As Trump wields tariff weapon, Starmer must not sell out farmers to get US trade deal

In their keenness to avoid Trump’s tariffs, Labour needs to make sure they don't end up damaging the UK economy in other ways

The Labour government has been deliberately, and correctly, low-key in its response to Donald Trump’s outrageous tariffs. The UK may have got off lighter than most countries, but a 25 per cent tax on cars, steel and aluminium and 10 per cent on everything else will hit our exports to the US hard.

Part of the British response has been to up the intensity of efforts to strike a US-UK trade deal, which has been talked about ever since the Brexit referendum as a way to offset the damage to our international trade caused by leaving the EU.

However, Stephen Boyd, director of the think tank IPPR Scotland, has now warned that “contrary to much of the political signalling, this [a US trade deal] is likely to have, at best, a minimal impact on jobs and growth”. He added that the economic benefits of such deals were “routinely overstated”.

US President Donald Trump will demand concessions from the UK in any trade deal between the two countries (Picture: Anna Moneymaker) | Getty Images

Tariff-free entry for whisky and salmon and “new opportunities for the financial, business and professional services in which Scotland excels” could benefit Scotland, Boyd said, “but these outcomes are by no means certain”. And even if a deal is signed, “Scotland and the UK will still be damaged by the slowdown in global growth and disruption in global trade provoked by Trump's chaotic policymaking”.

Furthermore, trade deals go both ways. If the UK gets something from which it will benefit, Trump will want something in return. Chancellor Rachel Reeves may have ruled out the infamous ‘chlorinated chicken’, but farmers are concerned about the effect of a possible influx of cheap American food produced to lower standards.

NFU Scotland has welcomed Reeves’ recent comment that the government will not “rush into anything”, while warning that work was urgently needed “on strengthening domestic food supply chains and supporting local producers”. Its president, Andrew Connon, added: “Our farmers are already being undercut in supermarkets, long before any new deal is signed.”

In their keenness to avoid Trump’s tariffs, Labour needs to make sure they don't end up damaging the UK economy in other ways. Ultimately, that may mean Keir Starmer must ditch the softly-softly approach and stand up to Trump.