French Finance Minister: “May Is Not In A Position To Negotiate With Trump”
by Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge.com
Jan 26, 2017
With Theresa May – preparing to enact Article 50 officially starting the Brexit process from the EU – set to meet Trump tomorrow as the new US president’s first meeting with an international leader to lay the groundwork for a U.S.-U.K. trade deal, the outcome will provide the first test for how world leaders can deal with Donald Trump, who has put the world on edge with his recent push for isolationism and trade protectionism, culminating most recently with his tweet that Mexico’s president needn’t bother visiting if Mexico will not pay for the wall along the Mexican-US border.
“As we rediscover our confidence together –- as you renew your nation just as we renew ours –- we have the opportunity, indeed the responsibility, to renew the special relationship for this new age,” the U.K. prime minister will tell Republican lawmakers gathered in Philadelphia on Thursday, according to excerpts from her prepared remarks. “We have the opportunity to lead, together, again.”
As Bloomberg notes, the good news for May, who’s due to meet Trump at the White House on Friday, is that he’s eager to cement relations and nail down a U.K. trade deal too — for his own reasons. He’d like to further drive a wedge into a fractured Europe and strengthen at least one trade relationship as he exits the Trans-Pacific Partnership and prepares to renegotiate Nafta.
A close relationship between the U.S. and U.K. would prove that neither nation is turning inward — Trump after an election victory fueled by his “America First” campaign, and May as she takes Britain out of the European Union after last year’s Brexit referendum.
So May is opting to brush aside the worldwide protests that followed Trump’s inauguration and worked hard to secure Trump’s first meeting in office with a foreign leader.
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