Posted on 06/05/2019 3:43:39 AM PDT by Cronos
The NHS must be "on the table" in post-Brexit trade talks between the UK and the US, president Donald Trump said in a press conference with Theresa May on Tuesday.
"Look, I think everything with a trade deal is on the table," the president told reporters at a press conference in central London.
"When you're dealing in trade everything is on the table. So NHS or anything else, a lot more than that."
Prime Minister Theresa May attempted to play down the comments, saying "the point about making trade deals of course is that both sides negotiate and come to an agreement about what should or should not be in that trade deal for the future."
The comments come after the Health Secretary Matt Hancock rejected suggestions that the NHS could form part of a deal between the two countries.
"My American friends, know this: The NHS is not for sale," Hancock said earlier this week.
"Yes we'd love to make it cheaper to buy your life-saving pharmaceuticals - but the NHS will not be on the table in any future trade talks."
...UK ministers were forced to repeat that the National Health Service would not be any part of a trade deal, after the US ambassador Woody Johnson said on Sunday that "the entire economy" including healthcare should be "on the table" in future talks.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who is among the 13 candidates running to succeed May as prime minister, insisted the NHS was "not for sale."
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
A trade deal discussion would put everything on the table - all is open for open discussion.
It's about time the Tory party elected Boris Johnson as PM and decided to crash out before October 31 - -the Tory elections will take 8 weeks from the 7th of June, so approximately to mid-August. And then BoJo can leave before with no deal and then sign President Trump's deal.
BoJo for PM!
Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who is among the 13 candidates running to succeed May as prime minister, insisted the NHS was “not for sale.”
...
Who in their right mind would want to buy it?
The Brits would go wholesale for BRexit just to get access to modern dentistry.
Its the teeth baby


Another tempest in a teapot set up by a limey reporter. It is all about domestic UK politics. The Brits can decide what is or is not on the table in any negotiation. Trump in no way suggested that the NHS must be on the table in any US-UK trade agreement.
I think he means chopping it up. The Brits for some reason have an inordinate love for their NHS. I don’t understand it - I lived there 5 years and used the medical system just twice (I was in my twenties) and it seemed good enough, but the dental appointments were weeks or even months in the future.
The problem I see (and admittedly I do not know much about this or the medical industry) with the NHS is that it is too much central planning - someone needs to make a choice between spending money on X or Y. So should money be spent on helping the blind to get some fraction of sight? Or on post-maternal healthcare. Difficult decisions to make centrally.
Johnson is no actual conservative and as unreliable as can be. And it is a big mistake for the US to talk about the NHS that way before Brexit and a follow-on US trade deal.
I’d be more than happy to let the UK continue with its own small healthcare tragedy over there if in return we would kick Serco out of the US.
American gun rights are separate and not related. British gun laws may be on the table. If the British open up to allow people to own handguns, their crime rates would decrease.
Looks like Trump already backed down from his original statement. Not a good look.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jun/04/trump-says-he-turned-down-corbyn-request-to-meet
There is no actual conservative among the British politicians - with the exception of Rees-Mogg
The NHS needs to be on the table as this is a big pharmaceutical market and the NHS is a bulk purchaser and supplier, so monopolizes the market.
President Trump didn’t mean about the USA buying the NHS system, more about added competition from American hospital chains etc. to give Brits a choice.
I honestly don’t see how that can be involved in trade talks. That’s something they have set up - it’s not a product.
Here’s Trump’s second statement. You decide if he backed down.
he said: I dont see [the NHS] being on the table. Somebody asked me a question today and I say everything is up for negotiation, because everything is. But thats something I would not see as part of trade. Thats not trade.
He didn’t say anything to back down from. He said “everything is on the table in trade negotiations”.
He did NOT say “NHS must be on the table”.
The wretched “reporter” could have just as easily written a story “TRUMP SAYS ENGLISH FIRST BORN MUST BE ON THE TABLE IN ANY TRADE DEAL”
pppfffftttttt
He didnt say anything to back down from.
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“Look, I think everything with a trade deal is on the table,” the president told reporters at a press conference in central London.
“When you’re dealing in trade everything is on the table. So NHS or anything else, a lot more than that.”
I don’t see it as backing down, more clarification. The USA doesn’t want to buy the NHS but to have the UK to open up competition is how I read his initial statement.
Good one.I recall beds being pushed around the arena...great history and then the beds?Ugh.
Soon to be Jeremy Corbin’s NHS primary goal is the dermination of if, how, and what type of British Subjects live, when they should die.
Good one.I recall beds being pushed around the arena...great history and then the beds?Ugh.
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