Boris Johnson has admitted a post-Brexit UK-US trade deal will not be ‘plain sailing’ as he revealed he had complained to Donald Trump about a string of American curbs on British goods.
In an apparent bid to play down talk of a speedy agreement with Washington, the prime minister said there were “considerable barriers” to UK firms, ranging from car tariffs to shower trays and pork pies.
The pair are due to meet at the G7 summit in France on Sunday, with the prospect of a trade deal high on the agenda.
As he arrived at the summit, Johnson defended his friendship with Trump, telling HuffPost UK that the President and his Tweets were “popular with large numbers of people in our country”.
Trump has repeatedly referred to his hopes of a ‘phenomenal’ deal with Britain, predicting exchange of goods and services between the two countries could triple in size.
Johnson has also made getting a ‘fantastic’ US deal a priority of his premiership, not least as he may have to rely on fresh sources of trade if there is a no-deal exit of the UK from the EU.
Trump came under fire this summer when he suggested the NHS could be ‘on the table’ in any talks and campaigners have warned about Britain being flooded with chlorinated chicken and hormone-treated beef.
But the PM has now signalled the big obstacles to any deal include not just the need to protect the NHS and farmers but also a string of bureaucratic restrictions on British goods.
With his strongest criticism yet of American plans to slap tariffs on China, he said he was ‘very concerned’ about a trade war and its possible impact on billions of pounds of British exports on goods like whisky.
Speaking as he arrived at the gathering of world leaders, Johnson also declared that “we must do something” to tax American tech giants, even though Washington has suggested it could be a deal-breaker.
However, ahead of his breakfast meeting with Trump, Johnson was careful to praise the president personally. He suggested that Trump was more popular in the UK than widely assumed, adding that “large numbers” of Brits liked his tweets and speeches.
Referring to the trade deal hopes, he said: “I think there is a massive opportunity for Britain but we must understand that 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.”
In a phone call to Trump on Friday night, Johnson listed UK goods currently facing export curbs and tariffs, including pork pies, rulers, railway carriages, cauliflowers, peppers and wine.
British ships were also barred from picking up and setting down goods in certain US ports, while insurance firms faced 50 different regulators.
“You may not know this, but there are currently restrictions on the sale of British-made shower trays to the US. We’ve sold 250,000 shower trays around the world. There is some kind of bureaucratic obstacle that stops us selling them in the US because they are allegedly too low.
“Wallpaper, pillows and other fabrics have to be fire tested again when they arrive in the US rather than being automatically admitted.
“There are tariffs on cars, there are tariffs on railway carriages in the US of 14% whereas we only have a tariff of 1.7% in the UK on American railway carriages arriving here.”
Johnson also warned that he still wanted to tax US internet giants like Amazon, Google and Facebook, despite the risk to a trade deal and despite Washington’s own threat of retaliation against France for planning its own tech tax.
“Frankly, we must do something to tax fairly and properly the online businesses that have such colossal sales in our country,” he said.
“We must do something to ensure we tax them properly. I am open to discussion about how we do that and I am willing to listen to our American friends about the modalities but we must do something to tax them fairly.”
Britain is currently consulting business on a digital services tax drafted by former chancellor Philip Hammond.
The PM was unabashed about being called ‘Britain’s Trump’ by the President, saying he was ‘proud’ to have been born in America.
“I think the most important thing for any prime minister of the UK is to have a very close friendly relationship with our most important ally and that’s what I intend to promote.”
Asked by HuffPost UK if Trump was right to declare ‘they like me over there’ [in the UK], and if his popularity was greater with British voters than commonly assumed, Johnson replied: “That’s very likely.
“President Trump has pioneered a quite remarkable way of communicating directly with the electorate. My impression is that is also popular with large numbers of people in our country.”
A poll of Tory members earlier this year found that 54% thought he would make a good UK prime minister.
One Ipsos MORI poll in 2018 found 19 per cent had a favourable view of Trump, while 68 per cent viewed him unfavourably.
On the wider threat of a US-China trade war harming the global economy, Johnson added: “I want to see an opening up of global trade, a taking down of tensions. And I want to see tariffs come off.”
As part of a wider push to avoid tariffs, Johnson rejected calls by Irish PM Leo Varadkar to cancel a trade deal with Brazil over President Bolsonaro’s failure to protect the Amazon rainforest.
“I think we need to look at the commercial thinking that may underlie that decision. I think I’d be reluctant to do anything, at this very difficult time for global free trade, to cancel another trade deal.”