The City’s Lord Mayor is planning a “charm offensive” tour of countries such as Canada, Mexico, and even China, that have been worst hit by Donald Trump’s tariffs to persuade them to build closer ties with London.
Alastair King, the 696th holder of a role that dates back to 1189, told the Standard he is “recalibrating” his schedule of visits during his one year term of office to reflect the new global geopolitical landscape.
He said the new priority would be focusing on “Where has been affected by Liberation Day and where are the opportunities presenting themselves for London.”
The Lord Mayor of the City of London traditionally serves as a global ambassador for the UK’s huge financial, professional and maritime services, which are heavily concentrated in the City.
But the second half of King’s term is set to be focused on exploiting the opportunity for the UK thrown up by US President’s blizzard of Liberation Day trade barriers that have soured relations with many of America’s biggest trading partners.
The 56 year old said “There has been this great fallout between Canada and the United States when it comes to commercial relations so my message to the Canadians is ‘things you were going to do in New York, do them in London’ we are ready, willing and able.’”
The Lord Mayor said his team were looking at concentrating on those parts of the world most badly threatened by US tariffs.
He said: “I think there are certainly opportunities in relation to south east Asia...do we go back to Canada, could we go to Mexico, you know that type of thing. So those are the possible sort of locations. And then we are still finalising the programme.”
King added: “Where are the opportunities for British businesses in financial, professional, legal and maritime and that is a good example of the sort of things of the sort of thing that the Lord Mayor should be doing, seeing those opportunities, leading a delegation and let’s see what further business we can garner.”
King has already visited China once during his term and said a follow up is a “possibility”. Although Donald Trump this week ordered a 90 day pause in the threatened punitive 145% tariffs on Chinese goods, reducing them to 30% for now, there is no guarantee they will not return to stratospheric levels later in the year.
He is also setting off on the tour of the Gulf in the coming weeks.
The Lord Mayor, who gets to live in the stately Mansion House during the one year term, said the fallout from Liberation Day gave London a “once in a decade” moment to reestablish itself as a global safe haven in contrast to the instability of Trump’s America.
He said: “London has this extraordinary moment to present itself as the independent capital of the world, not in the Chinese orbit, not in the European orbit, not in the American orbit, with a good rule of law and safe political environment and a trusted partner - we do what we say we’re going to do, and that’s a wonderful franchise to have in this fractious world.”
