Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News Now. The threat of
Speaker 1: extra US tariffs on the UK and other leading European
Speaker 1: economies has receded for now after President Trump said the
Speaker 1: framework of a future deal around Greenland had been reached,
Speaker 1: but the incident has cast out on the stability of
Speaker 1: the UK US trade deal. Joining us now live from
Speaker 1: Davos is the UK's Business and Trade Secretary Peter Kleyle.
Speaker 1: Good morning, Thank you for joining us on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 1: So Donald Trump has pulled back on this threat of
Speaker 1: additional tariffs for now, but are you confident that this
Speaker 1: threat won't return.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm confident that what we've seen the last couple
Speaker 2: of weeks from the UK and our European partners works
Speaker 2: that was cool, calm, energetic diplomacy. The resolve of the
Speaker 2: Prime Minister was clear and evident for everyone to see,
Speaker 2: and we got to where we needed to be.
Speaker 3: Now, where is that? Where do we need to be?
Speaker 2: We need to be focusing on the security of our
Speaker 2: northern flank for NATO. We can now focus on that
Speaker 2: and reassure America and work with America as key partners
Speaker 2: to make sure that that part of the world is
Speaker 2: safe and secure. Of course, it's always been a priority
Speaker 2: for us, and it's very good. Now we can focus
Speaker 2: on that and also get back to that key business
Speaker 2: of talking about trade and improving trade between America, Britain
Speaker 2: and Europe.
Speaker 4: Now, Scott Besson talked about some glitches in the UK
Speaker 4: US trade deal. What are they and are we doing
Speaker 4: anything about them?
Speaker 3: Well, we're always moving forward.
Speaker 2: I mean, as you know in Bloomberg and your listeners
Speaker 2: and viewers will always know best when you do a deal.
Speaker 2: Of course, implementing the deal takes of it a time,
Speaker 2: and there's always some bit sort of trickier than others.
Speaker 2: But I've always found quite curious when I do interviews,
Speaker 2: and this is put to me because when you look
Speaker 2: at the world through my eyes, what you see is
Speaker 2: constant progress. So since the talk of a glitch or
Speaker 2: a pause started to emerge, we have secured a deal
Speaker 2: on beef for example, so Britain has access to the
Speaker 2: beef quota for the US from the first of January.
Speaker 2: That's meant in one single shipment which is on the
Speaker 2: way to America. Now that saved sixty six thousand pounds
Speaker 2: in tariff fees. That's an enormous advantage, I would argue
Speaker 2: for America and for Britain. Of course, the pharmaceutical deal
Speaker 2: landed just before Christmas, so you see a lot of
Speaker 2: steady progress. That huge, gargantuan deal that was struck, joined
Speaker 2: President Trump's visit state visit to Britain in the autumn
Speaker 2: of last year, has created three hundred billion dollars worth
Speaker 2: of commercial potential between our two nations.
Speaker 3: So these are not in substantial deals.
Speaker 2: These are really consequential deals, and they're available for businesses
Speaker 2: to start using now.
Speaker 1: But has I not sure you're optimism. But if we
Speaker 1: juxtapose that with the negative tone that we had from
Speaker 1: the US Treasury Secretary and the threat of tariff's now
Speaker 1: withdrawn over Greenland, has trust in the UK US deal
Speaker 1: been damaged by this?
Speaker 2: Well, it's quite good that this this talk has emerged
Speaker 2: over the Davos period. I've been here at Davos for
Speaker 2: a couple of days. I've met with many, many people
Speaker 2: from the US administration, some of them planned, some of
Speaker 2: them you bump into and you go to one side
Speaker 2: and have really free, frank conversations. The key thing that's
Speaker 2: underpinning the relationship between the Special relationship between the UK
Speaker 2: and the US right now is we do have very
Speaker 2: strong personal relationships which are forged through listening, learning from
Speaker 2: each other about the priorities. Are two nations and we
Speaker 2: have as two administrations. But even though the difference is
Speaker 2: US being a center left party in the UK and
Speaker 2: in the administration in the US being a republican conservative administration,
Speaker 2: if it were a ven diagram, the bit that's in
Speaker 2: the middle there is really quite considerable and we have
Speaker 2: managed to really focus on where the mutual advantage is diplomatically,
Speaker 2: economically in terms of security and defense. So that special
Speaker 2: relations which has been reformed a lot around looking at
Speaker 2: where the high growth sectors in the world are at
Speaker 2: the moment quantum AI, fusion space, climate technology, health technology
Speaker 2: and particularly AI, and we have come together around these areas.
Speaker 2: These are areas the US leeds on, but Britain has
Speaker 2: real pointed expertise and potential and US working together as
Speaker 2: a partnership, as a partnership that adds up to more
Speaker 2: than some of its parts, and that is recognized by
Speaker 2: both sides.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 4: On relations to the European Union, yesterday you said it
Speaker 4: would be crazy not to engage with the prospect of
Speaker 4: a customs union. The Labor manifesto said there would be
Speaker 4: no return to the Single Market or the Customs Union.
Speaker 4: Is there now a debate inside the government about rejoining
Speaker 4: the customs Union.
Speaker 2: Well, the point I made yesterday was that debate is
Speaker 2: good and the fact is that the Customs Union exists.
Speaker 2: The question that was put to me then was is
Speaker 2: it okay that people in the Labor Party talk about
Speaker 2: the customs Union now the customs Union exist. But of
Speaker 2: course I am very clear about this. It is not
Speaker 2: my intention that we join the Customs Union. My focus
Speaker 2: is absolutely on short term immediate growth in the UK.
Speaker 2: We have invested an enormous amount into medium to long
Speaker 2: term growth measures. We're building one point five million homes,
Speaker 2: We're expanding four airports with new runways in the UK,
Speaker 2: four new reservoirs, forty two billion pounds worth of investment
Speaker 2: into rail in the next decade in the North of England.
Speaker 2: All of these things are highly consequential when it comes
Speaker 2: to growth into the medium to long term. My focus
Speaker 2: is on what it would take to get growth into
Speaker 2: the economy in the next in the near term, in
Speaker 2: the immediate term.
Speaker 3: What will move the needle in this year.
Speaker 2: So the Customs Union is not on my radar or
Speaker 2: this government's radar for that.
Speaker 1: But nonetheless there is a review of the existing trade
Speaker 1: agreement with the EU that's happening this year. What are
Speaker 1: the key priorities for the UK and are you signaling
Speaker 1: with engaging with this conversation about the Customs Union that
Speaker 1: you're open to big changes to that relationship.
Speaker 2: No, we're not open to joining the Customs Union. And
Speaker 2: as I've said, it took Turkey twenty years to join
Speaker 2: the Customs Union, it took four years for the UK
Speaker 2: to leave the Customs Union. And we need to focus
Speaker 2: on improving measures in the me immediate term. There is
Speaker 2: a lot of challenge with growth. I mean, you will
Speaker 2: be very familiar and your listeners and viewers will be
Speaker 2: very familiar with the drag E report. Of course that
Speaker 2: was focusing on EU member economies, but a lot of
Speaker 2: relevance also for the United Kingdom. Now, we in the
Speaker 2: United Kingdom are moving incredibly fast and I think I
Speaker 2: am using all of the.
Speaker 3: Powers that I have.
Speaker 2: For example, I've already in the three or four months
Speaker 2: i've been in this job, delivered two hundred and thirty
Speaker 2: million pounds worth of in year regulatory efficiencies. I've set
Speaker 2: up the Global Talent Task Force, which is out there
Speaker 2: looking for global talent, bringing it to the UK with
Speaker 2: a global Talent Visa which my department.
Speaker 3: Is able to issue.
Speaker 2: I've got four billion which I'm focusing on scale up,
Speaker 2: taking the largest ever equity investment into businesses in the UK,
Speaker 2: you know, partnering with funds. These are the things that
Speaker 2: I'm doing immediately and I want to partner with the
Speaker 2: with the EU to find out where there is mutual
Speaker 2: areas for forward growth, which is win win now, I
Speaker 2: think improving the cross flow of goods and services into
Speaker 2: the EU. There are areas and specific areas such as
Speaker 2: SPS and others where we've already had a headline agreement
Speaker 2: that we now to get on into the weeds of
Speaker 2: and implement. These would be a tremendous win for the
Speaker 2: EU and the UK because both territories have a growth challenge.
Speaker 4: So you're in Davos pitching the UK as a business
Speaker 4: and investment destination. Nigel Farage is also there and he
Speaker 4: recently said that London was in the grip of a
Speaker 4: crime wave. So are your political opponents undermining London's reputation
Speaker 4: as a place to do business well.
Speaker 2: Nigel Farage never misses the opportunity to go and do
Speaker 2: down Britain. The fact is that London has one of
Speaker 2: the lowest crime rates of any comparable city in the world.
Speaker 2: It is an extraordinarily safe city for whom a violent
Speaker 2: crime has been falling year upon year for well over
Speaker 2: a decade. These are tremendous circumstances to come to Britain
Speaker 2: and do business. And when you come to a safe
Speaker 2: city like London, you can explore all of the opportunities
Speaker 2: you have for commercial gain there because you will be
Speaker 2: in a place where the London Stock Exchange is out
Speaker 2: performing Wall Street by twenty percent, just had the best
Speaker 2: year it's ever had on history record highs. You have
Speaker 2: a government that's investing four billion into scale ups and
Speaker 2: partnering with venture capital firms to make sure that all
Speaker 2: the capital is there for those businesses who want to
Speaker 2: scale up. We're doing enormous great things when it comes
Speaker 2: to the British economy and it is doing incredibly well
Speaker 2: and moving in the right direction, which is why business
Speaker 2: confidence is doing so well. According to PwC, we are
Speaker 2: still the second best place to do business in the world.
Speaker 2: So those things that Nigel farrag should be using his
Speaker 2: platform to sell Britain on, but of course he never
Speaker 2: takes that advantage to sell Britain, but he always just
Speaker 2: does us down.
Speaker 1: Is he making your job harder while you're there by
Speaker 1: presenting an alternative narrative?
Speaker 3: No, he's not.
Speaker 2: What he's doing is showing the difference between a government
Speaker 2: that delivers the stability that the businesses tell us, and
Speaker 2: in of course that survey that you were talking about
Speaker 2: earlier in the program illustrates this business craves stability. Nigel
Speaker 2: Farrage he lives and breathes instability and chaos. He's delivered
Speaker 2: it all the way through his career and when it
Speaker 2: was in the EU and now in the British Parliament,
Speaker 2: and of course in his campaigning. But what he never
Speaker 2: does is stick around long enough to actually sort out
Speaker 2: the mess that he causes wherever he goes. So what
Speaker 2: he's done is drawn yet again attention to the fact
Speaker 2: that he represents chaos, whereas we have a governing party
Speaker 2: that is governing Britain with an industrial strategy that sets
Speaker 2: policy for ten years into the future ten years. Stability
Speaker 2: in a world which really has a lot of instability
Speaker 2: in it shows just how attractive Britain is now for
Speaker 2: a place to come, to build, to scale and to
Speaker 2: stay when you're doing business