This unseemly rush to a trade deal

European Movement Derbyshire

We are writing to you to express our deep concern that the UK is rushing into a trade deal with the United States on purely economic grounds, ignoring the poor reflection this has on our values, both at home to citizens and to our international allies and partners.

We are concerned that mooted proposals to lower our digital safety laws and the digital service tax are an unjust reward for the very same social media companies whose poor online protections have impacted our children’s mental health, allowed online misinformation about multiple subjects, including Brexit and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the thriving of toxic masculinity and misogyny, and who have empowered populists, including the current US administration.

We also worry that this much trailed ‘almost oven-ready’ deal is anything but, and is merely designed to keep the UK separate from its allies and partners, and from expressing public support for the territorial integrity of allies such as Canada (who were never shy of coming forward to support us in the past, in 1939 for example, and are no doubt noticing now how we have failed to publicly support them).

And of course, we worry about lowered food regulations and quality, and another assault on British farmers and food, already hit hard by rushed, one-sided deals with Australia among others. On top of this, having opened our doors to lower quality US produce will make it harder for us to secure improved access to EU markets, to whose standards we are currently closer. And of course, the EU remains our largest trading partner, making it hard to understand why we should stab ourselves in the foot in this way.

We also worry that this potential deal fails to reiterate and reinforce our values of democracy, freedom, and human rights by endorsing a US administration whose president is prepared to ignore his own supreme court over a wrongly deported person to San Salvador.

There are even rumours Trump wants us to repeal hate speech laws.

We are also deeply concerned about the Trump administration’s assault on education and Harvard University in particular. Any democracy that still pretends to be one has to firewall institutions from political interference. Precedents in the past of what happens when educational and other establishments ‘obey in advance’ abound and we must not and cannot condone the same, especially when British politicians openly advocate for policies such as withdrawal from the European Convention on Human Rights. It’s always said that you can understand people by the company they choose (Putin, Orban, and Germany’s AfD) and those whom they denigrate (Canada, Greenland, Denmark, Democrats, Columbia & Harvard Universities, Zelensky and Ukraine, high ranking female officers in the American armed forces). We must choose more wisely than some short term trade deal.

And of course, in choosing wisely we stand with the large number of US citizens who are appalled at, and actively opposing, what their government is doing in their name, and who do share our values.

Our future does not lie in a special relationship that has never been more than fig leaf. If we must prioritise trade deals, let it be with reliable allies. By rushing into a US deal, the UK merely makes itself look as unreliable and immoral as the current US government, and sides with a country whose current president continues to blame Ukraine for Russia’s invasion.

There are already warnings a US trade deal will setback any EU-UK reset, and this could also affect our ability to arm ourselves independently of the US if we then cannot collaborate with EU based defence companies and funds.

Yours sincerely,

Please find your MP at Write to Them https://www.writetothem.com/ by entering your postcode and share this letter with them. Please feel free to add your own specific concerns and thoughts.

We also encourage you to share it with others, and via social media. Acknowledgement of European Movement Derbyshire greatly appreciated.

1This statement was written by European Movement Derbyshire, who are urging supporters in the country and beyond to share it with their MPs, representatives and local media.

2 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn05dge02vzo

3 https://theweek.com/tech/what-trumps-tech-bros-want

4 https://www.amnesty.org.uk/press-releases/toxic-tech-new-polling-exposes-widespread-online-misogyny-driving-gen-z-away-social

5 https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/jd-vance-uk-us-trade-deal-trump-tariffs-brexit-nhs-b2733592.html

6 https://www.pressreader.com/uk/the-scotsman/20250318/282230901473611

7 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp31qqlq29vo

8 https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/free-trade-deal-brexit-reset-us-uk-3379146

9 https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-defies-supreme-court-deported-man-el-salvador-prison-1235316677/

10 https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/trump-jd-vance-trade-deal-free-speech-b2733806.html

11 https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz01y9gkdm3o

12 https://www.donotobeyinadvance.com/portfolio/do-not-obey-in-advance/

13 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c981lr84013o