KYIV — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer wants to get around the negotiating table and strike a trade deal soon after Donald Trump returns to the White House.
Starmer wants talks with Trump’s team to get going in the weeks ahead, he told POLITICO in an interview Thursday. The PM and Trump have already discussed meeting in the U.S. next month, after the president-elect’s inauguration.
Speaking on a trip to Ukraine, Starmer played down the threat of Trump’s sweeping plan for U.S. tariffs. “We haven’t had the inauguration yet, so let’s see what the decisions are when we get to that stage,” he said.
And he added: “I have been clear that we would like to have discussions about a trade deal with the U.S., that we don’t accept the argument that there’s a binary choice between a reset with the EU and a deal with the U.S. and obviously the time for those decisions will be in the weeks and months to come.”
While the incoming Trump administration is still formulating its trade policy, the president-elect has threatened duties of up to 20 percent on all global imports to the U.S.
Some trade experts and opposition Conservative MPs argue the U.K. will need to distance itself from EU standards in order to escape Trump’s punitive measures.
Officials in the U.K.’s Department for Business and Trade are already prepping for a range of eventualities in Trump’s first weeks, amid fears that some U.K. exports to the U.S. could be seen as low-hanging fruit by the new administration. Experts have picked out the automotive and pharmaceutical sectors as potentially vulnerable.
At a Cabinet meeting earlier this week Starmer set out his government’s aims under Trump’s second administration.
“The prime minister spoke of his determination to pursue a partnership with the U.S. for the 21st century, which would protect security, advance our economic growth and leverage the opportunity of new technologies,” a No. 10 spokesperson said in a statement. Labour’s approach to Trump will be driven by “pragmatism led by the national interest.”
Red lines
Britain’s trade talks with the first Trump administration faltered as U.K. officials refused to soften red lines around market access to the U.K.’s state-run National Health Service and countenance imports of chlorine-washed chicken and hormone-treated beef.
Starmer’s pick for U.K. ambassador in Washington, Peter Mandelson, has said he sees potential for a U.S.-U.K. agreement centered on “clicks and portals” rather than “bricks and mortar.”
Lobby groups on both sides of the Atlantic have long pushed for a more tightly-focused digital deal with the U.S., which led Joe Biden and Rishi Sunak to strike the Atlantic Declaration tech cooperation pact in June 2023 to enhance cooperation in critical technologies.
Consumers will care if a trade deal is “substantial,” said Duncan Edwards, CEO of the BritishAmerican Business group, adding starting negotiations early would be “a positive.”
“The idea that the tariff talk is just a bluff is not realistic,” he said. “The U.K. has an opportunity to separate itself from the EU in the minds of the new administration,” he said. “The U.K. should take advantage of that.”
Graham Lanktree reported from London.
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