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‘Stupid US steel tariffs threaten post-Brexit deal’
JOE MURPHY Political Editor
A free trade deal with America after Brexit may be impossible because of Donald Trump’s “stupid and counterproductive” decision to hike steel tariffs, a former Conservative trade minister warned today.
Francis Maude said hopes among Brexiteers of a swift agreement with the Trump administration after Britain leaves the European Union could turn to ashes.
“We may or may not have one, it’s certainty not going to be easy,” the former Cabinet minister, now Lord Maude of Horsham, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
Chancellor Philip Hammond, who is in Canada for the summit of G7 nations, said Britain was not giving up hope that Mr Trump can be talked round. “Look, I have always found the administration to be open to discussion,” he said.
Mr Hammond told the Business Insider website that the Government was “obviously disappointed” but added: “They’ve always seemed to me to be willing to listen, to talk about these things.”
The Chancellor’s emollient tone contrasted with the furious reaction of European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker who called the US move “unacceptable”.
German MEP Bernd Lange, who chairs the EU’s international trade committee, called for retaliation against thr US president’s move by targeting American exports.
Europe would “make some countermeasures, no doubt”, he told Today. He called for tariffs on “symbolic” US products such as Harley-Davidson motorcycles “to make clear, here is a red card”.
“I’m convinced, I’ve spoke to senators and members of the house and they understood this message,” he said.
The EU has previously threatened to respond to the steel and aluminium crackdown with tariffs on US blue jeans, peanut butter and bourbon whiskey.
Labour’s shadow international trade secretary Barry Gardiner told the Today programme that the Government needed to “act decisively” to show that the UK will not be “cowed or bullied”. He said: “We have to respond strongly to it and make it clear to him that we’re not susceptible to the intimidation and the threats and the bullying that he’s putting in place.”
International Trade Secretary Liam Fox, who is due to hold talks with US commerce secretary Wilbur Ross on Monday, said: “We absolutely do not rule out counter measures.”
Lord Maude pleaded with the EU not to embark on a “tit-for-tat” policy but cling “robustly to free trade”. He warned: “Any government that embarks on a protectionist path inflicts the most damage on itself.”
