Better relations with America could be the biggest Brexit benefit yet
Brexit allowed Britain to lead the West in support for Ukraine. Now we must use that freedom to dodge tariffs by convincing Trump we are a reliable partner in defence, says James Price
Having served in government through some of the Brexit negotiations, and seen up close how completely bonkers everyone was driven by it, I am reluctant to ever have to write about it again. Truly, you wouldn’t believe some of the mania it induced in people who had presumably once been rational.
One night we had to create a rota for members of the House of Lords to attend through the night, with many bringing in sleeping bags, while the division bells rang into the small hours. Arcane rules were used to effect a filibuster like some Lordly groundhog day.
But having apparently felt that everything is just fine on the domestic front – with our economy roaring, borders secure and social fabric definitely not fraying by the day – Sir Keir Starmer decided to jet to Brussels to attend a meeting of EU leaders.
This was, by my count, Starmer’s 18th visit abroad since entering Downing Street. His only major achievement so far on the world stage has been to try and pay for the privilege of giving away sovereign British territory – and he hasn’t even (yet) succeeded in that.
Nevertheless, this was a well-timed meeting, coming in the midst of Donald Trump’s threats to place large tariffs on the European Union. Whether Britain is to be included in those tariffs is still somewhat up for debate, with the American President suggesting that we could be exempt from them. If so, this will be the best case yet of a Brexit benefit for Britain, alongside speedier vaccine development and rollout and our early, rapid and admirable support for Ukraine. Avoiding the negative effects of Trump’s mercantilist threats are a major shot in the arm for supporters of Britain leaving the bloc, almost exactly five years on.
Saving Europe by our example
During the Napoleonic wars, Pitt the Younger once said that England had “saved herself by her exertions, and will, as I trust, save Europe by her example”. We should do the same again. This looks like continuing to avoid tariffs and even making a free trade deal with the USA, but also helping our European friends understand how to do the same. Therefore, it is worth investigating how and why the second Trump administration uses tariffs in the first place.
Trump has made his usual hyperbolic statements, saying that “tariff” is the most beautiful word in the world – literally better than the word “love”. But in reality, this is deal-making language. It makes much more sense to think of them as sanctions aimed at inducing policy demands that are often not unreasonable.
As I was writing this article, both Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have said that they had managed to stave off tariffs. This was by agreeing to tighten up border security, investigate criminal cartels and drug flows, and work harder to prevent illegal immigration into the US. These are all things they should have been doing in the first place.
We Europeans sleep much more soundly in our beds thanks to the largesse of the American taxpayer, the might of their aircraft carriers and ingenuity of US intelligence services
As for the EU, Trump has long been exasperated by the low levels of defence spending. We Europeans sleep much more soundly in our beds thanks to the largesse of the American taxpayer, the might of their aircraft carriers and ingenuity of US intelligence services. That is something about which we should feel deeply ashamed.
I wager that tariffs will be eliminated as and when there is an appreciable uptick in defence spending so that America can rely on Europe as a more equal partner in our own continent, allowing it to finally pivot to the epochal threat of the Chinese Communist Party.
Which brings us back to Brexit. Early in the war in Ukraine, Britain led the way, unshackled from the weakness of the EU. Macron naively thought he could negotiate with Putin, Germany callously only donated 5,000 battle helmets at first (and said Ukraine had to collect them!). By our steadfastness, Britain ensured both American and European support for Zelenskyy.
We may not yet have saved Europe by our example, but we kept the West united in the face of barbarism. Brexit Britain should again become the linchpin between Europe and America, something we wouldn’t have been able to do without Brexit.
James Price is senior fellow at the Adam Smith Institute