UK home secretary warns Trump’s tariffs could be harmful

Yvette Cooper, the first senior member of the British government to respond to Trump’s announcement of tariffs on some of the US’s biggest trading partners, says the UK wants to break down trade barriers, not put them up. “Tariff increases really right across the world can have a really damaging impact on global growth and trade, so I don’t think it’s what anybody wants to see,” she told the BBC. She said her government’s focus is “on building trade links and better trading relationships, and removing barriers to trade, with the US, and also with other European countries and with countries right across the world”.