Donald Trump’s top trade official has accused Britain of choosing “Brussels over America”, warning that its continued alignment with the European Union is obstructing efforts to deepen the UK-US trading relationship.
Jamieson Greer, the US Trade Representative, said Britain had failed to make full use of the freedom created by Brexit by maintaining close ties with EU rules while keeping its market relatively closed to American goods.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Mr Greer described the UK’s approach as a “problem” for negotiations aimed at expanding the economic agreement reached between Washington and London.
He said the United States viewed Britain as having opted for “Brussels over America”, arguing that the UK had not delivered the regulatory divergence from the EU that Washington expected after Brexit.
The criticism comes as the Government seeks closer economic ties with both sides of the Atlantic. Britain and the US announced an agreement in principle in May 2025 covering tariffs, market access and digital trade, but negotiations on wider arrangements have continued.
Mr Greer said the UK was still applying “fairly high tariffs” and had not opened its market sufficiently to American products. He also objected to what he described as Britain’s continued adoption of European standards and regulations.
The dispute highlights the difficulty facing ministers as they attempt to improve trade with the US without damaging commercial links with the EU, Britain’s largest trading partner.
The Government’s trade strategy says the EU accounted for 46 per cent of the UK’s total trade in 2024, compared with 18 per cent for the United States. It has argued that Britain should not have to choose between Brussels and Washington.
However, Mr Greer’s comments suggest that the Trump administration expects the UK to make a clearer choice on regulatory policy if it wants a more ambitious US trade deal.
