n agri-food imports<\/a> could harm Starmer\u2019s goal of a deal to ease cross-border food trade with the EU and bring down costs for supermarket shoppers.<\/p>\nThe EU is also said to have concerns that Trump could demand the UK exempt American companies from carbon taxes due to come into force in 2027 and that any concessions in this area could harm plans to link British and European emissions trading schemes to bring down costs for businesses.<\/p>\n
A Brussels insider said there was \u201cconstant contact between officials on the limits of what would be acceptable to the EU\u201d and the \u201cimpact of any UK\/US deal on the alleged Brexit \u2018reset\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
The i Paper understands that, along with the UK, the EU is in constant dialogue with other allies, such as Canada and Japan, on Trump\u2019s tariffs and how any deals with the US could impact relations with Brussels.<\/p>\n
David Henig, a former British trade official and UK director of the European Centre For International Political Economy, said he has \u201cevery expectation that messages to that effect have been passed from the EU to the UK given that food and drink is on the UK-EU agenda for the summit\u201d.<\/p>\n
The fears were raised as negotiations on Starmer\u2019s Brexit reset picked up pace ahead of a landmark UK-EU summit on 19 May in Britain.<\/p>\n
Brussels\u2019 warnings about the planned sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) rules \u2013 regulations to protect animal and plant health \u2013 came after Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds was on Sunday again forced to rule out any watering down of UK food standards to appease the US, which has long coveted greater access to Britain for its agri-food exports.<\/p>\n
However, Reynolds hinted there could be room to negotiate on agri-food by pointing out that parts of the US food industry meet UK standards.<\/p>\n
The EU also has concerns over a mooted emissions trading deal, with Trump last week warning that he would impose tariffs on countries that apply carbon taxes on shipping.<\/p>\n
The Brussels insider said they believed the US is using the prospect of a UK trade deal to drive a wedge and \u201cplay a political game to damage the EU-UK reset\u201d.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has repeatedly insisted he does not have to choose between the EU and the US over trade.<\/p>\n
In February, when asked at a press conference in Brussels during a visit with EU leaders, he said, \u201cBoth of these relations are very important to us. We are not choosing between them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paul Adamson, chairman of the EU-UK Forum, agreed that Washington\u2019s offer to the UK on trade appeared designed to \u201cdrive a wedge between the UK and Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou see American commentariat on social media to that effect.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last thing the Americans want is for the UK and Europe to be united and come closer together.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope the Government sees through that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think even without Brussels \u2018telling the Brits\u2019, they would know things like hormone-treated beef and chlorinated chicken are not going to be compatible with any rapprochement with the EU.\u201d<\/p>\n
A senior Labour MP added: \u201cDon\u2019t let the Americans determine your negotiating strategy; it\u2019s like letting a toddler decide where you go \u2013 they keep changing their mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
A UK Government spokesperson said: \u201cWe want to deliver a UK-EU strategic alliance to grow the economy, boost living standards, and protect our borders.
\u201cWe will not provide a running commentary on speculation.\u201d<\/p>\n
The European Commission said it would not comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some Brussels insiders believe the US may want to drive a wedge between Britain and the European Union…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[802,748,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,807,3592,554,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-27802","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brexit","8":"tag-brexit","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-european","13":"tag-european-union","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-keir-starmer","16":"tag-politics-exclusive","17":"tag-trump-tariffs","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114353905606421605","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}