Birmingham business leaders argue US trade war must be avoided

The Greater Birmingham Chamber of Commerce CEO, Paul Faulkner, has said a trade war with the US should be avoided at all costs on the day after President Trump imposed severe tariffs on range of imports from EU member states.

Faulkner said that the UK should use its “special relationship” with the US especially now that Brexit will happen next year.

All this comes only a few days before the British American Business Council’s (BABC) annual conference, at Birmingham Town Hall, is to be addressed by the American Ambassador.

The BABC is a member of the Greater Birmingham Chamber and Faulkner added that: “The timing of the BABC conference in Birmingham could not be better, giving us the opportunity to address first hand the issues that the tariff will bring. President Trump has imposed the tariff on EU countries so that raises all sorts of questions about what it will mean after we leave the EU – now less than one year away.”

The transatlantic economy is the world’s largest market supporting 15m jobs and generating US investment in Europe of over £2 trillion in 2017.

The President of the EU Commission, Jean-Claude Junker has already warned the US that the EU will retaliate with sanctions on US goods coming into Europe.

Faulkner thinks we should act differently: ” The EU is well known for its aggressive actions over trade but the UK should bring the special relationship into play given that we will not be part of Europe after 29 March 2019.”

The chief executive of the American Chamber of Commerce in the EU, Susan Danger, has said that: ” The EU does not pose a national security threat to the US and therefore should not be the target of such measures.”