Trump boost for May as he promises ‘quick, powerful’ trade deal
DONALD TRUMP helped to shore up Theresa May’s political authority yesterday by hailing their ‘very special relationship’ and promising to conclude a ‘powerful’ post-Brexit trade deal ‘very quickly’.
The US President used a 50-minute meeting with Mrs May at the G20 summit in Hamburg – the first gathering of world leaders since she lost her Commons majority at the Election – to declare there was ‘no country that could possibly be closer than our countries’.
Mr Trump’s claim that progress was being made on a UK-US deal came after Mrs May faced demands from business leaders on Friday to retain trade ties with the EU after the March 2019 deadline for Brexit, to limit the disruption to businesses.
The EU has told Britain that it is not allowed to strike trade deals with non-EU countries while still a member state.
But a bullish Mr Trump said: ‘We have been working on a trade deal which will be a very, very big deal, a very powerful deal, great for both countries and I think we will have that done very, very quickly. I think trade will be a very big factor between our two countries.’
A UK Government official said Mr Trump had told Mrs May he thought Britain would ‘thrive’ outside the EU.
The meeting came after another night of riots on the streets of the German city by demonstrators angered by the presence of Mr Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
The protesters set fire to vehicles, looted shops and hurled rocks at police, and at one point on Friday evening came so close to a dinner for the G20 leaders that the building was put into lockdown.
Mr Trump also confirmed that his planned state visit to London remained on course despite the uncertainty over Mrs May’s political future, although he declined to say when it was likely to take place.
Mrs May said that Britain had always been a ‘great trading nation’ and would ‘seize the opportunities’ of Brexit.
‘I held a number of meetings with other world leaders at this summit and have been struck by their strong desire to forge ambitious, new, bilateral trading relationships with the UK after Brexit,’ she said.
‘This is a powerful vote of confidence in British goods, British services, Britain’s economy and for British people and we look forward to building on these conversations.’
The G20 leaders were deadlocked until yesterday afternoon over the final summit communique, with Mr Trump’s rejection of the Paris agreement on climate change – and an insistence on including a reference to the continued use of fossil fuels – proving to be the main sticking point.
According to diplomatic sources, the deadlock was broken when French President Emmanuel Macron asked Mrs May to join him in private talks with Mr Trump and Australian Premier Malcolm Turnbull to agree a form of words.
During the summit, Mrs May also held talks with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss tackling the increasing numbers of Islamic State fighters leaving Syria and heading for Europe.
And she praised work done by Mr Trump’s daughter Ivanka on women’s rights.