{"id":44429,"date":"2024-11-17T07:21:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-17T07:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/?p=44429"},"modified":"2026-07-08T02:22:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T02:22:00","slug":"uk-must-choose-between-eu-and-trump-trade-experts-warn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/2024\/11\/17\/uk-must-choose-between-eu-and-trump-trade-experts-warn\/","title":{"rendered":"UK must choose between EU and Trump, trade experts warn"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The former head of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has said that the UK should side with the European Union over trade and economic policies rather than a Donald Trump-led US, as fears grow over a possible global trade war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Donald<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Pascal Lamy, who was head of the WTO from 2005 to 2013, said it was clear that the UK\u2019s interests lay in staying close to the EU on trade, rather than allying with Trump, not least because it does three times more trade with Europe than the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His comments came after a key Trump supporter, Stephen Moore,\u00a0said on Friday that the UK should reject the EU\u2019s \u201csocialist model\u201d\u00a0if it wanted to have any realistic chance of doing a free trade deal with the US under Trump and, as a result, avoid the 20% tariffs on exports that the president-elect has promised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an interview with the Observer<\/em>, Lamy said: \u201cIt\u2019s an old question with a new relevance given Brexit and given Trump. In my view the UK is a European country. Its socio- economic model is much closer to the EU social model and not the very hard, brutal version of capitalism of Trump and [Elon] Musk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe can expect that Trump plus Musk will go even more in this direction. If Trump departs from supporting Ukraine, I have absolutely no doubt that the UK will remain on the European side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn trade matters, you have to look at the numbers. The trade relationship between the UK and Europe is three times larger than between the UK and US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a very structural inter-dependence which will hardly change unless \u2013 which I don\u2019t think is a realistic assumption \u2013 the UK will decide to leave the EU norms of standards, to move to the US one. I don\u2019t believe that will happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy answer is that the option to unite politically, economically and socially with the US and not with Europe makes absolutely no sense. I believe that, for the UK\u2019s interests and values, the European option remains the dominant one.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ivan Rogers, the former British ambassador to the EU, said it was clear that after Trump\u2019s re-election the UK would have to choose between the US and EU. \u201cAny free trade agreement that Trump and his team could ever propose to the UK would have to contain major proposals on US access to the UK agricultural market and on veterinary standards. It would not pass Congress without them. If the UK signed on the dotted line, that\u2019s the end of the Starmer proposed veterinary deal with the EU. You can\u2019t have both: you have to choose.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their remarks come as Keir Starmer heads to Brazil on Sunday for a meeting of the G20 where issues of global security and economic growth are set to dominate. The prime minister is expected to hold talks with President Xi of China, on whose country Trump is proposing slap huge 60% import tariffs. Trade experts expect that the US will demand that the EU and UK follow suit, which both will strongly resist for their own trade reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UK is seeking to increase trade with Beijing while also stepping up efforts to find greater ways to access the EU single market. Last week, the governor of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey, made clear that\u00a0leaving the EU had \u201cweighed\u201d on the domestic economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A government source said that developing a trade strategy in the new world order was now the top priority. \u201cIt has gone from being very important to being number one in the one tray [following Trump\u2019s re-election].\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Jo\u00e3o Vale de Almeida, the former EU ambassador to London, said he believed there was common \u201cterritory for agreement\u201d which would involve minimal pragmatic deals between the EU and the UK, and the US and the UK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe know that Trump will try to divide European member states and divide the UK and EU. This is already what [Nigel] Farage is trying to do. But I think we can walk and chew gum at the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGiven that a fully fledged trade deal with the US is not possible because agricultural issues will get in the way, and an EU deal is limited by UK red lines, any deals will have to be limited. So there may be a way through.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The former head of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has said that the UK should side with the European Union over trade and economic policies rather than a Donald Trump-led US, as fears grow over a possible global trade war. Pascal Lamy, who was head of the WTO from 2005 to 2013, said it was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":44430,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[4836,7358,6607,6263,2422,75,5268,8924,7578,4024,6693,11337,5196,911,1258,159,6621,9505,1195,120,6046,2264,6543,12138,12773,11493,8331,3684,10742,9833,7806,7259,3805,11243,3174,5646,5655,5444,1664,12244,10329,12864,12605,5180,7231,3080,184,6348,5251,36,594,7898],"class_list":["post-44429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","tag-access","tag-bank","tag-bank-of-england","tag-beijing","tag-brazil","tag-brexit","tag-british","tag-chance","tag-chew-gum","tag-common","tag-congress","tag-demand","tag-economy","tag-election","tag-england","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-european-union","tag-farage","tag-g20","tag-government","tag-growth","tag-import","tag-increase","tag-interview","tag-keir-starmer","tag-london","tag-market","tag-meeting","tag-model","tag-musk","tag-president","tag-president-xi","tag-prime-minister","tag-priority","tag-security","tag-slap","tag-stephen","tag-tariffs","tag-trade","tag-trade-deal","tag-uk","tag-ukraine","tag-union","tag-united-kingdom","tag-united-states-president-donald-john-trump-jr","tag-us","tag-war","tag-world","tag-who","tag-xi"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44429"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44431,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44429\/revisions\/44431"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}