Donald Trump launched last minute bid to change UK-US Trade deal with late night call | Politics | News
US President Donald Trump made a last minute bid to change the UK-US trade deal, Ambassador to the US Lord Peter Mandelson revealed.
Mandelson was speaking today as Trump announced details of the deal in the White House, with prime minister Sir Keir Starmer joining via video link.
As part of the deal, the US will remove tariffs on UK steel and aluminium and reduce levies on cars from 27.5% to 10%.
During his remarks in the Oval Office, Mandelson said: “Thank you very much indeed for that very typical 11th-hour intervention by you with your phone call to the president demanding even more out of this deal than any of us expected. The prime minister was deighted to take that call late at night.
“You took it to another level and I think the point I would make is twofold. One is if we’re going to rebalance and rebuild international trade in a way that serves all our interests, then we’re better doing that together than separately, but secondly you’ve done what you’d said you’d do.
“You said to the Prime Minister when he came, when he visited in the Oval, that you would do a good deal with the United Kingdom, that you would do it at pace, and we would be first, and you’ve been true to your word.
“For us it’s not the end, it’s the end of just the beginning. There is yet more we can do in reducing tariffs and trade barriers to open our markets up to each other even more than we’re agreeing to do today, but it provides us with the platform to do what I think will be valuable to both our countries… and that’s creating a technology partnership between the United States and the United Kingdom.”
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