Boris tells Trump: it’s time to help British firms
BORIS JOHNSON has told Donald Trump to tear up red tape stopping companies selling goods to the US as he railed against “bureaucratic obstacles” standing in the way of British firms.
The Prime Minister personally laid out terms for a trade deal with America for the first time, listing goods from Melton Mowbray pork pies to shower trays that cannot be sold in the US due to “very considerable barriers”.
The pair spoke in a tense telephone call on Friday night in which Mr Johnson insisted that any agreement must be “in the interests of British business”.
It came ahead of face-to-face talks between the Prime Minister and the president this morning at the G7 summit in France, the first since Mr Johnson entered Downing Street in July.
Last night, as he pledged to use the summit to champion tariff-free trade across the world, Mr Johnson warned that the president risked “incurring the blame” for a global economic downturn by escalating a trade war with China.
He also clashed with Emmanuel Macron over the French president’s threat to veto an EU trade agreement with South America unless Brazil did more to fight the wildfires in the Amazon.
Speaking as he arrived in Biarritz ahead of talks with world leaders today and tomorrow, Mr Johnson said: “I would be reluctant to do anything at this very difficult time for global free trade to cancel another trade deal.”
It was reported last night that Mr
Johnson’s team has “wargamed” for a general election on Oct 17, the same day EU leaders will discuss whether to give Britain a new agreement to avoid a no-deal Brexit two weeks later.
The Prime Minister is also working on a populist emergency budget for October, in which fuel duty will be cut for the first time in eight years, The Sunday Times said.
In the telephone call with the US president on Friday night, Mr Johnson set out how he wanted any agreement to remove the “very considerable
barriers” that hamper British firms operating in the US.
Last night, in a highly unusual move, he publicly listed more than a dozen restrictions he wanted lifting, from 14 per cent tariffs on railway carriages sold to the US, compared with 1.7 per cent on those arriving in the UK, to rules banning British stationery manufacturers selling tape measures to US military.
He claimed that firms seeking to sell insurance to the US had “to speak to 50 regulators” compared to just two in the UK, and said “not a morsel” of British beef had entered the American market despite a US pledge to lift restrictions.
Mr Johnson said: “Melton Mowbray pork pies, which are sold in Thailand and Iceland, are currently unable to enter the US market because of … some sort of Food and Drug Administration restriction. Cauliflowers … can only enter specified ports … UK bell peppers cannot get in at all. Wine shipments are restricted. If you want to export wine made in England to the US you have to go through a US distributor.”
Mr Johnson also highlighted a “bureaucratic obstacle” preventing the sale of some British-made shower trays to the US because they were “too low”. He added: “Wallpaper, pillows and other fabrics have to be fire tested again when they arrive in the US.”
Mr Johnson said: “I think there is a massive opportunity for Britain but we must understand it is not all going to be plain sailing. There remain very considerable barriers in the US to British businesses which are not widely understood.
“Last night, I had my first opportunity to mention some of these to the president. And I will mention them again because it is very important if we are going to do a fantastic free-trade deal that is a free-trade deal that works in the interests of British business.” Today he faces a warning against simply asking European leaders to ditch the backstop insurance plan for the Irish border. Writing for The Sunday Telegraph, Jon Moynihan, a pro-Brexit businessman, says such a plan would “likely be electorally fatal”.
Separately, in a letter to The Sunday Telegraph, US politicians and businessmen say Brexit represents a “great business opportunity” and insist it must be delivered “now” or it risks “incalculable damage to the future of global freedom and democracy”.
Mr Johnson’s remarks on the eve of the G7 will be seen as a response to US demands, including for NHS services to form part of the negotiations and for the UK to drop its planned tax affecting giant American internet platforms.
Mr Johnson insisted he will “not allow the NHS to be on the table at all”, and that “we must do something to tax fairly online businesses that have such colossal sales in our country. I am open to discussing how we do that.”
Setting out his demands on removing red tape, he said: “There are massive opportunities for UK companies to prise open the American market. We intend to seize those opportunities but they are going to require our American friends to compromise … because currently there are too many restrictions.”
He also warned of the danger of the UK “being implicated” in an escalating tariff war between the US and China.
“The value of our goods affected is £2.25billion, £1.1billion on whisky alone that we could face if this goes on,” he said, referring to increased tariffs that will hit British firms.
Meanwhile, in a meeting yesterday, Mr Johnson and Justin Trudeau, Canada’s prime minister, agreed to ensure “the trading relationship between our countries continues to grow”.