UK now best placed country on trade – Reeves

The UK is now in a better place on trade “than any other country in the world”, the chancellor has said.

Rachel Reeves suggested the government wanted to go further on its new agreement with the EU but told the BBC a trade pact with countries in the Gulf, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar, would be the “next deal”.

She added the UK was “not looking to have trade negotiations with China”, despite previously saying she wanted a long-term relationship with the country.

Opposition parties have criticised the government for some of the concessions offered in return for trade deals.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the latest EU deal took the UK “backwards” and previously said the country had been “shafted” in the America tariff pact.

Reform leader Nigel Farage said on social media that Labour had “sold out” the fishing industry and called the EU an “ever-diminishing political union”.

Meanwhile, Liberal Democrats leader Sir Ed Davey said the EU deal was a “welcome stepping stone”, but called for the government to go further and agree to a customs union.

On Monday, the UK and the EU struck a deal across several areas including fishing, trade, defence and energy, which marked the biggest agreement between the parties since the UK left the trading bloc in 2020 following the Brexit vote.

The summit in London came after the government reached a trade deal with India to make it easier for UK firms to export whisky, cars and other products to the country, and cut taxes on India’s clothing and footwear exports.

The government has also secured an agreement with US President Donald Trump to reduce tariffs on some goods traded between the nations.

Reeves told the BBC’s Newscast that Britain’s economic growth was on course to be upgraded as a result of the country’s recent three trade agreements with the US, India, and the EU.

“We are forecasting growth of 1% this year, and we had 0.7% in Q1 and they’ll take into account the new trade deals that have been secured,” said Reeves.

She received a boost last week when the latest official figures revealed the UK economy had grown by 0.7% in the first three months of the year.

A higher growth rate usually means people are getting paid a little bit more, can spend more and more jobs are created by businesses investing.

But while the growth was bigger than expected, it is not forecast to last because of the effect of US tariffs on global growth.

Economists have also warned that the chancellor’s decision to raise National Insurance for employers could hit the UK economy specifically.

It appears the government had the EU, the UK’s largest trading partner, in mind during its talks with the US and India.

As part of the deal with the EU, in return for extending current fishing rules, checks have been reduced on UK food exports.

Reeves said UK officials had made it clear to the Trump administration and India that food standards were not up for negotiation in their agreements.

“We increased the quota for the import of beef from the US, it was all still on the high standards that we pride ourselves in, and in part because standards matter to us, but also because we wanted to secure this agreement with the EU, which is by far the biggest market for UK agriculture and fishing,” the chancellor said.

Reeves described the recent trade agreements as having “come along like buses” and said “Britain is in a better place than any other country in the world in terms of deals with those countries”.

“The first deal and the best deal so far with the US, we’ve got the best deal with the EU for any country outside the EU, and we’ve got the best trade agreement with India,” Reeves added.

“Not only are these important in their own right, but it also shows that Britain now is the place for investment and business, because we’ve got preferential deals with the biggest economies around the world.”