Starmer: Retaliatory tariffs are on the table 'if necessary'

ODN

The UK is keeping its options on the table for retaliating to US tariffs “if necessary”, Sir Keir Starmer has told a senior group of MPs. Report by Faragt. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn

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00:00Prime Minister, I just wanted to kick off with obviously the big issue of the last few days.

00:05Growth is obviously your government's primary objective,

00:08but in the light of what happened last week with the introduction of tariffs by the United States

00:15and predictions of a global recession, are you looking at revisiting your economic plans as a government?

00:22I think what's happened in the last few days, last week or so,

00:26is obviously very challenging, very challenging for us and very challenging around the world.

00:33And I'm very obviously very disappointed to see tariffs in place.

00:38I don't think that they are good for our economy or for economies around the world.

00:45And my instinct is that we shouldn't jump in with both feet to retaliate.

00:51So in that sense, I'm not changing my plans.

00:54I think calm, collected response.

00:57Obviously, we have to keep our options on the table and do the preparatory work for retaliation, if necessary.

01:04But I think that trying to negotiate an arrangement which mitigates the tariffs is better.

01:12But I think more fundamentally, in answer to your question,

01:14I don't think what's happened in the last few days is a temporary passing phase.

01:23I think it's a changing world order.

01:26I think the world has changed before us as a new era.

01:28And therefore, I do think there are two ways in which our plans don't so much change as turbocharge.

01:34The first is we have to do much more and go further and faster in making sure our economy is resilient and thriving.

01:43And I gave some examples of that yesterday.

01:45You'll have seen them, so I won't repeat them here.

01:47In relation to Z mandates and life sciences, they're a down payment.

01:51They're an example of what I think we need to do here to go further and farther and faster in the changes to our economy.

01:58Secondly, we have to talk to other like-minded countries about lowering the barriers to trade between us.

02:08And that's why I spent a good deal of the weekend on the phone to international leaders,

02:12partly gauging their response, exchanging notes, understanding how they were approaching the challenge,

02:19but also having a broader discussion about how they're likely to respond to those.

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