Jonathan Reynolds (pictured) said the “deindustrialization” of the Port Talbot steelworks risks undermining public consensus for net zero. Photo: David Rose
Labour has poured cold water on the UK's prospects for a major free trade deal with re-elected Donald Trump.
Jonathan Reynolds, the shadow business secretary, said negotiations for a “comprehensive” deal would be “difficult” because Labor had “no appetite” for lowering food standards for US exporters.
He said Labor was instead aiming for agreements with Washington in specific sectors, such as critical minerals, to “de-risk” global supply chains and increase the West's independence from China.
Mr Reynolds said the “deindustrialization” of the Port Talbot steelworks risked undermining public consensus for net zero and that it was more important to do “good” decarbonization than to do it quickly.
He also said that Rishi Sunak looked needy as he publicly courted Elon Musk.
Serving as shadow business secretary since 2021, Mr Reynolds has played a key role in repositioning Labor as a more business-friendly party under Sir Keir Starmer's leadership .
Sir Keir rewarded him in September by adding trade to his brief, meaning Mr Reynolds will hold pen over Britain's international trade agreements until the end of the year if Labor turns its current lead in the polls into a general victory elections.
How to interact with America
The main issue on the agenda will be the issue of interaction with America. While Joe Biden has shelved plans for a sweeping deal, his likely Republican presidential rival Donald Trump has previously expressed interest in a free trade agreement (FTA) with the UK.
When asked about Labor's position party, Mr Reynolds said: “Clearly the current position is that the US is not committed to comprehensive free trade agreements, and that is simply reality.”
“There are some well-known issues in terms of what the national interests are on both sides that make it difficult to achieve a comprehensive deal.”
Mr Reynolds said it was more “realistic” to target deals in smaller sectors “if there will be no change in the US position.”
“There are many areas of potential cooperation,” he said. “The main thing for me is the critical minerals.”
By making “agreements with people like us,” the U.S. could “significantly reduce the risk of some of the challenges in the supply chain for critical minerals coming out of Africa,” where there are “well-known Chinese interests,” he said.
He said US demands to open the UK to food products such as chlorinated chicken were the main obstacle to an FTA. “On our side, if you’ll pardon the pun, there is no appetite for lower nutritional standards,” he said. “Historically, there has been a lot of attention to this issue in the United States, and it could become a problem.”
Decarbonization risks backlash
Asked how Labor would respond to the Trump administration's free trade deal initiatives, he said: “Any trade agreement is not between political leaders at any given time… it's about the national interests of the two economies, which clearly have to be longer term.” than the relatively short terms of office of political leaders.”
He added: “Some of the well-known tensions we've talked about about food standards will be the same no matter who is in power.”
Labour has put the transition to net zero at the center of its economic policy ( including a controversial pledge to spend £28 billion a year on green projects), Mr Reynolds said the current approach to decarbonisation risks causing a public backlash.
< p>The party criticized the government's decision to halt primary steel production at the Port Talbot steelworks by closing two blast furnaces and replacing them with an electric arc furnace that will be used to recycle scrap metal. The move is expected to result in 3,000 job losses.
Blast furnaces at Port Talbot steelworks to close < p>Mr Reynolds said: “While I think we are more ambitious than the Government at zero, it's not about how quickly you get it done. It's about how well you do it. Let's state the obvious: you can cut emissions from anything by closing that business.”
Mr Reynolds was born in Sunderland in 1980 and said the backdrop of his childhood was the decline of shipbuilding and coal mining in the North East . “It's not that I'm nostalgic about it, but how the transition is handled is really important,” he said.
Port Talbort marks the start of “tough questions on industrial decarbonization”
“Tory MPs might say, 'Well, Labor is more ambitious on net zero, so you want to get it done faster.' They don't understand this. I say I'll leave the blast furnace open longer.”
Mr Reynolds said Port Talbot marked the start of “some really difficult issues around industrial decarbonisation”, warning that public support for net zero would disappear unless it was managed well. “If people think decarbonization is deindustrialization, then that's the problem,” he said.
“If you're going to tell a person this workplace is going to be closed, but you know the carbon intensity of it product is growing. if it rises, they will simply import it – I think this is a serious problem.”
To create new jobs in green industries, Labor has vowed to champion foreign investment, with Mr Reynolds saying the UK is “only halfway to where we need to be” in building giant electric vehicle battery factories.< /p>
He said Labor would part-fund the new factories, but suggested the government was relying too much on ad hoc “bilateral negotiations” with individual companies because it does not have an open industrial strategy. “I want companies to come to us and say, 'You have the right platform to invest in,'” he said.
“It seemed dependent”
Whether Labor rolls out the red carpet to entice Musk build a Tesla factory in the UK, Reynolds said he would “talk to anyone interested in making a major investment in the UK”.
However, he criticized Sunak's decision to interview Musk on stage during the AI Safety Summit last November.
“To be honest, I thought when the Prime Minister held the AI summit he seemed a bit dependent. You know, the prime minister was a minor party.”
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