With independence, and its celebration of America’s defeat of Britain behind us, let us in 2018 embrace our former foe. President Trump’s visit to the U.K. next week is a superb opportunity to strengthen our most natural alliance and bolster our shared interests in trade and common defense.
A U.S.-U.K. trade deal should be Trump’s first order of business. Many people are frowning on Britain’s wholly understandable decision to leave the European Union. Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, dismissively said that Brexit would send the U.K. to the “back of the queue,” a line given to him by Her Majesty’s Government as a way of discouraging the “leave” vote. Trump rightly sees it the other way around. A Britain free of the EU and its customs union barriers is one with which the U.S. should swiftly cut a trade deal.
Trump’s argument against free trade, which we think deeply flawed, doesn’t apply to the U.K. Great Britain has high wages, so reducing barriers doesn’t risk the flight of American jobs. Britain is already a key trading partner, and a bilateral trade deal would enrich both nations.
That speaks to our second ambition for Trump’s visit, which is to consolidate Britain on Brexit. We celebrate the popular British decision to leave the EU. It was an overdue repudiation of that institution’s bureaucratic overreach and disregard for democratic government. It was a decision taken in the spirit of ’76, a demand for traditional popular sovereignty.
Time is running out for the U.K. as it seeks to negotiate an economically positive withdrawal from the EU. Eurocrats are proving obdurate to the point of manifest spite. Their behavior makes clear, as nothing has so obviously before, that the EU was at least in part a protection racket, and something people interested in freedom would want to be rid of.
Trump can help here. During his meetings in London, the president should offer a public endorsement of Brexit and call on the EU to work more constructively with the British government. While Trump is deeply unpopular in Europe, including Britain, his penchant for unpredictability and tariffs has an outsize impact on EU decision-making. Dangling the choice of greater friendship or increased ire towards the EU, Trump can pressure Brussels towards a compromise with London.
Still, the most important element of Trump’s visit will be to prove that the special Anglo-American relationship is unyielding. He has already taken positive action here by backing away from controversial remarks and promising support for British interests. But he should push for greater U.K.-U.S. cooperation. One particular opportunity is the British Parliament’s consideration of an increase in defense spending to 3 percent of GDP. Were Prime Minister Theresa May to authorize that new investment, it would make Britain a more capable NATO partner and serve Trump’s pressure on “free-riding” American allies in NATO such as Canada and Germany.
We hope the president will enjoy his visit to his mother’s homeland next week. But it is an important trip, too. Britain is a very special ally and has earned Trump’s recognition as such.
