(Alliance News) - The UK is fighting hard against US President Donald Trump's plans to slap further tariffs on British industry, Liz Truss said.
The International Trade Secretary said she was "outraged" by the threat of further US tariffs which could hit the gin industry.
The US has already imposed tariffs on products including Scotch whisky as part of a transatlantic trade dispute over European subsidies for plane manufacturer Airbus SE.
The UK and US are engaged in trade negotiations on a post-Brexit deal but the row over tariffs casts a shadow over the talks.
The cabinet minister told a House of Lords committee: "We are certainly not going to accept the US hitting British industries like gin with additional tariffs."
She told the peers she would present US trade representative Robert Lighthizer with a bottle of gin to show "what the Americans could be missing out on" if tariffs are imposed.
"No-one is more outraged than me about these retaliatory tariffs and I have been speaking to affected businesses this week and I share their concerns and frustrations," she told peers.
"These tariffs are completely unnecessary and they harm industry on both sides of the Atlantic.
"We want them removed and we want them removed fast – preferably through a negotiated settlement.
"We are taking a tough line with the US, I have raised this on multiple occasions and I will continue to fight the corner of British business."
Earlier this week US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he wanted a UK-US trade deal to be done "as soon as possible".
But the complexity of the negotiations and the timing of the US presidential elections later this year means it appears unlikely that a deal can be done this year.
Truss said it would be "dangerous to make a prediction" about the timing of a deal and said she would not set a deadline because it could be used to put pressure on the UK to sign an agreement.
She added that the UK would not accept an agreement based on "photocopies" of the US deal with Mexico and Canada.
"We are commencing round three of the talks next week and we are making good progress," Ms Truss told peers.
"But we are very clear that we are not going to sacrifice a good deal for speed.
"We have expert negotiators who are tabling UK-specific texts across the whole agreement to ensure that it reflects our interests.
"We are not just going to accept photocopies of the US-Mexico-Canada agreement.
"We are also not going to budge from our red lines: the NHS remains off the table, our food standards must not be undermined and British farming must benefit from the deal.
"We also want to make sure that every region and nation of the UK benefits from the deal."
The International Trade Secretary defended seven-year gagging clauses for experts advising the government on its negotiations.
The non-disclosure agreements are aimed at protecting sensitive information about the UK's negotiating position.
"I do not want future trade partners of the UK to be having access to that level of information," she said.
It was a practice followed in other countries and "is on really specific commercial aspects of the negotiation".
But shadow trade minister Bill Esterson said the request for members of trade advisory groups to sign NDAs was "extremely worrying".
"The only reason to impose these long-term gagging orders is to prevent the public discovering the reality of what the Government is willing to give up to get these free trade deals," he said.
"On a practical level, these NDAs will make it impossible for business and union representatives to consult their members on the implications of specific proposals, and make it more likely that damaging provisions will slip into these trade agreements unchecked."
source: PA
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