Donald Trump’s latest plan to slap tariffs on US imports based on sales taxes in their country of origin could shave £16 billion ($20 billion) off UK economic output over the next two years, in what would be a blow to Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s promise to fire up growth.

Britain entered a rare deficit in its goods trade with the United States at the end of last year, according to data published on Thursday that London will hope bolsters its case against the imposition of new tariffs by President Donald Trump.

The White House argued that charging the same import taxes as other countries do would improve the fairness of trade and raise revenues for the US.