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Fighting for workers in a global trade war

We mustn’t think Trump’s tariffs on imported goods won’t affect us, says BARRY GARDINER

TODAY sees the official start of a full-blown global trade war.

As of this morning, Donald Trump’s unilateral 10 per cent tariff comes into effect on $200 billion of Chinese goods, roughly half of all Chinese imports into the US.

The US President has promised to raise the tariff to 25 per cent in three months’ time if Beijing won’t do a deal with him, even though the two sides haven’t been in talks for months. 

And Trump has threatened the nuclear option of extending the tariffs to a further $267bn of Chinese goods if Beijing retaliates with its own duties on US exports. That would represent a block on almost all Chinese imports into the US.

The Chinese government has responded by levying additional tariffs on US imports into China. US computers, textiles and small aircraft are set to face an extra 5 per cent duty, while chemicals, meat and wine will face an extra 10 per cent.

Most worryingly for Trump, the US business community is up in arms against his dangerous escalation of the conflict.

The US government has received a massive 1,400 submissions from business complaining that US jobs and workers will suffer from a trade war with China and pleading with him to change tack.

Even the US Chamber of Commerce has accused Trump of having no “coherent strategy” and has called on him to rethink his plans.

We must not think for one moment that this trade war is a bilateral affair we can watch from the sidelines. British workers have already been drawn into Trump’s dangerous game of thrones.

This time last year the Trump administration approved punitive tariffs on Bombardier planes being imported into the US, threatening thousands of jobs in Northern Ireland. 

Working closely with Unite officials, we managed to defeat that attack when the independent US trade commission voted down the measure.

Then in spring this year the US President slapped illegal duties on steel and aluminium imports into the US, including from Britain.

Theresa May’s special relationship with Trump has been no help to the 4,000 steel workers in Port Talbot now facing a 25 per cent tariff on exports to the US.

And now Trump says he could pull the US out of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) altogether, threatening the entire global trading system. If there are no rules governing international commerce, the world will find itself in a dog-eat-dog situation where everyone loses out.

In such tense times we need to make sure that Britain has the strongest possible defences to protect jobs and businesses from the effects of a global trade war.

As the US pulls up the drawbridge on Chinese imports, there is a real fear that the same cheap or subsidised goods could be dumped on the British market instead. 

Yet the Tory government is choosing this moment to downgrade our trade defences. 

Instead of doing everything they can to protect working people in this country from the impacts of the conflict, the Tories are effectively rolling over and playing dead.

I led the Labour trade team in Parliament this summer as we fought for the strongest defence measures in the new legislation being prepared for post-Brexit Britain.

Together with trade unions and manufacturers, we pressed for far-reaching powers to protect British businesses from the dumping of cut-price produce on our markets.

The Tories instead went for a weaker option, claiming that we should value cheaper imports over and above the livelihoods of working people.

We argued that trade unions and manufacturers should be represented at the highest level of the new Trade Remedies Authority, the body that is being set up to defend British businesses from the threat of dumping and subsidised imports.

Again the Tories voted down our position, saying that they didn’t want “vested interests” to get in the way of cheaper goods. 

Yet it makes no difference if your shopping is a few pence cheaper if you’ve just lost your job and have no money to buy anything.

Neoliberal ideology won’t put food on your plate.

As the global trade war breaks out, the Tories are preparing to sacrifice the interests of working people for their own political ends.

We cannot let them get away with it.

Labour is the only party that will fight for British manufacturing. We don’t want a trade war, but we will make sure Britain can protect itself from whatever threats we have to face.

Barry Gardiner is shadow secretary of state for international trade and MP for Brent North.

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