May tells Trump of 'deep concern' over US trade tariff plans

Theresa May has called Donald Trump to raise Britain’s “deep concern” over plans to impose tariffs of 25% on imports of steel and 10% on aluminium amid US threats of a trade war with China and escalating tensions with the EU.

The prime minister had been scheduled to call the US president on Sunday to discuss the appalling situation in Syria, with the pair agreeing it was a humanitarian catastrophe driven by the Syrian regime and its backer, Russia, according to Downing Street.

“The prime minister raised our deep concern at the president’s forthcoming announcement on steel and aluminium tariffs, noting that multilateral action was the only way to resolve the problem of global overcapacity in all parties’ interests,” said a No 10 spokeswoman.

Trump’s protectionism has been communicated through Twitter, where he claimed his country was losing billions of dollars on trade, adding that “trade wars are good, and easy to win”.

He also threatened taxes on European cars after the EU responded to the decisions on steel and aluminium by saying it could target US imports such as Harley-Davidson motorbikes, Levi’s jeans and Kentucky bourbon whiskey.

Source: theguardian