Trump Orders US to Cut All Trade with Spain

Screenshot taken from this Telegraph article. | Donald Trump said the US would cut off all trade with Spain Credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images
THE TELEGRAPH: Donald Trump has ordered the US to cut off all trade with Spain, calling it a “terrible partner” in Nato.

The US president said he had told Scott Bessent, his treasury secretary, to cease trade with the country, accusing it of failing to contribute enough to the alliance.

Speaking alongside Mark Rutte, Nato’s general secretary, at a press conference in Turkey, Mr Trump said on Wednesday: “Spain is a terrible partner in Nato. They don’t participate. They don’t pay. I don’t want anything to do with Spain. Cut off all trade with Spain, please, including visits.

“Don’t even talk to them. They’re hopeless, bad people.” » | Chris Price | Markets Editor | Wednesday, July 8, 2026

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UK Pitched Single Market for Goods with EU in Pursuit of Deeper Trade Ties

THE GUARDIAN: Exclusive: Top British official presented idea in Brussels but sources say it was rebuffed

This screenshot has been taken from this Guardian article. | UK government sources denied the EU had definitively rejected a single market for goods. Photograph: Steve Parsons/PA
The UK government pitched the creation of a single market for goods with the EU as the cornerstone of an ambitious attempt to reintegrate British trade back into Europe, the Guardian can reveal.

During recent visits to Brussels, the Cabinet Office’s top official on EU relations, Michael Ellam, presented the idea to deepen the UK’s economic relationship with the bloc.

But in a sign of the challenge Keir Starmer’s government faces in securing growth through a closer relationship with Europe, sources told the Guardian that EU officials rejected the idea – and instead suggested a customs union or economic alignment through the European Economic Area.

Those ideas are impossible under Starmer’s red lines. He said in 2024 the UK would not rejoin the EU, the single market or customs union in his lifetime. The EEA – a single market of 30 mostly EU countries – would also mean accepting free movement of people, another Labour red line.

UK government sources however, denied that the EU had definitively rejected a single market for goods and said it was among a range of options being discussed before a summit tentatively pencilled in for 13 July. » | Jennifer Rankin in Brussels and Rowena Mason | Friday, May 22, 2026

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