Senior minister Pat McFadden played it cool last night when asked how the UK would respond to Donald Trump’s latest tariff threats.
The US president announced on Thursday from the White House that he was going to impose “reciprocal tariffs” on all other countries, saying this approach would be “fair to all”.
Trade between the UK and the US is worth around £300bn annually, with American imports slightly outweighing the number of British exports.
It’s not yet clear how this plan would apply to Britain, although Trump did suggest his policy would see VAT as a tariff.
Any additional charge on UK imports or exports could rock the economy, which is already struggling to grow.
But Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, McFadden, later told Sky News that Labour will be adopting a “wait and see” approach to Trump’s announcement.
He said: “That’s the best reaction to everything over the last month.
“Sometimes tariffs are announced, sometimes they’re unannounced.
“The best thing to do is digest this and speak to the Americans properly, and that’s what we’ll do.”
He added there “are a lot of unanswered questions” and that the government would not “overreact” to any announcements.
McFadden continued: “We took the decision […] that we wouldn’t breathlessly chase every headline that was coming out over the last month. I think that’s the right decision.”
He continued: “How mature would it be for me to walk into a studio five minutes after some announcements and say ‘yeah, we’re going to retaliate’? That’s not the way you make policy.
“We will always stand up for the national interest, it’s a government’s duty to do that, but the best thing in the national interest is to maintain a good trading relationship with everybody that we need to maintain that with, right across the world.”
McFadden added that that the UK would be seeking open trading relationships with the US, EU and China, but declined to say if the government would retaliate to any tariffs.
Trump has brought up the topic of tariffs repeatedly throughout his first month back in office, imposing a 25% of steel imports earlier this week.
He did impose large tariffs on the US’s nearest neighbours, Canada and Mexico, but he suspended those plans for 30 days after negotiations.
Both countries, along with the EU, have prepared retaliatory tariffs if Trump follows through on his plans, and China has already slapped a 10% tariff on its exports.
Meanwhile Tory shadow chancellor Mel Stride warned Sky News that there are “risks out there” for the UK right now.
He said: “The way that you face those risks and get through turbulent times is a strong economy, a growing economy – not an economy in which businesses are being taxed to the point where they’re laying people off.”