Brexit is to thank for Britain securing a better trade deal with the US than Europe, Labour admitted yesterday.
Jonathan Reynolds, the Business Secretary, said there was ‘absolutely no doubt’ that the UK was better off as a result of having its own trade policy.
His comments came after Donald Trump announced he had agreed ‘the biggest deal ever made’ between the US and the European Union.
The agreement will subject the EU to 15per cent tariffs on most of its goods entering America.
It is lower than a 30per cent levy previously threatened by the US president – but worse than the UK’s deal – and was quickly lambasted by European leaders.
After a day playing golf in Scotland yesterday, Mr Trump met the president of the EU Commission Ursula von der Leyen to discuss the broad terms of an agreement.
But Viktor Orban, the Hungarian PM, hit out: ‘Donald Trump ate von der Leyen for breakfast’.
‘This is what happened and we suspected this would happen as the U.S. president is a heavyweight when it comes to negotiations while Madame President is featherweight.’
Former Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt branded the deal ‘scandalous’ and ‘badly negotiated’, saying there was ‘not one concession from the American side’.
French prime minister François Bayrou said: ‘It is a dark day when an alliance of free peoples, united to affirm their values and defend their interests, resolves to submission.’
And Bernd Lange, the EU Parliament’s trade chief, said: ‘My first assessment: Not satisfactory.
‘This is a lopsided deal. Concessions have clearly been made that are difficult to accept. Deal with significant imbalance. Furthermore lot of questions still open.’
But Ms von der Leyen said the deal was ‘huge’, adding: ‘It will bring stability. It will bring predictability. That’s very important for our businesses on both sides of the Atlantic.’
Mr Trump said the ‘partnership’ would ‘bring us very close together’.
He added: ‘I think it’s great that we made a deal today instead of playing games and maybe not making a deal at all.’
Full details of the deal have not yet been confirmed, and a written text still needs to be agreed.
But the agreement is worse than a similar deal struck between the UK and US, which will see tariffs of only 10per cent placed on British exports.
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds this morning admitted that the UK’s favourable deal was a direct benefit of Brexit.
He told Sky News: ‘All of the trade negotiations that we’ve got use the fact that we are not part of the customs union anymore, I’m absolutely clear of that. I think we can make the best of that.’
Pressed on whether he would call it a Brexit benefit, he added: ‘I’m absolutely clear, I’ve said in Parliament many times, this is a benefit of being out of the European Union, having our independent trade policy, absolutely no doubt about that.’
When the UK and US signed a trade deal in June, it reduced tariffs on car and aerospace imports to the US.
But agreement on a similar arrangement for Britain’s steel imports was not reached, leaving tariffs on steel at 25per cent.
American concerns over steel products made elsewhere in the world, then finished in the UK, are said to be among the sticking points.
Sir Keir Starmer is expected to spend most of the day with President Trump on Monday, when he will have a chance to press the president on a steel deal.
But Business Secretary Mr Reynolds suggested it may take more than a meeting between the two leaders to resolve the matter, telling BBC Breakfast: ‘We were very happy to announce the breakthrough that we had a few months ago in relation to sectors like automotive, aerospace, which are really important to the UK economy.
‘But we always said it was job saved, but it wasn’t job done. There’s more to do. The negotiations have been going on on a daily basis since then. There’s a few issues to push a little bit further today.
‘We won’t perhaps have anything to announce a resolution of those talks, but there’s some sectors that we still need to resolve, particularly around steel and aluminium, and there’s the wider conversation about what the US calls its reciprocal tariffs.’