“Could not have been treated more warmly in the United Kingdom by the Royal Family or the people”, Trump summed up his feelings about the visit in a tweet. Adding that: “Our relationship has never been better, and I see a very big Trade Deal down the road”.
Could not have been treated more warmly in the United Kingdom by the Royal Family or the people. Our relationship has never been better, and I see a very big Trade Deal down the road. “This trip has been an incredible success for the President.” @IngrahamAngle
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 5 июня 2019 г.
So what's that “big deal” that the US president is promising? Michael Springmann, attorney, author, and former diplomat from Washington DC explained that there won't be any “phenomenal trade agreement” and there's not much in it for Britain.
“The phenomenal thing that Trump wants is essentially the British to open their economy up to American takeover. Half of Britain’s trade is with the European Union, and only 15% is with the United States”.
“I think that the idea that the British are somehow going to sell most of their goods and services to the United States in a deal with Trump is not going to happen. The Trump deal is basically one-sided – we want all barriers reduced to American goods and services being sold in Britain; and we are not really offering much in return since we have nothing to offer in return; we have extremely low tariffs on everything except pickup trucks, which are rather high for some weird reason. I don’t think the British are going to get anything out of it; and if they hope they are, it’s a pipe dream”.
During his visit, Trump made it clear that he favours Brexit and said it “should be delivered”. The US president held talks with Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage and said that Brexiteer Boris Johnson would “make an excellent” prime minister.
READ MORE: US Ambassador Confirms Trump Lining Up US-UK Post-Brexit Trade Deal
Trump is a supporter of the nation-state, Richard Fitzwilliams, royal commentator and public relations consultant said, and “is openly in favour of Brexit as are Johnson and Farage. Hence the affinity. Would any deal he offered, assuming Brexit happened, which is far from certain, be more favourable because he liked them personally? This is far from clear”.
There were many expectations that Donald Trump would meet with candidates for the post of prime minister. However, a meeting with Boris Johnson did not take place. Trump instead had a phone conversation with him and Jeremy Hunt.
The former US diplomat echoed this view:
“By and large I think that a lot of the British political candidates have kind of kept their distance from Trump for fear of getting too close to a toxic president and getting clobbered by the British in the polls. Jeremy Corbyn has been very critical about Trump and refuses to meet with him. So, I think that this goes down the line from all the many candidates that are trying to succeed Theresa May. I don’t know why Trump prefers Johnson; somehow he seems to think he is someone like himself. I think that Johnson is smart to stay away; he knows how much his fellow countrymen hate Trump and he’s a loose cannon”, Springmann stressed.
Despite the two countries not seeing eye to eye on the issue of Chinese telecom giant Huawei, Trump has promised that the UK and US will reach a deal and does not plan to limit Britain’s access to US intelligence information because of the UK’s cooperation with Huawei.
Experts predicted that Trump would use the state visit to try and pressure the British leadership over Huawei, but Mr Fitzwilliams noted that he was quite surprised by the US President's calmness over the matter:
“At the press conference with May, Trump said intelligence sharing between Britain and the US could not be closer and dismissed the idea British links with the Chinese firm Huawei would affect it. He was very relaxed about it”.
While the American attorney and author said that the US will not let go of this issue and try to influence the UK's decision:
“I think they [the US] will pressure the UK to follow the American lead and block the Huawei outfit. I don’t know how successful that will be; and again, it’s going to come down to money – who will get, how much, and what, and can they force changes in the system that will make it acceptable to the US and Britain and other countries”, Springmann said.
READ MORE: UK NHS in Danger If US to Pursue Post-Brexit Trade Deals With Britain - Scholar
At the same time, he pointed out that other countries, such as Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Germany, and France, have questioned Huawei’s programmes and that the company itself is very much closely connected to the Chinese government. But said that in the end, it all comes down to money:
“If this thing goes forward – and I don’t know whether it will – it will be on the idea of money - who will get what money and at what quantities. And if all Donald Trump sees is money, then this thing will go ahead; he’s done the same thing with Saudi Arabia, selling weapons to Yemen; Britain’s done the same thing, selling weapons to Saudi Arabia for use in Yemen. So, principle disappears when dollar or pound signs appear. So, it’s basically going to come down to ‘can we get money out of this thing; and if so, how much?’” Springmann stated.
The views and opinions expressed by the speaker do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.
