Ministers and senior MPs have warned that the UK’s agreements with Donald Trump are “built on sand” after the Guardian established that the deal to avoid drug tariffs has no underlying text beyond limited headline terms.
The “milestone” US-UK deal announced this month on pharmaceuticals, which will mean the NHS pays more for medicines in exchange for a promise of zero tariffs on the industry, still lacks a legal footing beyond top lines contained in two government press releases.
The health department said that negotiators were now thrashing out the detailed agreement on the pharmaceutical deal. Asked to provide the headline terms, the department shared its press release hailing the “landmark UK-US pharmaceuticals deal” and a link to the equivalent US government announcement of an “agreement in principle” on pharmaceutical pricing.
Critics have noted that the two releases describe the deal in sharply different terms. The British release describes the UK as “the only country in the world to secure a 0% tariff on pharmaceuticals to the US”, while the American one largely focuses on how the NHS will have to pay 25% more for new medicines.
Yeah, Trump’s word isn’t worth a monkey’s fruity fart. Anyone who makes plans believing he’s anything but a backstabbing liar will get fucked over. Maybe, for diplomatic reasons, you have to pretend, but don’t commit to anything beyond that.