UK must not ‘fall into Trump’s tariff trap’ on trade visit, campaigners warn
Date: 17 March 2025
Campaigns: Trade
- Concessions on Big Tech and NHS in US trade deal will ‘hand away our future’ to the likes of Elon Musk
Ahead of UK business and trade secretary Jonathan Reynolds’s trip to the United States this week, Nick Dearden, director of Global Justice Now said:
“Jonathan Reynolds travels to Washington DC desperately hoping he can avoid US tariffs. But that won’t come for free – Trump will demand a steep price including access to the NHS and our personal data, and the dropping of taxes and regulations on the Big Tech oligarchs. To put all this on the table now is to fall into Trump’s tariff trap – in stark contrast to the EU and Canada who are fighting fire with fire.
“The UK has shown no willingness to stand up to Trump’s economic bullying to date. But if we want to avoid following him down a path where we hand away our future to the likes of Elon Musk in a US trade deal, we need to demand the British government stands up for our rights and standards. Starmer’s government needs to remember it is accountable to the British public not Donald Trump.”
Notes
1. Global Justice Now is a UK-based campaign organisation against poverty and inequality. We mobilise people in the UK for change, and act in solidarity with those fighting injustice, particularly in the global south.
2. Nick Dearden is the author of Trade Secrets: The truth about the US trade deal and how to stop it (2020), and a founder of the UK’s Stop Trump coalition. He regularly contributes political analysis on international trade to publications including The Guardian, Open Democracy and Al Jazeera.
