Trump: I want major trade deal with UK

DonalD Trump claimed the special relationship between Britain and the US would get ‘even better’ last night as he hailed talks on a ‘major’ trade deal.

The US president talked up the prospects of a ‘very big and exciting’ post-Brexit free trade deal with the UK following negotiations with liam Fox. Mr Trump also hit out at the ‘protectionist’ EU.

The early-morning tweet came amid controversy over whether Britain would have to relax food standards to secure an agreement.

Dr Fox, the International Trade Secretary, who is in Washington for talks with US trade representatives, said that Brexit offered an ‘unprecedented opportunity’ to reshape Britain’s independent trading ambitions. and yesterday Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson landed in australia to begin talks on a post-Brexit trade deal.

Mr Trump said on Monday that talks between Dr Fox and US Trade Representative Robert lighthizer marked the opening of a ‘new chapter for stronger trade’.

and yesterday morning, he followed up with a message: ‘Working on major Trade Deal with the United Kingdom. Could be very big & exciting. JoBS! The EU is very protectionist with the US. SToP!’

Former Ukip leader nigel Farage said Mr Trump’s comments showed there was ‘a big world for the UK outside the EU’.

at a breakfast meeting yesterday with members of Congress, Dr Fox outlined a UK report showing trading relationships between Britain and each of the 435 US Congressional districts.

a new US-UK Trade and Investment Working Group will seek to expand commercial links already worth more than £150billion a year, he said.

‘The EU itself estimates that 90 per cent of global growth in the next decade will come from outside Europe, and I believe as the head of an international economic department that this is an exciting opportunity for the UK to work even more closely with our largest single trading partner the US,’ said Dr Fox. He is also due to travel to Mexico to meet Mexican economy minister Ildefonso Guajardo and then to Houston to hold meetings with the oil and gas industry representatives.

Mr Johnson arrived in australia yesterday on the latest leg of his extended overseas mission to drum up trade deals.

He will meet his opposite number Julie Bishop and join Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon to take part in the annual summit of UK and australian ministers to discuss defence and foreign affairs on Thursday.

The Foreign Secretary said post-Brexit trade will be ‘top of the agenda’ for the three-day visit, which follows stops in Japan and new Zealand.