The Observer - 25.08.2019

The Observer

News 25.08.19 7

‘Drop barriers to UK exports,’

Johnson will urge Trump

Tusk: ‘I won’t cooperate on no deal’

Boris Johnson will challenge Donald

Trump to throw open US markets to

British exporters after Brexit, when

the two men sit down together today

for their fi rst face-to-face meeting

since Johnson became prime minister.

Speaking to reporters en route to

the G7 summit in the French town

of Biarritz, Johnson listed a string of

British products, from cars to cau-

liflowers , which he claimed faced

unnecessary export barriers in the US.

“You may not know this, but there

are currently restrictions on the sale

of British-made shower trays to the

US. We’ve sold 250,000 shower trays

around the world. There is some kind

of bureaucratic obstacle that stops us

selling them in the US because they

are allegedly too low,” he said.

The comments echoed Johnson’s

use of a kipper in the Tory leadership

campaign to bemoan EU bureaucracy

• though the rule in question subse-
  quently turned out to be a British one.
  “There are tariffs on cars, there are
  tariffs on railway carriages in the US
  of 14%, whereas we only have a tariff
  of 1.7% in the UK on American railway
  carriages arriving here,” Johnson said.
  “It’s not just beef or lamb that is
  currently banned from entering the

Boris Johnson faces a tense meet-

ing with European council president

Donald Tusk today, as the PM bat-

tles to keep alive the idea that a fresh

Brexit deal is possible by October.

Tusk used a press conference at the

G7 in Biarritz yesterday to say: “The

one thing I will not cooperate on is no

deal, and I still hope that prime min-

ister Johnson will not like to go down

in history as ‘Mr No Deal’.”

Asked about the remarks, Johnson

reiterated his insistence that the EU

remove the Irish backstop from the

Brexit withdrawal agreement.

“I will make it absolutely clear: I

don’t want a no-deal Brexit, but I say

to our friends in the EU, if they don’t

want a no-deal Brexit, then we’ve got

to get rid of the backstop from the

US in spite of their commitment to

overturn that prohibition in 2014. Not

a morsel of British beef has entered

the US market,” he added.

After setting out a long list of prod-

ucts and sectors, he said: “The point I

am making is that there are massive

opportunities for UK companies to

open up, to prise open the American

market. We intend to seize those

opportunities but they are going

to require our American friends to

compromise and to open up their

approach because currently there are

too many restrictions.”

treaty,” Johnson said.

Tusk said he was “willing to listen

to ideas that are operational, realis-

tic and acceptable to all EU member

states, including Ireland, if and when

the UK government is ready to [put

them forward].”

En route to the summit, Johnson

said : “ We’ve been clear that we won’t

be instituting any kinds of checks or

controls at the Northern Irish border .”

“There are a large range of alter-

native arrangements, with which

you’ll be familiar. We’ll be discussing

those with our friends in the coming

weeks,” he added.

Downing Street hopes Tusk will

echo the willingness displayed

by Angela Merkel and Emmanuel

Macron last week to engage in nego-

tiations – albeit ones that would see

the backstop remain in place.

The European council president

has previously said there is a “special

place in hell” for people who argued

Climate activists
were among
thousands on an
anti-G7 march
yesterday to Irun
in Spain.
Georges Gobet/
AFP

LEFT

Boris Johnson

with Canadian

PM Justin

Trudeau. Getty

LEFT

Donald Trump

arrives in

Biarritz for

the G7 summit

yesterday. AFP

ing to make things look normal when

pretty much they are not,” he said.

August fires in the state of

Rondônia, to the south of the Amazon

basin – and where Bolsonaro won

72% of the vote – have caused some

fl ights to be cancelled and hospital

admissions for respiratory problems

to triple. “The fi res affect everyone,

principally us, in the indigenous

reserves, because there is a lot of

smoke, you can’t see properly, our

eyes burn,” said Maria Leonice Tupari,

43, an indigenous leader.

José Carvalho , a former environ-

ment minister, blamed Bolsonaro’s

policies for aggravating a recurrent

problem and argued Brazil should

not shoulder the cost of protecting the

Amazon alone: “The world should pay

for the environmental services that

the Amazon provides to the planet.”

Johnson declined to set out what

the UK can offer the author of The

Art of the Deal in exchange for these

opportunities, but he stressed that the

NHS would be “completely off limits”

in any post-Brexit trade deal. “We will

not allow the NHS to be on the table at

all,” he said. However, he did express a

willingness to consider redrafting the

UK’s proposed digital services tax, to

be levied on US giants such as Google.

“ We must do something to tax

fairly and properly the online busi-

nesses that have such colossal sales

in our country,” he said, but added:

“I am open to discussion about how

we do that .”

Cross-Whitehall research pub-

lished last year suggested a new free-

trade deal with the US would add

0.2% to GDP over the long term.

The G7 summit is Johnson’s debut

on the international stage as prime

minister. He hopes to underline

Britain’s determination to remain

outward-looking and multilateralist

after Brexit – and try to burnish his

credentials as a statesman.

The US president has called the PM

“ Britain Trump ”, and the pair struck

up a rapport when Johnson was for-

eign secretary, but Downing Street

hopes to avoid any impression that

the PM will be a patsy.

Asked whether he agreed that he

resembled the US president, Johnson

said: “I was born in the United States.

I think the most important thing for

any prime minister of the UK is to

have a very close friendly relation-

ship with our most important ally .”

But he sought to distance himself

from Trump’s trade policies, calling

for a dialling-down of the dispute

between Washington and Beijing.

for Brexit without a plan for carrying

it out, a remark widely read as being

directed at Johnson, among others.

Asked about the comments yester-

day, Johnson said: “I have great rela-

tions with our friends and partners in

the EU, and intend to improve them

the whole time, without getting into

any post-Brexit eschatology.”

Johnson needs the mood music to

continue to be constructive enough

to help him convince potential Tory

rebels a deal remains within reach.

The prime minister must navigate

a tricky fortnight when MPs return to

Westminster after the summer recess

in September, with Labour threaten-

ing to table a vote of no confi dence.

Tories determined to prevent a no-

deal Brexit may be prepared to stay

their hand if the signals from EU cap-

itals are encouraging, though they

fear Johnson’s demand to remove the

backstop makes it impossible to reach

a deal by the 31 October deadline.

Johnson lists numerous

British-made products

facing ‘bureaucratic

obstacles’ in America

ON

OTHER

PAGES

Europe can

use fi nancial

muscle to

save the

rainforest

Observer

Comment,

page 44

Whose side

is he on?

Johnson

faces Biarritz

balancing act

with Trump

Focus, pages

36-

‘You may not know

this, but there are

currently restrictions

on British-made

shower trays’

As tradition dictates, the G

summit kicked off last night with

an informal dinner for the leaders

with a distinctly local fl avour – a

Basque meal served in Biarritz’s

19th-century lighthouse.

Partly because of the tight

quarters in the 1834 building, and

partly because Emmanuel Macron

prefers informal conversations

among the main fi gures, there

was room for just the country

leaders and the European Council

president Donald Tusk , around the

table, plus Brigitte Macron.

Th e menu was assembled by

celebrated Basque chef Cédric

Béchade , with Elysée palace

chef Guillaume Gomez ,

and featured versions of

traditional Basque fare. Th e

starter was piperade , the

Basque version of ratatouille,

and the main course, left, was

marmitako , a tuna casserole.

Julian Borger

On the menu

Heather Stewart

Biarritz

Trade

Heather Stewart

Biarritz

Brexit

Boris Johnson attends a

meeting at the G7 summit.