Downing Street: UK ‘expects’ to be affected by US tariffspublished at 12:40 British Summer Time
Henry Zeffman
Chief political correspondent
Image source, Getty ImagesThe UK “expects” to be affected by US tariffs and is not
ruling out retaliatory tariffs in response, Downing Street has said.
The prime minister’s official spokesman says that talks on
an economic deal between the two countries had been “constructive” but were
likely to last beyond Wednesday, when President Trump is set to impose
tariffs.
Downing Street says that while it is prepared to introduce
tariffs of its own on the US, “a trade war with the US is not in anybody’s
interests”.
The spokesman says: “When it comes to tariffs, the prime
minister has been clear he will always act in the national interest and we’ve
been preparing for all eventualities ahead of the announcement from President
Trump, which we would expect the UK to be impacted by alongside other
countries.
“We are having constructive discussions on a US-UK economic
prosperity deal but we will only do a deal which delivers economic prosperity
for the British people and we will only act in the national interest.”
Pressed on whether the government was hopeful of a deal to
avert tariffs being reached by Wednesday, the spokesman replies: “We will
continue to have these constructive discussions. I’m not going to put a
timeframe on those discussions. Those discussions will likely continue beyond
Wednesday… The president has been clear that he’s expecting to introduce global
tariffs this week. We will wait to see the details and we will take a calm and
pragmatic approach in response.”
He adds: “We rule nothing out in response.”
