Rachel Reeves suggests UK-EU commerce extra vital than US deal forward of Washington talks | EUROtoday

Rachel Reeves has urged that resetting the UK’s relationship with the EU is doubtlessly extra vital than understanding a commerce cope with the US.

The chancellor, who has travelled to Washington for crunch talks on a UK-US commerce cope with her American counterpart, treasury secretary Scott Bessent, mentioned that the EU was our closest buying and selling companions.

Speaking to the BBC, she mentioned: “I understand why there’s so much focus on our trading relationship with the US but actually our trading relationship with Europe is arguably even more important, because they’re our nearest neighbours and trading partners.

“Obviously I’ve been assembly Scott Bessent this week while I’m in Washington, however I’ve additionally this week met the French, the German, the Spanish, the Polish, the Swedish, the Finnish finance ministers – as a result of it’s so vital that we rebuild these buying and selling relationships with our nearest neighbours in Europe, and we’ll do this in a manner that’s good for British jobs and British customers.”

The UK is due to host a summit with the EU in May as part of the ongoing attempt to “reset” the relationship after Brexit.

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Keir Starmer described the US as “incredibly important” to the UK, in the wake of Ms Reeves’s comments.

The PM’s official spokesman added: “Both are incredibly important to us” as he rejected the idea the UK had to choose between them, despite calls from Trump allies to do just that.

Ms Reeves is hoping to secure a trade deal with the US which will mitigate the impact of the tariffs imposed by president Donald Trump at the start of April, which have rocked the global financial markets.

It has seen the UK hit with 10 per cent tariffs on all exports to the US, as well as a 25 per cent levy on cars, steel and aluminium.

Some US officials have been optimistic about the prospects of an agreement, with vice president JD Vance saying there was a “good chance” one could be struck with the UK.

The chancellor has said there is a “deal to be done” with Washington, but has ruled out several concessions the US is thought to be looking for.

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These include reductions in food standards rules that limit imports of American agricultural goods and changes to online safety legislation that some US politicians believe limit freedom of speech.

A deal could, however, involve a reduction in tariffs on US cars in exchange for a cut in tariffs on British-made vehicles, with Ms Reeves declining to rule out such a move on Wednesday.

She also said she had been working closely with her European and Canadian counterparts to remove trade barriers, and added that conversations at G20 meetings had been difficult.

“Obviously there are strains. We are all following what’s taking place in our home bond markets, in our fairness markets, and everyone knows that that uncertainty is dangerous for funding within the UK economic system.”