Boris: I’ll cut taxes to roll out red carpet for US firms
‘NHS is not on the table’
BORIS Johnson will today pledge to ‘roll out the red carpet’ for American corporations after Brexit by delivering ‘the most competitive tax rates’ in the Western world.
Speaking ahead of a meeting with Donald Trump this afternoon, Mr Johnson will tell US business leaders that he will use Brexit to cut tax and regulation to make Britain more competitive.
The PM will say he plans to ‘take advantage of all the freedoms that Brexit can give’, including cutting taxes and ‘devising better regulation for the sectors in which the UK leads the world’.
‘As we come out of the EU, we are going up a gear,’ he will say.
‘We want a market that is open to the world. With the most competitive tax rates and the best skilled workforce in the hemisphere. And so I say to our American friends, we will roll out the red carpet.’
Downing Street was coy about which tax cuts Mr Johnson will target after Brexit, although his comments suggest they could include corporation tax, where the UK’s 19 per cent rate is still well above Ireland’s 12.5 per cent. Under existing government plans the rate is due to fall to 17 per cent in the coming years.
The Trump administration is also looking to agree a cut in the so-called Google tax on US tech corporations.
The PM will hold trade talks with Mr Trump today in the margins of the UN General Assembly in New York.
Speaking to reporters en route to the US, Mr Johnson said he would make it clear to Mr Trump the NHS ‘is not on the table’.
He also said he would press Mr Trump to reduce barriers to British exports, adding that tough restrictions meant US consumers had ‘yet to eat a single mouthful of British lamb or beef’. Mr Johnson said many exporters faced significant barriers in terms of tariffs and regulatory requirements, such as safety testing.
Giving a characteristically colourful example, Mr Johnson said: ‘If you try to sell British socks in North America, they currently attract a 19 per cent tariff. And the Americans insist, before they allow British socks to be sold on the US market, that they must try to set fire to them twice.’
Mr Johnson’s comments on his vision for a post- Brexit world will be closely watched in Brussels, which is nervous about the prospect of a low-tax, low-regulation economy emerging on its doorstep.
EU President Donald Tusk warned last night there was ‘no time to lose’ in the hunt for a new Brexit deal after talks between Mr Johnson and EU leaders failed to produce a breakthrough. Mr Tusk, who met Mr Johnson in New York yesterday, insisted there had been ‘no breakdown’ in negotiations but voiced frustration at the lack of progress.
Speaking after the meeting, Downing Street said the PM had emphasised ‘we will now need to see movement and flexibility from the EU’.