Donald Trump is considering a special deal with the UK in a potential boost to Brexit Britain’s trade with the United States, sources have said.
The president-elect has said he wants to increase tariffs on goods imported from around the world by 10%, rising to 60% on items from China.
Former Financial Times editor, Lionel Barber, citing a Trump source, said on social media that a “special” US deal with the UK is under consideration.
Such a deal was heralded as the biggest prize of Britain’s decision to exit the EU, but efforts towards an agreement stalled four years ago.
Mr Barber said: “Trump feels that neither Tory nor Labour governments have made anything of Brexit. No Singapore in the Atlantic etc. So he will set a test, pulling UK further from EU alignment. Over to you, Keir (Starmer)!”
Charles Grant, Director of the Centre for European Reform, said: “Trump hates the EU but quite likes the UK. He could offer the Brits a privileged position (fewer tariffs?) in Europe so long as they differentiate themselves from the EU – and don’t line up closely with it.”
New Jersey Democrat governor Phil Murphy, who knows Mr Trump personally, offered an optimistic assessment of what a second Trump presidency might mean for British exports, pointing towards Brexit.
Mr Murphy said: “If I had to speculate I would say there’s a lane for the UK. There’s less of a lane for the EU and Nato. There’s a lane for the UK to be determined.”
Former prime minister Boris Johnson suggested Donald Trump would “certainly” do a trade deal with the UK. He said the US stock market is surging after the election result and the president-elect is offering “economic hope”.
Mr Johnson, in his Daily Mail column, added: “What about the threat of tariffs on China and others, you say. Well, he said that last time – and ended up doing a free trade deal with Beijing.
“Donald Trump would certainly do a free trade deal with the UK too – though I expect the Starmer Government is too pathetic to try.”
The Labour Government previously announced its priorities on trade would be to strike deals with Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, India, Israel, South Korea, Switzerland and Turkey, with the first rounds of negotiations said to be already underway.
Labour’s plans for free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations don’t mention the United States, with talks about a possible deal having been on ice since 2020.
There had been five rounds of negotiations before efforts cooled when Joe Biden took office in 2020. Kemi Badenoch, who was then Business Secretary, told Parliament’s Business and Trade Committee in January this year that “the Biden administration is not doing FTAs”.
Britain does, however, have trade agreements with individual US states. So-called Memorandums of Understanding have been signed with Indiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Utah, Washington State, Florida and Texas.
Resistance to opening the UK market to US hormone-treated beef and chlorinated chicken were major sticking points in previous talks between the two countries.
UK Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds has said previously that Labour has no appetite to lower British food standards for US exporters, according to Politico, which quoted the then Shadow Business Secretary as saying a future deal would be “difficult” to strike.
If the US wishes to reopen talks, then Sir Keir may find himself in a bind with Mr Trump seeking to draw the UK closer as the PM seeks to reset relations with the European Union.
