According to the Telegraph newspaper, the UK has claimed a major benefit from Brexit after the US president Donald Trump imposed a 10pc levy on goods imported from the UK – half the 20pc rate hitting exporters who are still in the European Union.

Andrew Griffith, shadow trade secretary, called the low rate “a Brexit dividend that will have protected thousands of British jobs and businesses”.

The 10pc tariff is not, of itself, good for Britain: it means companies selling products into the US now face a new tax that makes their goods more expensive on the other side of the Atlantic. For carmakers, the situation is even worse as Trump imposed a 25pc tax on all imported vehicles and automotive parts.

The US is the UK’s single biggest export market, buying almost £60bn of British goods in the past 12 months. Cars made up the largest chunk, with £8.3bn of sales to Americans. Until now, the market has been growing. US purchases of British-made cars grew by 17pc last year.

Kevin Craven, the head of ADS, the trade group for the UK aerospace, defence and space sectors, says: “We are better off than Europe today and our Government and officials are reasonably positive about improving the better position that we have, and our members are saying the impacts of what we know now are not catastrophic.

“The overall impact on global trade is going to be really difficult and really choppy. But in the medium to longer term it’s quite possible that Britain being on the edge of Europe – who may well be considering retaliatory measures that we won’t be considering – might provide opportunities in the future.”