Mandelson reveals Trump known as him good-looking after they held arms within the Oval Office | EUROtoday

Peter Mandelson has described Donald Trump as a “people person” who may minimize levies on British items once more after extraordinary scenes which noticed the 2 males maintain arms within the Oval Office this week.

The UK’s ambassador in Washington mentioned he was trying ahead to negotiating with the US to “bring down further tariffs”.

He additionally revealed that when he first walked into the White House, President Trump mentioned to him: “God, you’re a good-looking fellow, aren’t you?”.

And he described Mr Trump as a “people person” who takes individuals at “face value”, saying that the president had judged him on his deserves.

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The Independent revealed earlier this 12 months that President Trump has been contemplating rejecting Lord Mandelson as ambassador.

In an interview with BBC’s Newsnightthe Labour grandee mentioned that Thursday’s historic UK-US commerce deal represented a “platform for going further and opening up more trade opportunities”.

Sir Keir Starmer has declined to rule out the potential for reforms to taxes that primarily hit US tech companies in a future commerce deal.

The deal agreed on Thursday minimize taxes on automotive imports of 100,000 a 12 months from 27.5 per cent to 10 per cent and scrapped tariffs on metal and aluminium.

However, a baseline 10 per cent charge for different items stays in drive.

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Lord Mandelson mentioned: “I’m very pleased with what we’ve achieved. It’s taken many months of very tough negotiation, and it’s also a platform going further and opening up more trade opportunities.”

He added: “We’re going to negotiate further and bring down further tariffs and remove further barriers to trade between us, that’s what we’re committed to, and I’m looking forward to doing that.”

The White House mentioned that the president is “committed to the 10 per cent baseline tariff” imposed in April “not just for the United Kingdom, but for his trade negotiations with all other countries as well”.

But enterprise secretary Jonathan Reynolds mentioned on Thursday that conversations about “those wider tariff lines and the 10 per cent” charge have been persevering with.

Lord Mandelson mentioned that digital companies tax was introduced up throughout the negotiations for this week’s settlement, however “what they suggested wasn’t acceptable to us, so it’s not in the deal”.

On Friday, Sir Keir informed The Independent that he has “struck up a good relationship” with the president.

“I am the sort of person that tries to have constructive and positive relations with people,” he mentioned.

Kemi Badenoch has mentioned she is “concerned” in regards to the prospects of the UK happening to strike a full free commerce settlement within the wake of Thursday’s settlement.

She mentioned Thursday’s deal was “not a huge success at all … It’s not even a trade deal, it’s a tariff deal, and we are in a worse position now than we were six weeks ago.

“It’s better than where we were last week, so it’s better than nothing, but it’s not much.

“One of the things that concerns me is that we will probably now not get a comprehensive free trade agreement.”