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Sir Keir Starmer will say Tuesday on Tuesday on Tuesday preparing for the taxation of American prices on British exports this week, with business and business secretary Jonathan Reynolds warning that it was “a very serious and important moment” for the United Kingdom.
Downing Street conceded that it is almost sure that US President Donald Trump will include Great Britain in a new wave of reciprocal world rates on Wednesday, with potentially deep consequences for the British economy.
Starmer still hopes that Great Britain will be able to obtain a trade agreement with the United States to mitigate the impact of prices, but weeks of commercial negotiations and the presidential parade of the president failed to produce a result.
Ministers are now establishing plans to alleviate the benefits of a world trade war.
Reynolds said on Tuesday that Great Britain would set up anti-dumping measures to prevent Great Britain from being flooded with cheap products diverted from the American market.
The Budget Liability Office repeated on Tuesday a warning that a Rachel Reeves fiscal height of 9.9 billion pounds sterling could be erased if Trump unleashes a large -scale trade war.
The American prices of 20-25 percent on British products “would eliminate the entire height of the government”, if it is maintained for five years, said David Miles, member of the OBR Committee.
Lord Peter Mandelson, the United Kingdom’s envoy to Washington, had last-minute interviews with American officials in the White House on Monday, and Downing Street said that discussions would continue beyond the expected introduction on Wednesday, that Trump calls “Liberation Day”.
But Reynolds conceded Tuesday that it was likely that Great Britain – in the same way as the rest of the world – was about to be struck by new Trump prices.
“It may not be possible for any country in the world to be exempt from initial announcements,” said Reynolds, but added that Great Britain would continue to conclude a trade agreement with the United States.
“It is not a question of sucking someone or not responding-it is a question of continuing our national interest,” he said, arguing that British affairs did not put pressure for the United Kingdom to impose immediate reciprocal prices.
Unlike Canada or the EU, Starmer has rejected reprisal rates for the moment, hoping that Trump could be convinced that Great Britain, which has a balanced commercial relationship with the United States, should obtain a special case.
Great Britain has proposed to reduce or remove its tax on digital services, which increases approximately 800 million pounds sterling per year and mainly affects American technological groups, as part of a proposed agreement.
Reynolds denied that American concerns concerning freedom of expression in Great Britain had played a role in commercial negotiations, saying that such concerns were expressed by the State Department rather than by commercial negotiators.
But he told the BBC: “It is a very serious and important moment. This is why we were so resolved in the pursuit of our national interest and the United Kingdom in the best place in any country to navigate some of these pressures.”
He said he was ready to impose quotas and prices on certain products to protect British companies against the spill of highly reduced products that had been intended in the United States.
Great Britain had already in place of quotas and prices of 25% on certain steel and aluminum products, after Trump’s previous announcement of American samples in the sector, added Reynolds.
He said that he would apply the same principle in the future that Trump would broaden his price net to “make sure that we are not at the end of the spill”. However, he admitted that there would inevitably be “an impact of this type of activity”.
Although business largely supports Starmer’s “fresh” approach to the threat of prices, the Prime Minister will face political heat – in particular Liberal anti -top democrats – for trying to arouse the favor of the American president while obtaining so far in return.
