There’s no chance of Trump’s US sanctions against Brexit Britain
– But unfortunately every chance against the EU

President Trump, here are 3 charts to confirm to you that Brexit Britain outshines the EU

Montage © Facts4EU.Org 2025

Facts4EU on threatened US tariffs & trade, sanctions & trade with Putin’s Russia, and defence

With US trade tariffs having gone into effect yesterday (04 Mar 2025) on products from China, Mexico, and Canada, and similar US tariffs being threatened against the EU, we confirm for the White House that the UK – its strongest ally in Europe - is most clearly very different to the EU.

Below we present three charts which may serve to remind President Trump why the United Kingdom should be exempt from punitive actions which the President is taking against other countries.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

Three charts for President Trump - and some observations

As the 6th largest economy in the World, the UK’s trade with the US is hugely beneficial for both countries
The US enjoys a trade surplus with the UK – but a huge deficit with the EU
The UK has shut off trade with Putin’s Russia – the EU has continued to enable his regime
The UK has consistently met both NATO defence targets for decades – the EU never has
The UK has always been the US’s first and most reliable ally, standing by the US in all conflicts

1. Trump’s proposed tariffs on the EU – Brexit Britain is ‘one of the good guys’

Yesterday (Tues 04 Mar 2025), Trump’s tariffs of 10-25% on products from China, Mexico and Canada started being levied across the United States. With the EU likely to be his next target, the Facts4EU think-tank shows why the UK is in a wholly different category and should be exempt.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

Trade with Trump’s USA – EU vs UK

US trade balance, Oct 2023-Sept 2024, in $’s billions

With the UK : A surplus of +$15bn per year
With the EU : A deficit of -$150bn per year

2. Trade relations with Putin’s Russia – the UK versus the EU

Goods bought from Putin’s Russia since the start of the 2nd Russo-Ukraine war, 3 years ago

The EU27 countries have bought goods worth £237 billion from Putin’s Russia in the three years since President Putin’s forces invaded eastern Ukraine on 22 February 2022. By contrast, the United Kingdom has bought just £5.2 billion of goods.

The UK’s spend is 1/45th that of the amount spent by the EU27. This is far below what would be expected in proportion to the GDP of the UK (the 6th largest economy in the World), compared to the EU. In broad terms, the UK has applied sanctions against Russia quickly and these have been effective. The EU took far longer to impose sanctions. These were applied in limited fashion, have only been applied slowly over time, and have had only limited success.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

‘Trading with the Enemy’ – The EU compared to the UK, 2022-2024

The EU27 have bought £237bn worth of goods from Putin’s Russia since the war began

[Converted to British pounds (GBP) at £1.00=€1.22]

EU27 : £237.1 bn
UK : £5.2 bn

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3. On defence expenditure, the UK has outshone the EU for decades – and has done so consistently

Every year, the United Kingdom has spent over 2% of GDP on defence. In the last full year for which NATO figures are available, 2023, this was 2.3%. The EU’s average for the same year is 1.9%. This disguises the lamentable performance by the EU’s major economies. In Germany the figure was only 1.6% and in Italy it was 1.5% - far below that of the UK on 2.3%.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

The UK versus the EU – the NATO minimum budget of 2% of GDP on defence

As can be seen, only eight out of the 27 EU countries managed to spend the NATO minimum of at least 2% of GDP on defence.

Some of these sub-2% countries are trying to catch up, but it is only in the last few years – since President Trump had his first term in office and lambasted EU countries for not doing what Sir Keir calls “the heavy lifting” – that we have seen some movement by these countries. The backlog of what they should have spent is now enormous.

The United Kingdom has also spent over 20% of its defence budget on capital – mainly equipment. This second official NATO minimum target was agreed at the Cardiff NATO Summit in 2014, at the same time as the 2% GDP target was agreed. 2014 is the same year Putin’s Russian forces first invaded Ukraine and annexed the Crimea. Almost all EU countries spend under the 20% equipment target.

Observations

Looked at in the round, the US has a healthy trade balance with the UK, which benefits both countries. There should be therefore no question of any punitive tariffs - which President Trump may impose on the European Union - being applied to the independent United Kingdom.

Equally, the UK has far outperformed the EU on defence – and has done so for many years. Yes, the British government should go much further, as we have consistently argued, but the UK has not been the guilty party in NATO. Sadly, that epithet falls on the EU.

The Facts4EU team has no desire to see the EU penalised by President Trump. This would be very difficult for them given the parlous state of the EU economy. Our main reason for providing these three charts to the US President is to demonstrate that whilst the independent United Kingdom may be considered as part of Europe, the EU is not Europe. And Brexit has ensured we are not subject to all the growing demands to harmonise with countries which have little in common with the needs of the British people.

Finally, readers may wish to watch the President's address to Congress which happened overnight. Members of the Facts4EU team listened to this while completing this report and found it very interesting.

Please, please help us to carry on our vital work in defence of independence, sovereignty, democracy and freedom by donating today. Thank you.

[ Sources: US BEA, EU Commission, UK ONS, NATO ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Wed 05 Mar 2025

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Reader Comments 7

1. Sparky , Wednesday, March 05, 2025, 09:09:

The UK will feel an impact if sanctions are put in place against the EU, Airbus, Rolls Royce, Bentley, Mini to name just a few that are UK factories owned by European companies.
.
Trudeau has got the measure of Trump.
.
Trump is pushing the West to rearm, rightly so but there’s also an ulterior motive, the USA provides 40% of the world’s exports (including Russia and China who the west won’t be buying from)

2. terence patrick hewett , Wednesday, March 05, 2025, 10:03:

@Sparky
Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc is engaged in Aerospace, Energy, Marine and Defence: it is UK proprietory owned. Amusingly, when RR sold off the car division, they sold it twice: the factory to Volkswagen and the right to use the marque to BMW.

3. NH , Wednesday, March 05, 2025, 12:09:

USA Tariffs on the EU, Mexico, Canada, China etc will have some effect on the UK but it will also present huge opportunities. It is unlikely to effect Airbus because most of their sales to the USA are Civil Airplanes and Airlines don't usually purchase or lease planes in their home countries. Companies like Airbus work on such long delivery delays so they can direct sales to other part of the world and any change would take years to take effect. Similarly Rolls Royce is unlikely to be effected in any major way, especially as they have large investments in the USA.
.
What the USA Government seems to understand better than the EU is they do not own or control their companies. Tariffs will change their behaviour and production. Audi and Porsche are already looking at relocating production to the USA on existing VW sites. The EU luxury goods companies are now seeing the USA as their best market, after the decline in China, and are unlikely to turn away from this. Many other companies might be attracted by the USA's low energy costs rather than fund the EU's Green deal and masses of EU regulation.

4. Sparky , Wednesday, March 05, 2025, 12:39:

2 TPH. That was an amusing transaction.
,
Interesting what’s happening with Tesla sales since Musk joined Trump. EV sales in Europe up 34% this year, 15% market share. Tesla’s sales in Europe down 50%. Some will be due to increased competition in the market but also due to Elon Musks involvement in politics including in Germany and his views. Most CEO’s tend to keep a low profile especially politically.

5. gazzablack , Wednesday, March 05, 2025, 14:10:

An excerpt from the Belfast Telegraph.
.
"Separate tariffs regimes for Britain and the EU may suddenly make Brexit seem to have been a good idea after all"
.
Well well well.
.
.
Goods exported to the US from one side of the Irish border will be more expensive than goods from the other side.
.
Retaliatory tariffs will have the same effect on goods coming into Ireland.
.
All would surely be a boon to the economy of the North.
.
Irish companies exporting to the US may want to relocate to the UK.
And the easiest way to relocate to the UK will be to come over the border.
Other EU countries may think the same.
.
.
Even the BBC reported that "Trump tariffs could be Good for some countries - including the UK

6. LuxuryBalloon , Wednesday, March 05, 2025, 15:06:

Starmer’s approach to suck-up to Trump seems to be working. We would not have been able to resort to this kind of brown-nosing if we were still in the EU.

7. Gazzablack , Wednesday, March 05, 2025, 15:25:

Demand for UK food and drink in Malaysia has grown by 38% since 2020.
.
(Bloomberg) President Donald Trump said he would restart long stalled negotiations on trade with the UK.
Last week US Senators introduced a bill authorising Trump to negotiate a deal with the UK.

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There’s no chance of Trump’s US sanctions against Brexit Britain – But unfortunately every chance against the EU

President Trump, here are 3 charts to confirm to you that Brexit Britain outshines the EU

Facts4EU on threatened US tariffs & trade, sanctions & trade with Putin’s Russia, and defence

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

1. Trump’s proposed tariffs on the EU – Brexit Britain is ‘one of the good guys’

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

2. Trade relations with Putin’s Russia – the UK versus the EU

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

3. On defence expenditure, the UK has outshone the EU for decades – and has done so consistently

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

Observations

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Reader Comments 7

1. Sparky , Wednesday, March 05, 2025, 09:09:

2. terence patrick hewett , Wednesday, March 05, 2025, 10:03:

3. NH , Wednesday, March 05, 2025, 12:09:

4. Sparky , Wednesday, March 05, 2025, 12:39:

5. gazzablack , Wednesday, March 05, 2025, 14:10:

6. LuxuryBalloon , Wednesday, March 05, 2025, 15:06:

7. Gazzablack , Wednesday, March 05, 2025, 15:25:

There’s no chance of Trump’s US sanctions against Brexit Britain
– But unfortunately every chance against the EU