29th Apr 2025 14:30
(Alliance News) - UK ministers met with the EU's trade chief in London amid leaks of a mooted UK-EU agreement on "free and open trade" in the face of Donald Trump's tariffs.
Nick Thomas-Symonds, the minister in charge of EU negotiations, co-chaired the Withdrawal Agreement Joint Committee with the EU's Maros Sefcovic during the trade commissioner's first official visit to the UK since the Labour government came into power.
They pointed to EU citizens' rights in the UK under the settlement scheme and timely implementation of the Windsor Framework to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland as some of their shared priorities in a joint statement after the meeting.
UK Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds also met with Sefcovic.
The meeting comes ahead of a UK-EU summit in May that will be seen as a critical moment in the government's drive to to reset post-Brexit relations with Brussels.
Sefcovic called it a "productive exchange on securing balanced trade relationships" and said they discussed "the state of international trade and the road ahead" in a post on X.
Thomas-Symonds said the talks provided an opportunity "to take stock of negotiations and the progress made".
There have been reports that a draft joint statement being drawn up ahead of the May summit will outline "shared principles of maintaining global economic stability".
The document reportedly says: "We confirmed our shared principles of maintaining global economic stability and our mutual commitment to free and open trade."
It adds that both sides would "continue working on how we can mitigate the impact of fluctuations in the global economic order" and commits the UK and Brussels to "multilateralism".
The draft is also said to refer to "keeping the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5C within reach".
It is understood to make no explicit mention of the US president, though its wording appears to go against Trump's commitment to trade restrictions.
A government spokesperson said: "The government rejects the premise that it must choose between our European and American allies."
The prime minister's official spokesperson said he would not get into speculation about the EU summit.
"But we've always been clear that we want to strengthen our relationship with the EU across the economy, security and defence.
"We've always been in favour of lower trade barriers – that is consistent with what the prime minister and chancellor have said."
The summit in May is to be hosted by the UK and comes as Keir Starmer continues to seek a carve-out with the US that would mitigate the impact of Trump's sweeping 10% tariffs on goods entering America.
Starmer has repeatedly rejected suggestions that the UK will need to choose between partnerships with Europe or America, saying the national interest "demands that we work with both".
But ministers have signalled Britain will need to look to strengthen trading ties with other countries following Trump's introduction of import taxes.
The UK-EU summit is scheduled to take place on May 19.
By Helen Corbett and Nina Lloyd, PA Political Staff
Press Association: News
source: PA
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