This week’s Nato summit was Sir Keir Starmer’s last major foreign trip before he steps down as UK prime minister. It passed by without too much criticism, despite US President Donald Trump’s usual taunts to Europe at the start of the gathering.
There was also some light shed on the foreign policy of Starmer’s likely successor, as Andy Burnham wrote an op-ed in the Times outlining his approach to international relations. Although light on detail, it looks as though the former Greater Manchester mayor will continue with Starmer’s approach to strengthening ties with Europe, but he may be cooler on the so-called ‘special relationship’ with the US.
Big picture: The Nato summit ended on a softer note for transatlantic relations, following a rocky start at the opening of the event.
US President Trump began the week by repeating his threats over Greenland and criticising European allies for not supporting his country’s military campaign in the Middle East. He went so far as to say that he would “cut off all trade ties” with Spain for its lack of GDP spend on defence.
The backdrop to these comments was the reignition of the Middle East war, with Trump saying the ceasefire deal with Iran was “over” following further violence. How this will play out over the coming weeks remains to be seen, though readers can get advice on how to navigate further supply chain disruption from the war at the Chartered Institute’s next Global Trade Live webinar on Tuesday next week.
For Europe, there was a positive end to the summit, as Trump appeared to soften his tone with his allies, even going so far as to praise Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and to give Ukraine a licence to produce Patriot surface-to-air interceptor missiles. He also appeared to back off from his threats to Spain – a retreat that was confirmed by US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Fox yesterday (9 July).
Starmer made few headlines during the Nato summit but will be aware that his efforts to placate Trump and prevent the UK getting into a trade tussle with the US haven’t been without challenges. Politico’s Sophie Inge reports today that the US has concerns about the UK’s plans to model anti-deforestation rules on EU equivalents, and there was a report in the Guardian recently about how the UK-US deal on pharmaceuticals could potentially lead to hundreds of thousands of avoidable deaths.
Good week/bad week: It’s been a good week for Starmer’s likely successor Andy Burnham, with 322 Labour MPs already confirmed to be backing him in the contest to become the new party leader and therefore PM. Any other candidate needs 81 MPs in order to stand, and Burnham’s current level of support means it is virtually impossible for anyone else to be able to reach this threshold. Other likely contenders, including Wes Streeting, Al Carns and Darren Jones, ruled themselves out.
Burnham shared more information about his foreign policy approach in an op-ed for the Times, touting closer ties with the EU and a plan to restore the UK’s “hard power” through “reindustrialisation” and an emphasis on defence spending. He only briefly mentioned what he described as a “critical” relationship with the US, but there was a report in Politico this week that he is unlikely to be prioritising a trip to Washington DC on becoming the UK’s PM.
It appears to have been a less good week for one of his major political opponents in Nigel Farage. The Reform UK leader stood down as MP for Clacton in the wake of media investigations into his finances, which he has described as being a “stitch-up”. In so doing, he has triggered a by-election which he is seeking to present as a battle against the “establishment”.
However, some commentators have argued that this ploy has backfired after the major political parties refused to stand candidates, calling the by-election a “gimmick”. The only opposition that’s emerged so far is perennial candidate Count Binface and former actor Laurence Fox.
Quote of the week: "The strategy isn't just a list of tick boxes of things that we've done or not done... [it's] something that sets a long-term vision and a direction about where we want to go."
Grace Thompson, the Chartered Institute’s UK public affairs lead, talking to Global Trade Today one year into the launch of the UK’s 10-year Trade Strategy.
How’s stat: £11.2bn – the amount of financing the government says has been provided by UK Export Finance in the last year.
“The £11.2bn provided in financing is not only supporting exports; it is helping to create jobs, unlock investment and drive growth in communities across the UK,” said our director general Marco Forgione.
Week in customs: The government reminded businesses that they need to register to an HMRC authentication portal to claim preferential origin under the new UK-India free trade agreement, which is due to enter force on Wednesday next week (15 July).
There was also a report in Politico Morning Trade today that the UK is struggling to get negotiations with the South American trade bloc Mercosur going due to internal concerns about the impact of any possible deal on the UK’s agricultural sector. Current trade minister, Sir Chris Bryant, has called the prospect of a deal a “no-brainer”.
Week in export controls: Seven entities and two scientific research institutes were added to the sanctions list due to their involvement in the production of chemical agents Novichok and Epibatidine, and the UK also signed a £4.6bn contract with Italy and Japan to develop “cutting-edge stealth fighter jets”.
A panel of experts, including the Chartered Institute’s defence and export controls director Daniela Turiccki, also provided expert analysis of the UK’s recently launched Defence Investment Plan.
What else we covered: We bought you key insights from the expert panellists that spoke at our sessions at Multimodal last week.
Forgione shared his views on the new world order for international trade alongside James Mills, head of trade policy at Logistics UK, and Jenny Butler, branch manager at deugro.
Anna Doherty, our technical director, also explained the significance of the UK’s new voluntary standards for customs intermediaries, alongside Mark McGuire, head of customs intermediaries policy and strategy at HMRC, and Paweł Jarza, the policy, compliance and external affairs director at BIFA.
True facts: England’s game against Mexico at the very start of the week became the most watched match in history among US TV viewers, with more than 44 million people tuning in across the pond, according to the Athletic.
Just over half of these were watching on Telemundo, a Spanish-language channel, but the 21.7 million watching the English broadcast on Fox was also the biggest ever for an English-language programme not showing the US men’s team.
This was more than in England, though time zones had their part to play in this. Despite being played in the earliest of hours for England-based fans, there was a peak UK audience of 9.1 million people, according to the BBC. This was, unsurprisingly, the biggest ever broadcast for that time of day.
The BBC also claims that it was its biggest ever social media event, with 330 million video views.
