Irish PM Varadkar warns of trade war between UK and US

Irish taoiseach Leo Varadkar said on Friday that lessons must be learned from the US decision to slap trade tariffs on aerospace group Bombardier earlier this week.

Varadkar told European leaders during a summit in Tallinn that despite talks of a new trade deal between the US and the UK after Brexit, there was also a risk of a ‘trade war’ developing between the two powers if they do not cooperate.

The US Department of Commerce’s decision this week to slap a 20% tariff on Bombardier’s C jets puts over 4,000 jobs in Northern Ireland at risk, as Theresa May said she was ‘disappointed’ with the decision.

"When the Brexit referendum went through and in the months since then, there's been a lot of talk about a new trade deal between the UK and the United States and how great that would be for the United Kingdom," Varadkar said.

"And yet, we're now talking about the possibility of a trade war between the UK and the United States. I think what it demonstrates is that every country in Europe is actually a small country."

The ruling was also said to potentially jeopardise a £4.15bn deal between Bombardier and US airline Delta that would see the former supply the latter with 125 new jets.

The firm said the decision was "divorced from the reality about the financing of multibillion-dollar aircraft programmes."