U.S. President Donald Trump publicly affirmed Thursday he is working on a trade deal with the UK and suggested Britain could be exempt from tariffs if one is agreed, setting the country on its own post-Brexit path as the European Union braces for punitive imposts.
During a warm joint press conference at the White House, the president said his UK counterpart Sir Keir Starmer was “working very hard” to persuade him not to impose tariffs on Britain, the Financial Times reports.
“I’ll tell you that he earned whatever the hell they pay him over there, but he tried,” Trump said of Starmer, describing him as a “very tough negotiator.”
“We could very well end up with a real trade deal where the tariffs wouldn’t be necessary. We’ll see.”
Trump’s comments on a deal signal his administration is keen to revive the trade talks with Britain, which made little progress during his predecessor Joe Biden’s term in office.
For his part, Starmer acknowledged the UK and other European countries “need to step up in our own defence and security”, something Trump has long called for, the FT notes.
He said the UK would “play its full part in ensuring that if there’s a deal” to end the war in Ukraine, that it “sticks.”
“We’re obviously working with other European countries on that, France and NATO in particular, but I’m hosting 18 countries on Sunday to further our discussions,” the UK prime minister said.
When asked if Trump gave him a satisfactory response to his plea for a U.S. military backstop to any European peacekeeping force, Starmer said the discussion was “productive.”
He declined to go further and did not say whether he got a firm commitment from the U.S. president.
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