We spoke to Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds, and asked him what he thought of the Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch saying the UK has been “shafted”.
Jonathan Reynolds: Well, I think some people should take Kemi’s phone off her sometimes and not let her tweet things. But what we have announced today is about saving thousands of jobs in the UK. It’s not the end of the process. There’s still an ongoing negotiation with the US about the reciprocal tariffs.
Krishnan Guru-Murthy: This is not a trade deal, is it?
Jonathan Reynolds: Right. It’s the start. It is the start of it. You’re right to say that.
Krishnan Guru-Murthy: I mean, Trump says this is because of Brexit. I mean this is the Brexit bonus you’ve found at last, isn’t it?
Jonathan Reynolds: The trade deals we’ve been able to announce with India this week, the breakthrough with the US. Yes, that’s because I, as a secretary of state for business and trade, can negotiate that. I will always push back on anyone who says the UK has to pick between Europe and the US and India or any other party.
Krishnan Guru-Murthy: But are you sure Europe won’t be cross about this and won’t actually take out its own retaliation against us?
Jonathan Reynolds: The EU absolutely know that the UK will pursue its own national interests, as they will pursue the EU interest. No one’s going to negotiate for the UK other than the UK government, other than us.
Krishnan Guru-Murthy: The farmers are very worried, though. I mean, they are worried that you’ve sacrificed arable farmers with allowing in ethanol from America into the UK market.
Jonathan Reynolds: Well, look, what we have agreed in relation to that big change, that big advantage we’ve got on sectoral tariffs, are some changes in terms of additional access for the US on beef that complies with our food standards, on ethanol, where there’s already a significant amount of US exports to the UK.
“I think some people should take Kemi’s phone off her sometimes and not let her tweet things.”
– Jonathan Reynolds
Krishnan Guru-Murthy: But that’s a threat to British farmers, isn’t it?
Jonathan Reynolds: No, I think, there is a fair and reasonable adjustment. Of course, it means cheaper ethanol in the UK, but it’s a big ask on the US side. But look, trade deals, you’ve got to have a bit of give and take. You’re not going to get everything you want without having some reciprocity across the board.
Krishnan Guru-Murthy: I mean, you said this was about jobs, but I mean there were jobs at Grangemouth that you could have saved if you’d have done there what you’ve done at British Steel. And one of its products is ethanol. I mean, now we’re going to be importing American ethanol while the British plant goes broke.
Jonathan Reynolds: We’re going to be importing the same ethanol from the US we have, it will just be cheaper because it will be tariff-free. It’s currently subject to a tariff between 10 and 50%, depends how you use it for. On Grangemouth, the situation was different. The UK government has pledged a significant amount of money in relation to the future of the oil refinery at Grangemouth, £200 million from the UK government, because that was about finding a future use for it.
Krishnan Guru-Murthy: Now, on steel, Mr Lutnick says Britain is nationalising steel and is basically going the same way as the Americans on tariffs. He’s implying you told them that Britain’s going to put up tariffs on steel from other countries. Is that right? And that you’re nationalising British Steel.
Jonathan Reynolds: Well look, first of all, I can tell you that the decisions we took on British Steel were only about the UK national interest.
KGM: Yeah, but isn’t he right when he says that? It did attract a lot of interest in the US, I think they were impressed by our decisiveness and our activity, but there was no relationship to this trade negotiation specifically that we took that action in relation to British Steel. That was what we did in the UK national interest.
“The government can only deal with the here and now, and the here and now was, we were at risk of thousands of job losses in some of our most important industries.”
– Jonathan Reynolds
Krishnan Guru-Murthy: But did you tell them that you’re nationalising British Steel?
Jonathan Reynolds: We didn’t tell them in advance of what we were doing when we recalled parliament and took control. The issue around ownership we still need to resolve either on a consensual basis with British Steel, or by some other route, and I have said public ownership is the likely step we will have to take in order to progress the situation at British Steel.
Krishnan Guru-Murthy: Two big areas, unresolved obviously. First of all, pharmaceuticals, what does preferential position mean?
Jonathan Reynolds: Well it means obviously there’s been speculation that the US may seek to put in place on pharmaceuticals the kind of sectoral tariffs it has announced in relation to other areas. We obviously needed some reference to them. Now because they haven’t put in those tariffs yet, they can’t promise us a certain course of action, because the announcement hasn’t been made. We wanted to have some reference to that, because we’re dealing with sectoral tariffs and there will be ones in future that would be of concern to us, and we want to recognise that in the agreement we’ve struck.
Krishnan Guru-Murthy: Bottom line, we may be better off than we were yesterday, we’re still worse off than we were last year, aren’t we? The Trump tariffs still make it harder for British exporters.
Jonathan Reynolds: The world, as it was a year ago, doesn’t exist anymore. It’s not available. I can only deal with the here and now. The government can only deal with the here and now, and the here and now was, we were at risk of thousands of job losses in some of our most important industries, iconic businesses. We had to take action in our national interest to do that. This is what the government’s agenda is about, and we’re going to continue pursuing that with every available partner to get the maximum potential deal for the UK.
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