LONDON: US President Donald Trump said Britain should refuse to pay a $50 billion (39.5 billion pounds) European Union divorce bill and “walk away” from Brexit talks if Brussels does not give ground.
Trump told the Sunday Times newspaper ahead of a state visit to Britain, which starts on Monday, that Britain’s next leader should send arch-Brexiteer Nigel Farage to conduct EU talks.
Once Britain leaves the EU, which Trump said must happen this year, then he would go “all out” to agree to a trade deal.
“They’ve got to get it done,” he said in the Sunday Times interview. “They have got to get the deal closed.”
British Prime Minister Theresa May will step down shortly after this week’s Trump visit, having failed to win backing for the Brexit divorce deal she negotiated with the EU.
Trump said her successor should pursue a “no-deal” Brexit if he or she could not get more concessions from Europe by the end of October when Britain is due to leave.
“If they don’t get what they want, I would walk away,” he said. “If you don’t get a fair deal, you walk away.”
The 13 candidates already in the leadership race are split between those willing to accept a “no-deal” and those opposed.
In the “no deal” camp are former foreign secretary Boris Johnson, whom Trump praised in an interview with the Sun newspaper on Friday, along with former Brexit minister Dominic Raab and interior minister Sajid Javid.
Trump said the United States could work “very, very quickly” on a trade deal if Britain was not constrained by a transition period agreed with Brussels.
ALL ON THE TABLE
The U.S. Ambassador to Britain, Woody Johnson, said any such trade deal would include agriculture and healthcare.
“In a trade deal, all things that are traded will be on the table,” he told the BBC on Sunday. Asked if that included healthcare, he replied: “I would think so”.
Concerns have been raised in Britain about accepting US agricultural standards, notably chlorine-washed chicken, and about opening up its state-funded healthcare system to US companies as the price of a trade deal.
“American products would come over, and be allowed to come over,” Johnson told the BBC’s, Andrew Marr Show. “You give the British people a choice, if they like it they can buy it, if they don’t want it, they do not have to buy it.”
