LONDON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday that although Britain was “out of line” when it came to trade he thought it may be able to avoid tariffs, adding of the imbalance: “I think that one can be worked out”.
Trump imposed sweeping tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China over the weekend and said they would “definitely happen” with the European Union, sparking fears of a trade war that would derail economic growth and hike consumer costs.
Asked about Britain and whether it would face tariffs next, Trump said: “We’ll see how things work out. It might happen with them, but it will definitely happen with the European Union, I can tell you that.”
“The UK is way out of line,” he told reporters as he returned to Washington from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
“We’ll see … but the European Union is really out of line. The UK is out of line, but I think that one can be worked out. But the European Union is an atrocity, what they’ve done.”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his ministers have praised Trump since he was elected, stressing how much Britain imports from the United States and hoping to avoid tariffs at a time when the economy is already struggling to grow.
Starmer told reporters at the weekend: “It’s early days and what I want to see is strong trading relations, and in the discussions that I’ve had with President Trump that’s what we have centred on.”
The United States is Britain’s biggest trading partner as a single country, although the European Union is bigger as a bloc. Less than one third of its trade is in goods, which could face U.S. tariffs, with the rest made up of services.
Britain’s Department for Business and Trade did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(Reporting by Kate Holton; Editing by Toby Chopra)
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