Trump’s tariffs have hurt tea exports to the US, says Fortnum & Mason boss
The boss of upmarket retailer Fortnum & Mason has said Donald Trump’s trade war has hit sales of its luxury tea exports to the US and forced up prices.Tom Athron, the London-based retailer’s chief executive, said Trump’s stricter country of origin rules and the end of the “de minimis” cost exemption for parcels worth less than $800 (£587) had hit customers across the Atlantic.“The American authorities have told us – this is the tea industry in its entirety – that if you’ve got tea from China and India in your tea, then its country of origin [is] China or India, and therefore those enormous tariffs apply,” he told the Financial Times.Trump, who landed in the UK on Tuesday for an unprecedented second state visit for a US president, last month imposed a 50% tariff on imports from India as a punishment for buying Russian oil.And earlier this year, the US administration raised tariffs as high as 145% on Chinese goods as the trade war intensified, before dropping them to 30% in May to facilitate talks between the two trading giants.
The world’s two largest economies held talks in Madrid this week to try to reach a potential deal.For a 250g canister of loose leaf Royal Blend tea, which retails to US consumers at $27.85, Fortnum’s has now been forced to charge delivery fees starting at $25.41 owing to the changes to US taxes and duties.The 318-year-old retailer, which holds two royal warrants, was not previously liable for any tariffs on the majority of its deliveries to US customers.
US custom agents assess whether a “substantive transformation” has been made to a product to decide whether its country of origin is different from where the product has been sourced.Sign up to Business TodayGet set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morningafter newsletter promotionThis process can be unclear to retailers, while the scrapping of “de miminis” rules has led to customers being wary of buying Fortnum & Mason’s products, which are popular with expats and international buyers.“A lot of our things are sent as gifts [so] if you’re living in New York and I’m sending a present to you, I want to be sure that you’re not going to be landed with a $200 bill on receipt of your parcel,” said Athron.“It’s all in hand, logistically we’re immaculate, it just means prices will go up for US consumers.”Overseas sales of Fortnum & Mason’s goods, including its famous hampers, were £12.
5m in the year to July 2024, accounting for about 5.5% of total revenues.Wider inflationary pressure has led the retailer to raise the UK price of a 250g canister of loose leaf Breakfast Blend tea by almost 40% over the last five years.
US health officials to revisit vaccine policies using anti-vax tactics, experts warn
US health officials are reportedly planning to release data on child deaths and serious side effects they would attribute to Covid-19 vaccines, raising alarm among public health experts who say the publicly available data does not support these claims and the report may lead to increased anti-vaccine sentiment.Independent advisers for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) later this week plan to revisit recommendations for Covid shots as well as vaccines for measles and hepatitis B.The move is part of a larger effort to cast doubt on vaccines and reduce access to them, said David Gorski, a professor of surgery and oncology at Wayne State University who has tracked anti-vaccine activism for decades.Robert F Kennedy Jr, the secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), is a longtime anti-vaxxer who continues to make sweeping, controversial changes to the US vaccine program, Gorski said.“RFK Jr wants to take away your vaccines,” he said
Long Covid linked to heavier periods and risk of iron deficiency
Women with long Covid are prone to longer, heavier periods, which could put them at greater risk of iron deficiency that exacerbates common symptoms of the condition, doctors say.The findings emerged from a UK survey of more than 12,000 women, which also found that the severity of long Covid symptoms rose and fell across the menstrual cycle and became worse when women had their periods.Preliminary tests revealed hormonal changes and excessive inflammation of the womb lining in women with long Covid, but more work is needed to establish the knock-on effects. There was no evidence that long Covid harmed ovary function.The work points to a two-way effect, with long Covid affecting women’s periods and hormonal changes over the menstrual cycle affecting the severity of long Covid symptoms
Hospital league tables will harm, not heal, the NHS | Letters
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Letter: Sir Kenneth Calman obituary
During his tenure as chief medical officer for England, Sir Kenneth Calman visited our medical careers research group, led by Michael Goldacre, in Oxford in the 1990s.This was at a time of long and arduous work demands on newly qualified doctors and many had written to us expressing their fears and concerns personally and for their patients. Ken sat down and read the carefully anonymised comments of the doctors for some time and was visibly moved.As he went on his way, we were hugely impressed by his evident compassion for the junior doctors and steadfast determination to improve working conditions and support for doctors at the beginning of their careers.
Mothers and babies at risk of harm in ‘toxic’ NHS cover-up culture, health leader to say
Mothers and babies being harmed in the NHS risks becoming normalised because of its toxic cover-up culture, a health leader will say, as it emerged that 14 trusts are the focus of a national maternity investigation in England.Charles Massey, the chief executive of the General Medical Council, will tell a conference on Monday that “something must have gone badly wrong” when trainee obstetrics and gynaecology doctors are fearful of speaking up.The “tribal” nature of medicine with doctors and other staff pitted against each other could be preventing people from raising their concerns or admitting when things go wrong, Massey will say.His stark warning came as the government named 14 NHS trusts that are being examined as part of its rapid inquiry into maternity and neonatal services in England.They are:Barking, Havering and Redbridge university hospitals NHS trust
Three in four English hospitals failing to hit two cancer targets in league tables
Three in four NHS hospital trusts are failing cancer patients, according to the first league tables of their kind, prompting experts to declare a “national emergency”.Labour published the first league tables to rank hospitals in England since the early 2000s this week. The overall rankings score trusts based on a range of measures including finances and patient safety, as well as how they are bringing down waiting times for operations and in A&E, and improving ambulance response times.Guardian analysis of the underlying data has found that about three-quarters of trusts are failing to hit either of the two cancer targets in the tables.Ninety of the 118 trusts (76%) are missing the first target of ruling cancer in or out within 28 days of urgent referrals in at least 80% of cases
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