Tricky times for US-UK ties, despite Trump-Johnson bromance

BORIS Johnson spoke to Donald Trump on Friday and they are reportedly finalising plans for a key Washington trip next month. While the visit is being designed to showcase personal warmth between the two, it comes at a very tricky time in bilateral relations with issues such as Huawei, a proposed UK digital tax, and climate change clouding the picture.

Most immediately, it is the proposed UK digital tax causing diplomatic waves. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, UK Chancellor Sajid Javid re-affirmed his intent to move ahead with the tax in a context whereby not just London, but also Paris and other European countries are seeking to ensure technology firms, many of them US-headquartered, pay their fair share of tax in countries where they operate. Many such tech firms argue instead that taxes should be based where not where firms have their European headquarters, but where digital activity takes place. And both Mr Trump and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin have supported this with Mr Mnuchin threatening at Davos to take "arbitrary" retaliation against the United Kingdom, potentially with sanctions against auto exports.

While security and defence has long been at the core of the US-UK special relationship, there are also currently tensions even here, over issues from Iran through to Huawei, the Chinese-headquartered technology firm.