Ministers were yesterday urged to thank the previous government for ‘getting Brexit done’, after Donald Trump levied tariffs on UK goods at only half the level imposed on the EU.
Shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith said the President’s decision to put the UK on the minimum 10 per cent tariff was a ‘vindication of those who were pilloried and abused for wanting our country to have the freedom to decide our own trade policy’.
The EU was hit by a 20 per cent tariff, and Downing Street yesterday acknowledged the lower rate could save ‘thousands of jobs’.
A No 10 source said the ‘lower levy… matters because the difference between 10 per cent and 20 per cent is thousands of jobs’.
Mr Griffith said Labour ministers should ‘have the decency to regret the 48 times they voted to stay in Europe and to thank us for getting Brexit done’.
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds acknowledged it was ‘good we can set our own trade policy’ after leaving the EU but said it was ‘time to try and unite the country about the future rather than always harbour back to the past’.
Sebastian Gorka, an assistant to Mr Trump, admitted Britain’s lower rate reflected the fact the UK left the EU – a campaign Mr Trump backed in 2016.
Mr Gorka told BBC‘s Newsnight: ‘After Brexit, you’ve reaffirmed your independence, and I think that is being proven… by the special rate that has been afforded to the UK.’
Shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith said Donald Trump’s levying of tariffs on UK goods at only half the level imposed on the EU was a ‘vindication’ on Brexit
Sebastian Gorka, an assistant to Donald Trump, admitted Britain’s lower rate reflected the fact the UK left the EU – a campaign the President backed in 2016
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said Brexit had ‘left us in a stronger position on trade’
And Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said Brexit had ‘left us in a stronger position on trade’, adding: ‘We now have an independent trade policy but this only works if it is used properly by people who know what they’re doing.’
Former home secretary Suella Braverman said: ‘Never forget that when we fought to leave the protectionist EU, the Remainer establishment threatened us with economic doom.
‘Now thanks to our hard-won trade freedoms, we are shielded from the punitive 20 per cent tariffs imposed on the EU and can use our advantage to work towards a deal with the US.’
But Remainer MPs urged ministers to cosy up to Brussels. Stella Creasy, of the Labour Movement for Europe, blasted: ‘Celebrating a tariff of 10 per cent rather than 20 per cent is like celebrating that when you got mugged, they only took your wallet and not your watch as well.’
And Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper called on ministers to form an ‘economic coalition of the willing’ with the EU and countries such as Canada and Australia to co-ordinate retaliation.
Mr Reynolds said the Government would not choose between dealing with the EU or US.
But the European Commission is already working on a retaliatory package.
Its trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic insisted: ‘We won’t stand idly by, should we be unable to reach a fair deal.’
