Brexit

Trump puts EU ahead of Britain in trade queue
Merkel lands Brexit victory for Brussels

Britain has been pushed behind the European Union in the queue to strike a free-trade deal with the United States, officials in Washington have said.

President Trump has softened his opposition to negotiating with the bloc as a whole after attempts by his officials to open talks with individual European nations were rebuffed.

During a private conversation last month, Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, convinced Mr Trump that talks on a US-EU deal would be simpler than he thought, sources close to both sides of the discussion told The Times.

This led to a “realisation” in the Trump administration that a trade deal with the EU — allowing the tariff-free exchange of goods and services — was more important to US interests than a post-Brexit deal with Britain, a source close to the White House said.

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) trade deal between the EU and US, shelved after Mr Trump’s election victory, could now be revived or a new deal proposed.

The EU is America’s biggest trading partner: US exports to the bloc last year were worth $270 billion; it imported goods worth $417 billion. In the same period the US exported $55 billion in goods to Britain and imported $54 billion.

The development threatens to embarrass Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, who after meeting Mr Trump’s advisers in January claimed that Britain would be “first in line” for a deal. A year ago Barack Obama warned that the UK would be at “the back of the queue” if it left the EU. Speaking alongside David Cameron in London, he said: “Maybe at some point down the line there might be a UK-US trade agreement but it’s not going to happen any time soon.”

Mr Trump’s change of heart has been put down to Mrs Merkel’s intransigence. After her trip to Washington, she briefed cabinet colleagues on what she said were “very basic misunder- standings” by Mr Trump on the “fundamentals” of the EU and trade.

“Ten times Trump asked her if he could negotiate a trade deal with Germany. Every time she replied, ‘You can’t do a trade deal with Germany, only the EU’,” a senior German politician said. “On the eleventh refusal, Trump finally got the message, ‘Oh, we’ll do a deal with Europe then.’ ” Cecilia Malmström, the EU’s trade commissioner, will visit Washington next week for informal talks with Wilbur Ross, the US commerce secretary, and other Trump officials. The EU and Mrs Malmström are keen not to appear to plead for the reopening of TTIP negotiations but will discuss the “economic and strategic rationale” for a deal if the American side does the same.

Garth wrote:

KK wrote:Anecdotal of course, but myself and a few friends have noticed a massive drop off in eBay sales the last month. Can't shift a damn thing, even with heavy discounting. Even with eBay's general bullshit, I'm just wondering if this is a sign that in the overall economy people are beginning to stop buying all of a sudden. I had to drop a Dyson fan from £250 (RRP) to £125 just to get rid of it. I mean that is ridiculous.

Hexx wrote:£133 and a handy