Buoyed by Trump's olive branch words, Theresa May is espousing a return to free trade which we haven't fully seen since the 50s when our cotton industry was finally finished off drowning under the tide of cheap foreign textiles that flooded into Britain.
But Trump is taking a different strategy in the US - protectionism against imports and a revitalisation of America's coal and steel industries. He's tearing up environmental agreements, has appointed a guy who believes global warming is a hoax as head of the Environmental Agency, is funded by coal and (fracking) gas producers and has appointed his backers to his executive so they'll pretty much have a free hand.
I know that May is being incredibly vague about the trade deals she wishes to negotiate, but I'm wondering if any agreement between the UK and the US will at some stage involve handing our remaining mainland coal and gas resources to private companies to exploit with open cast mining and fracking? Will we also ignore climate change in the interest of propping up the economy and creating jobs?
Trump's promises to the US Coal industry
But Trump is taking a different strategy in the US - protectionism against imports and a revitalisation of America's coal and steel industries. He's tearing up environmental agreements, has appointed a guy who believes global warming is a hoax as head of the Environmental Agency, is funded by coal and (fracking) gas producers and has appointed his backers to his executive so they'll pretty much have a free hand.
I know that May is being incredibly vague about the trade deals she wishes to negotiate, but I'm wondering if any agreement between the UK and the US will at some stage involve handing our remaining mainland coal and gas resources to private companies to exploit with open cast mining and fracking? Will we also ignore climate change in the interest of propping up the economy and creating jobs?
Trump's promises to the US Coal industry