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The UK and the EU should commit to reintegration, rather than “competing for preferential treatment”, campaigners have stressed, after Donald Trump announced fresh tariffs which see the UK paying higher rates than the EU.
The US President has unveiled renewed tariffs on dozens of countries to replace the 10 per cent global duty imposed in February, following a Supreme Court ruling that declared his previous levies illegal.
While the UK and the EU will face the same 10 per cent tariffs, Britain must pay import taxes on top of so-called Most Favoured Nation tariffs imposed on all members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). However, the EU’s tariffs include the WTO levies resulting in the EU paying less due to differences between the two deals negotiated with President Trump.
Tom Brufatto, Executive Director of Policy and Research at Best for Britain, said:
“Trump’s latest round of tariff chaos and its impact on UK businesses, now set to be worse off than their European counterparts, is yet more evidence of the accumulating damage being done to our economy thanks to being outside the EU – the world’s largest trade bloc.
“Rather than competing for preferential treatment from the White House, UK and EU leaders should commit to reintegration, with independent economic research showing that renewing our membership could generate a transformative £92bn of badly-needed growth.”