Because of heavy domestic subsidies, the US Inflation Reduction Act could force UK-made green technology cars out of the American market.
Kemi Badenoch, the UK’s International Trade Secretary, has written urgently to her US counterpart in an attempt to avert a trade war initiated by Joe Biden’s administration.
Ms Badenoch is enraged that President Biden’s divisive Inflation Reduction Act will effectively bar UK-made green technology vehicles from the US market by allowing massive subsidies to the struggling American auto industry and imposing crippling tariffs.
Ms Badenoch’s letter to her US counterpart Katherine Tai is set against the Biden administration’s hostile view of Brexit Britain.
Already, the UK has halted trade talks with the US because Mr. Biden and senior Democrats, including outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, attempted to use them to force Britain to hand over control of Northern Ireland to the EU.
Mr Biden has linked Brexit to the rise of Donald Trump in America, and he has close ties with the powerful Irish American lobby in the Democrats, whom UK ministers have previously claimed get their orders from Sinn Fein.
Instead, the UK has pursued direct trade agreements with US states, with 20 agreements signed by 2022.
However, the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act and assault on UK car manufacturing have opened a potential new chapter in trade hostility.