Plaid Cymru urges UK Government to prioritise EU trade over ‘fawning’ response to Trump tariffs
Plaid Cymru’s Westminster leader has told those “fawning” over the 10% tariff on UK exports to “get real”.
President Donald Trump’s announcement of global tariffs sent stock markets tumbling across the globe on Thursday (April 3).
A Downing Street source told the BBC: “A lower levy than others vindicates our approach”.
The Conservatives described the tariff announcement as a “Brexit dividend” and Reform UK said that the UK’s tariff rate was “better than 20 per cent for EU members”.
But Plaid’s Liz Saville Roberts pointed out that Wales’s largest export to the US – machinery and transport equipment – will continue to be impacted by the US’s 25% tariff on steel and aluminium.
Brexit
She also said that Brexit has significantly impacted the Welsh economy, and that the EU remains Wales’s largest trading partner, with Welsh exports to the EU valued at £11.2 billion.
In comparison, Welsh exports to the US total £2.9 billion.
Speaking in the House of Commons, Ms Saville Roberts called for the UK Government to accelerate the removal of trade barriers with Europe, arguing it was “economic common sense” in the face of the US’s protectionist policies.
A Cambridge Econometrics report last year found that the UK economy was £140bn smaller as a result of Brexit.
Plaid’s Westminster leader criticised those “fawning” about a worsening economic picture and told them to “get real”.
Speaking in the House of Commons, Ms Saville Roberts said: “Some commentators are fawning over a 10% tariff simply because our nearest neighbours have been hit worse.
“Let’s get real here. The 25% tariff on steel and aluminium will hit Wales’s biggest export to the US – machinery and transport equipment.
“And it’s a fact that the EU is Wales’s greatest trading partner with Welsh exports valued at £11.2 billion.
“In the face of an American President with an obsession with international economic revenge, does the Minister recognise that it is economic common sense to accelerate scrapping trade barriers with Europe?”
‘Determined’
The Secretary of State for Business and Trade, Jonathan Reynolds responded: “I’m grateful for that question, and again she can see no one in this Government is fawning over the relative position we find ourselves in. That is why we’re so determined to find a better way through that.
“She’s right to say – particularly the announcement on steel and aluminium – particularly the potential for what are called derivative tariffs on a product that is not in itself the raw steel and aluminium product, but on the product that is produced from those, is a real danger to us, and that’s why we’re taking that so seriously.
“We have an ambitious commitment to the EU reset – we need a partner on the other side and there’s been some political relative instability in some key European partners, and they’ve got to be in a position to have that conversation.
“But I say again that this is not a choice between the US and the EU – we can tackle this together, we can improve our trading relationships with both partners, and with India and the Gulf, and with other parts of the World and that is the commitment of this Government to do so.”
Support our Nation today
For the price of a cup of coffee a month you can help us create an independent, not-for-profit, national news service for the people of Wales, by the people of Wales.
Makes sense to deal with anybody who has the ability to pay. EU and further afield all offer prospects for future business, despite existence of various regulatory frameworks that create non tariff obstacles of a different kind.
With Trump’s 10% tariffs yesterday those little England fools who are happy and believe we had a Brexit dividend because we faired slightly better than the EU makes me seeth with anger. I hear one of Wales best exports to the US Halen Môn is seriously under threat there because of the complexities trading i.e dealing with the importer, distributor, wholesaler and retailer. Keir Starmer’s Trump toe sucking approach of grovelling in the hope of a trade deal means didn’t sway Trump one iota. A trade deal with America is a one-way street. It’s accepting American chlorinated chicken, lower standards,… Read more »
The report she quoted was done for Khan in London, was criticized by a number of economists as it relies on a lot of extrapolation, some of it from a 2016 report, nearly 10 years ago.
Cardiff Business School produced a rebuttal of it.
https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/284193/1/E2024_02.pdf
Here’s another opinion:
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/14/brexit-has-sliced-5percent-off-uk-economic-growth-goldman-sachs-says.html
5% GDP isn’t far off the figure quoted.
Time for another referendum.
Its been shown the 10% had nothing to do with discussions or brexit, it is an arbitrary sum that hit many nations. But brexit left us more exposed and the one way back is with the EU. Not with the US. You cant deal with a nation whose convicted felon and abuser of a leader is this thick. So much for a state visit. I hope to see one of the largets demonstrations if the abuser and farages besty comes here. Labour MP’s reading this, get your leader’s head out of where the sun don’t shine and get with the… Read more »
Plaid Cymru never accepted the democratic decision to leave the EU. They knew better than the voters. We are 10% better off than EU members.
Enjoy it while it lasts. In a couple of weeks the EU will have dropped their tariffs on bourbon that was only there to protect the Scots and they’ll be on 10% too.
did you not read the article before commenting?
Not in detail. Went by the headline and picture only.
Question for you Dave as a proud Brexiteer. Is Trump right about needing tariffs to protect domestic jobs from being lost overseas? If so, why were the Brexit ringleaders banging on about the free trade deals? That’s the exact opposite thing.