quoted as saying that the UK would be ‘at the back of the queue’ when it came to a trade deal with the US if it voted to leave the EU.

Given that we are currently in the midst of Brexit, there could be all manner of implications for the UK, our businesses and industries, depending on which way the election goes. It’s definitely a case of watch this space.

Stock Markets

The stock markets have been incredibly volatile over the course of 2020. Given that even something as simple as weather events can create fluctuations in the stock markets across the globe, the US election is likely to be no different.

Because the policies of Trump and Biden are different, the election is highly likely to cause ripples in the market, which makes investors nervous. What may have even further impact, and so affect UK businesses, is that there may be a difference in how the future US President deals with the rest of the world at large.

This instability will likely impact us much more than the US, as traditionally the UK has heavily invested in stocks from the US.

Food and medicine

Two of the big talking points of trade deals with the US have been around food standards and the costs of medicines and how they will affect the UK.

At present, the food standards that we have in the UK, which are currently set by the EU, are some of the highest in the world, however it is often felt that the standards in the US are somewhat lacking. You have no doubt seen numerous articles around chlorinated chicken!

President Trump has insisted that if there is to be a US/UK trade deal, that we need to have fewer constraints on products from the US farming industry. This could impact on farming and agriculture related businesses here in the UK, who have often felt tied by the constraints of the EU.

Of course, there was also a big debate about if the US could ‘buy’ the NHS as part of a trade deal. Repeatedly it has been said that this will not happen, however any changes to how the NHS works would have massive implications to the hundreds of businesses who are part of that supply chain currently.

At this moment, we do not know what the outcome of the election will be, or how other world events will impact businesses here in the UK. Our advice would always be to look at what options you have to make sure that your business is in the best shape it can be.

If you are looking at how you can transform your business in 2021, then why not get in touch to see how we can help?