Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
U.K. leader has message for Trump on U.S. trade
NEW YORK — Britain’s prime minister has promised to tell U.S. President Donald Trump that future trade negotiations must “open up American markets.”
Boris Johnson said Monday that he would draw his red lines when he meets with Trump this week at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
He also planned to tell U.S. business leaders and politicians that Britain will have a loosely regulated market “that is open to the world” after it leaves the European Union — but that any notion of American firms buying parts of the U.K.’s state-funded health service will not be entertained.
Johnson arrived at the global gathering on Monday in hopes of persuading European Union leaders to strike a divorce deal with Britain — the so-called Brexit — while also laying the groundwork for a trade agreement with the United States that the U.K. government sees as one of the main prizes of leaving the EU.
But Johnson told reporters flying with him to New York that he would tell Trump “that when we do a free-trade deal, we must make sure that the [National Health Service] is not on the table, that we do not in any way prejudice or jeopardize our standards on animal welfare and food hygiene in the course of that deal, and that we open up American markets.”
He also said the U.S. would have to accept British lamb and beef, which are barred, and lower tariffs on manufactured British goods.
Opponents of Brexit fear that the National Health Service — an institution founded in 1948 to provide free health care to all Britons — will be opened to private U.S. firms as part of trade negotiations. They also have suggested Britain may have to accept chlorine-washed chicken, a U.S. poultry industry practice that is banned in the European Union.
Johnson’s political opponents and EU leaders worry that post-Brexit Britain wants to become a low-tax, low-regulation economy — what some have dubbed a “Singapore on Thames.”
Those opponents are likely to protest today, when Johnson plans to tell U.S. and Canadian business leaders the U.K. will “roll out the red carpet” for investors.
Johnson’s office said he would say that “we want a market that is open to the world, with the most competitive tax rates and the best skilled workforce in the hemisphere.”
More than three years after Britain voted to leave the EU, the departure date has been postponed twice, and the U.K. Parliament has repeatedly rejected the only divorce deal offered. The country is facing a chaotic exit on Oct. 31 unless Johnson’s government can secure a new agreement — or arrange another delay, something Johnson vows he will not do.
Chief EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said Monday that “based on current U.K. thinking, it is difficult to see how we can arrive at a legally operative solution.”
Johnson is also facing claims that during his tenure as mayor of London between 2008 and 2016, he gave public money and places on overseas U.K. trade trips to a close friend running a startup business. The Sunday Times reported over the weekend that the close friend was Jennifer Arcuri, an American and a former model.
The prime minister denied wrongdoing, saying Monday that “everything was done with complete propriety. Completely in the normal way.”
The British government is also bracing for a U.K. Supreme Court ruling on whether Johnson broke the law when he suspended Parliament for five weeks ahead of the Oct. 31 Brexit deadline. The ruling was expected to arrive at 4:30 a.m. CDT today.
Johnson said the suspension was a routine measure to prepare for a new session of Parliament and that it was not related to Brexit. Opponents claim he acted to stop lawmakers from interfering with his plan to leave the EU, with or without a Brexit deal.
The suspension effectively brought Queen Elizabeth II into the Brexit debate, creating the legal question. The queen is the only one in Britain with the power to suspend Parliament, though she does it on the advice of the prime minister. The court is determining whether Johnson misled the queen about his reasons for the suspension.
If Britain’s highest court rules that the suspension was illegal, lawmakers could be recalled to Parliament immediately. Johnson has not said whether he will resign if he is found to have broken the law, or if he will seek to shut down Parliament again.
Johnson insisted lawmakers would have “bags of time” to scrutinize his Brexit plans before Oct. 31, and told critics in joking French to “give me a break.”
“Parliament has had three years to discuss this issue,” Johnson told reporters traveling with him to the U.N., adding, “So ‘Donnez-moi un break’ is my message to those who say that we have no parliamentary scrutiny. It’s absolute nonsense.”