UK-US Trade and Tariffs

Viscount Younger of Leckie Excerpts

Thursday 3rd April 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Gustafsson (Lab)]

I share the right reverend Prelate’s passion for making sure that we are supporting not just businesses and consumers but communities and people—the people who live in the communities that are affected. A fulsome response is one that is felt by all. At this point, we are still hypothesising; we are still understanding what the implication could be, whether a trade agreement could be arranged and whether reciprocal tariffs could be made. We are still at a point where we need to understand and turn that theory into understanding the real impact on our economy, what it may look like and who would be the hardest hit. But absolutely—if this is something where we are going to see communities damaged, we will be looking to think about how we can support them through that.

[Viscount Younger of Leckie (Con)]

My Lords, of course, it is absolutely right that we should look at what cards we might have in terms of any response that the UK might wish to give. Perhaps, being English, rather than “Keep calm”, it should be “Keep calm, carry on and drink tea”.

I have two quick questions. One is to follow up on what was said by the noble Lord, Lord Bilimoria. He is absolutely right about trumpeting our great strength in financial services but also in business services. First, to what extent are the Government really prioritising that sector? Secondly, on priority in terms of the deal that we are trying to secure, we saw the chart on the BBC of all the different tariffs and percentages in all the different countries. Surely there is already a massive rush of people wanting to speak to US officials. Where does the Minister think we are in the pecking order?

[Baroness Gustafsson (Lab)]

I thank the noble Viscount for the questions—they are challenging to answer. I shall start with the second question first. Where are we in that pecking order? Unfortunately, we can see only our side of that conversation. I see that there is engagement. This is a dialogue where the phone is being picked up on the other side. Questions are being listened to. I heard the Secretary of State say this morning that he had already today been in dialogue. An ongoing conversation is happening, and I take some reassurance from that that our voice is being heard in that narrative. The noble Viscount is right that a lot of conversations will be happening, a lot of negotiations will be occurring, and I take reassurance that that is being listened to.

On the extent to which we are championing particular sectors, there are examples where we champion sectors regardless of the outcome. We see that in the industrial strategy that we launched, where we have identified those key growth strategies and sectors that will support our future growth. However, as we understand particular sectors that may be impacted, that is one of the driving forces of the request for input that we have had—as we understand where those key risk areas are within our economy but also where the key opportunities are that perhaps we should be championing a little more.