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Downing Street officials argue the 10 percent tariff on U.K. exports — the joint-lowest Trump applied to any country — “vindicates” Britain’s approach, and many feared worse, given the U.K.’s Value Added Tax on most sales is 20 percent. The EU, which Britain only left five years ago, was charged 20 percent.
There is a less inspiring reason to continue the charm offensive, though. “They haven’t got any choice,” said Emily Thornberry, the Labour chair of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee. “It’s not in the [U.K.’s] interests to have a trade war.”
POLITICO spoke to more than a dozen U.K. officials, ministers and industry figures, all granted anonymity to speak frankly, to build a picture of Britain’s so far disappointing search for a tariffs carve-out — and ask whether it could yet pay off.
The special relationship
Downing Street used Starmer’s Feb. 27 White House visit to publicize its push for an economic deal. But the groundwork was laid before that; Reynolds raised the idea with Lutnick around a week earlier, in their first phone call after Lutnick was confirmed by the Senate, to ensure it would not be dead on arrival, one person familiar with the negotiations said.
After Starmer flew home to the U.K., talks began in earnest — generally limited to a circle of fewer than a dozen people.
The talks were formally led by Reynolds but aided heavily by Mandelson and Chandra — both arch-networkers who have navigated the worlds of geopolitical influence and City finance respectively. Chandra joined Reynolds on a March 19 delegation to meet Lutnick and Greer in Washington. Starmer intervened at key moments, though Downing Street has declined to say whether the PM exchanges text messages with Trump.
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