Trump says Boris Johnson is 'right man' to deliver Brexit
President talks up prospects for ‘very big’ US-UK trade deal
but PM rules out NHS being part of it
Heather Stewart Political editor
Sun 25 Aug 2019 10.25 BST First published on Sun 25 Aug 2019
08.23 BST
Donald Trump tells Boris Johnson at G7 he wants a 'very big'
trade deal – video
Donald Trump has described Boris Johnson as “the right man”
to deliver Brexit, as the pair met for a breakfast meeting at the G7 summit in
Biarritz.
Asked what his advice was for Brexit, the US president said:
“He [Johnson] needs no advice. He is the right man for the job.” Johnson said
Trump was “on message there”.
Trump also talked up the prospects for a US-UK trade
agreement after Brexit, saying it would be a “very big trade deal, bigger than
we’ve ever had”.
The pair were speaking to reporters after a working
breakfast, accompanied by advisers and officials.
Johnson confirmed he had reiterated his opposition to the
NHS being opened up to US firms as part of any trade deal – and to the UK
lowering animal welfare standards to US levels to get a deal.
“Not only have I made
clear of that, the president has made that very, very clear. There is complete
unanimity on that point,” he said. He suggested there would be “tough talks
ahead”.
Following the meeting, the two governments released a joint
statement, saying they would launch a “special relationship economic working
group” (SREWG) to “develop market-oriented principles for economic growth and
increase bilateral cooperation on issues related to the modern 21st-century
economy”.
Before their meeting, Johnson had said he would raise with
Trump the issue of the increasingly bitter trade spat between the US and China,
and press him to throw open the US market to British goods after Brexit.
When Trump was asked by reporters if allies were pressuring
him to give up his trade war with China, he said: “Not at all.” He said his
predecessors had allowed Beijing “to get away with taking hundreds of billions
of dollars out every year, putting it into China”.
Asked if he had had second thoughts on escalating the
dispute he said: “Sure … why not.” But then he added: “I have second thoughts
about everything.”
Johnson told reporters en route to Biarritz that he was
“very, very concerned” about the tit-for-tat conflict between the US and China.
The two countries have imposed tariffs on a swathe of each other’s imports, as
the White House accuses Beijing of unfair competition and China hits back.
Johnson said on Saturday: “This is not the way to proceed.
Apart from anything else, those who support the tariffs are at risk of
incurring the blame for the downturn in the global economy, irrespective of
whether that is true.
“I want to see an opening up of global trade, I want to see
a dialling down of tensions, and I want to see tariffs come off.”
Speaking alongside Trump, his language was more
conciliatory, however. “I congratulate the president on everything the American
economy is achieving. It’s fantastic to see that.
“But just to register a faint, sheeplike note of our view on
the trade war – we are in favour of trade peace on the whole,” he said, adding
that “the UK has profited massively in the last 200 years from free trade”.
The rise of protectionism has inevitably been a theme at the
summit – though the French president, Emmanuel Macron, has also sought to focus
on other issues, including inequality and the environment.
Trump and Johnson struck up a warm relationship when Johnson
was foreign secretary. They had already met at a dinner for G7 leaders on
Saturday night, and been spotted walking and talking in the margins of the
summit.
Johnson faces a potentially more fractious meeting later on
Sunday, when he will confront the European council leader, Donald Tusk, who
once warned there was a “special place in hell” for those who promoted Brexit
without a plan for making it happen.
The prime minister is expected to warn that the UK would
only consider itself legally bound to pay about a quarter of the £39bn Brexit
divorce bill if it left without a deal.
During his campaign for the Conservative leadership, Johnson
repeatedly suggested he would seek to use the payment – which was agreed by
Theresa May’s government – as leverage to achieve a better deal.
It is due to be paid over many years, and represents a
string of different obligations, including future pensions liabilities for EU
staff, as well as Britain’s contribution to the EU budget during the transition
period negotiated by May.
While Johnson prepared to fly to Biarritz on Saturday, Tusk
warned him against going down in history as “Mr No Deal”, and Johnson hit back
that if EU leaders wanted to avoid a no-deal Brexit, they should remove the
backstop from the withdrawal agreement.
It later emerged, in an email obtained by the Observer, that
Johnson had sought legal advice from the attorney general, Geoffrey Cox, on
whether he could shut down parliament for as long as five weeks from 9
September, apparently to prevent MPs from frustrating his efforts to leave the
EU on time.
The shadow Brexit secretary, Keir Starmer, said: “Any plan
to suspend parliament at this stage would be outrageous. MPs must take the
earliest opportunity to thwart this plan and to stop a no-deal Brexit.”
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário