UK Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, who was a fierce opponent of Brexit, has been seeking to improve the UK’s trading relationship with Europe since he came into office last July. He is also pursuing a US trade deal that lowers tariffs.
The European Union has been in “constant contact” with the UK to warn against making trade concessions to the US that could harm Starmer’s Brexit reset. Insiders in Brussels and the UK said EU officials were discussing with their UK counterparts the “limits of what would be acceptable”.
The US Vice President, JD Vance, said Washington was “working very hard” with the UK to negotiate a “great” trade deal, and that there was a “good chance” of an agreement – as Starmer attempts to bring down 25 per cent tariffs on British Steel, aluminium and cars, as well as a 10 per cent import tax on other goods.
There are particular concerns in Brussels that UK concessions to the US on agri-food imports could harm Starmer’s goal of a deal to ease cross-border food trade with the EU and bring down costs for consumers.
The EU is said to have concerns that Donald Trump could make demands of the UK to exempt American firms from carbon taxes due to come into force in 2027, and that any concessions in this area could harm plans to link British and European emissions trading schemes to bring down costs for businesses.
A Brussels insider said there was “constant contact between officials on the limits of what would be acceptable to the EU” and the “impact of any UK/US deal on the alleged Brexit ‘reset’ ”.
The EU is also in constant dialogue with other allies such as Canada and Japan on Trump’s tariffs and how any deals with the US could impact relations. The Government will hold a landmark summit with UK and EU officials on 19 May.
Regarding the EU warning, David Henig, a former British trade official and UK director of the European Centre For International Political Economy, said he has “every expectation that messages to that effect have been passed from the EU to the UK given that food and drink is on the UK-EU agenda for the summit”.
Brussels’ warnings about planned sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) rules – regulations to protect animal and plant health – came after the Business Secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, was again forced to rule out any watering down of UK food standards to appease the US, which has long coveted greater access to Britain for its agri-food exports.
Reynolds, however, speaking on April 20, hinted there could be room to negotiate on agri-food by pointing out that parts of the US food industry do meet UK standards.
The EU also has concerns over a mooted emissions trading deal, with Trump warning that he would hit countries that apply carbon taxes on shipping with tariffs. The Brussels insider said they believed the US is using the prospect of a UK trade deal to drive a wedge and “play a political game to damage the EU-UK reset”.
Starmer’s Labour government has also been accused of seeking to undermine Brexit ‘by stealth’ as European hopes rose of a deal to allow young people to live and work in the UK. The German ambassador to the UK, Miguel Berger, said he was ‘really optimistic’ about the possibility of the Government agreeing a youth mobility scheme with Brussels.
But Tory business spokesman Andrew Griffith said: “This Government, by stealth, is trying to take us back into freedom of movement. They may call it a youth mobility scheme but if no one ever gets removed at the end of their time (in UK), then it’s immigration by another name.”
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
