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Trump appears to question May’s Brexit plan on eve of visit
BRUSSELS, July 12, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – US President Donald Trump said
Thursday he was not sure Britons voted for the Brexit plan presented by Prime
Minister Theresa May, which triggered a British cabinet rebellion.
Trump also shrugged off mass protests planned in Britain against his visit
starting later Thursday and called the country “a pretty hot spot” over the
cabinet resignations.
“The people voted to break it up (Britain’s ties with the EU),” Trump told
a press conference following a heated summit with NATO leaders.
“So I would imagine that’s what they will do, but maybe they will take a
little bit of a different route. I don’t know (if) that is what they voted
for.”
May published later Thursday a long-awaited Brexit blueprint to restart
talks with the EU, after facing down a revolt by eurosceptic ministers that
could still unseat her.
At the NATO summit, May told reporters her plan “was delivering on the vote
of the British people.”
The plan, published Thursday, foresees an overall “association agreement”
with the EU encompassing different deals on different areas.
Britain and the EU would maintain a “common rulebook” for goods to ensure
smooth trade including in agricultural, food and fisheries products.
In eliminating tariffs, quotas and rules of origin requirements, it would
protect supply chains that criss-cross the EU and just-in-time processes
vital to, for example, the automotive industry.
It would also avoid border checks between British Northern Ireland and EU
member Ireland.
The plan has caused outrage among eurosceptic members of May’s Conservative
Party, and foreign minister Boris Johnson joined Brexit minister David Davis
in dramatically quitting this week in protest.
Trump put the spotlight on May’s own political problems as he dismissed the
planned protests against him.
“They like me a lot in the UK. I think they agree with me on immigration,”
he said.
“I think that’s why Brexit happened,” he said, noting that Britain was “a
pretty hot spot right now with a lot of resignations”.
BSS/AFP/ARS/1923hrs