Trio of trade deals puts UK in better position “than any other country,” Rachel Reeves says
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has said the UK is now in a better place on trade “than any other country in the world” after securing new trade agreements with India, the US and the EU this month.
Reeves said the agreements have “come along like buses,” and that the government’s next targets for trade deals are in the Gulf.
“The first deal and the best deal so far with the US, we’ve got the best deal with the EU for any country outside the EU, and we’ve got the best trade agreement with India,” Reeves said.
However, the government’s victory lap after securing the deals was cut short by criticisms that the UK has made too many concessions to reach deals with the economic giants.
The latest deal, unveiled on Monday at the UK-EU summit, incurred criticisms of “sell[ing] out” or “surrender” from the Reform and Conservative parties.
The agreement saw the UK allowing EU trawlers access to UK waters for fishing for 12 years – much longer than anticipated. This removed the opportunity for UK fishers to re-negotiate annually for a larger share of the fish, something which Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds defended on the grounds that it “removes the uncertainty” of an “annual haggling process,” and replaces it with “the consistency of a long one.”
‘Slashing red tape’
According to the government, the deals have provided the UK with access to large markets, led to the lowering of tariffs on exports like cars and steel, and the slashing of red tape on UK food exports, something which will be particularly beneficial for smaller producers.
Starmer said that through these deals, the government has “made Britain a place where people want to do business once again.” Reeves reiterated this, telling the BBC that “we’ve got preferential deals with the biggest economies around the world.”
Polling by CityAM and Freshwater Strategy has indicated that delivering the US trade deal has barely won Starmer any points with the electorate – over 60 per cent of voters said securing concessions from President Donald Trump’s tariffs did not change their perception of the PM.
Reeves indicated that the government would not be looking to engage in negotiations with China. This comes after Labour have batted away concerns of the Chinese government that the UK-US deal was to the “detriment” of the Chinese economy.
Reeves is set to attend a G7 finance ministers meeting later on Tuesday, where other G7 countries (France, Germany, Japan, Italy, and Canada) will be discussing how to approach President Trump’s upturns on all things trade, climate change, and Ukraine.