British food and drink industry call on EU to ‘reset’ trade ties

More than a dozen of Britain’s biggest retailers and food producers, including Marks & Spencer, J Sainsbury and Asda, have called on the EU to reduce checks on food and drink crossing the Channel and Irish Sea, which they say are costing billions of pounds.Ahead of a summit on 19 May that is hoped to “reset” trade ties five years on from Brexit, they are urging politicians to hammer out a deal on sanitary and phytosanitary checks. They hope this would include a veterinary agreement and would harmonise food safety rules or recognise them as equivalent.In a letter to Maroš Šefčovič, the EU commissioner for trade and economic security, the 13 companies said “unnecessary red tape” since Brexit had added £2bn to costs. Signatories of the letter, seen by the Guardian, include Morrisons, Lidl, Ocado, the sandwich makers Greencore and Samworth Brothers, as well as the meat processors Cranswick and 2 Sisters

As Labour frustration grows, could OBR forecasts be cut to once a year?

When Labour was riding high in opposition, the Office for Budget Responsibility was a near sacrosanct institution. Its manifesto pledged Labour would “never sideline the OBR for political convenience”.But emerging from a punishing spring statement, inside No 10 the former devotees have turned sceptics. The fiscal rules remain untouchable – despite Labour MPs’ grumbles – but there is intense frustration at the institution that marks the government’s homework.That unhappiness is likely to deepen in June when MPs vote on a £4

ECB cuts rates for third time this year as Europe braces for Trump tariffs

The cost of borrowing has fallen across the 20-member euro area for the third time this year after the European Central Bank cut its main interest rate to 2.25% in response to slowing growth and Donald Trump’s tariffs.The Frankfurt-based bank cut its benchmark deposit rate by a quarter of a percentage point on Thursday, in line with economist expectations, to tackle a slowdown in the bloc and the impact from the border taxes imposed earlier this month on all EU imports into the US.The ECB president, Christine Lagarde, said US tariffs on EU goods, which had increased from an average of 3% to 13%, were already harming the outlook for the European economy.“The major escalation in global trade tensions and the associated uncertainty will likely lower euro area growth by dampening exports,” she said, adding that they may “drag down investment and consumption”

Global economic growth will slow amid Trump tariffs, IMF warns – as it happened

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said that it expects much slower global growth – but not a recession – because of trade tensions amid Donald Trump’s tariff war.Kristalina Georgieva, the IMF’s managing director, said that the latest world economic outlook forecasts will include “notable markdowns, but not recession”, in a speech in Washington before its annual meeting starting on Monday.The forecasts will be closely scrutinised for judgments of Trump’s economic policy, after a fortnight of financial market chaos since his “liberation day” tariffs. Stock markets plunged after Trump raised tariffs on all goods imports, only to recover somewhat when he imposed a 90-day “pause” when turbulence spread to the bond market.The deep uncertainty over Trump’s plans have made it difficult for economists

BP suffers investor rebellion at first AGM since climate strategy U-turn

BP suffered an investor rebellion on Thursday after facing shareholders for the first time since abandoning its climate strategy at a meeting marred by protest.About a quarter of shareholders voted against the chair, Helge Lund, at the company’s annual meeting in Sunbury-on-Thames, on the edges of London, which attracted protest from several green campaign groups.The Guardian understands that five protesters were forcibly blocked from entering the meeting before the vote, which marked the first time in at least a decade that more than 10% of BP’s shareholders voted against the re-election of the chair.The activists from Fossil Free London and Energy Embargo for Palestine protested outside the venue, describing the board as “murderers, looters and genocide enablers”, before major institutional investors voted against the re-election of Lund.The shareholder meeting was held weeks after Lund, who presided over BP’s failed green agenda, promised to step down from the company by next year

Cheaper energy, more cash and a bit of scrap: how to save British Steel

The government has taken control of British Steel, so averting the closure within days of the UK’s last two blast furnaces. However, the takeover leaves a big question: what next?Steep losses at British Steel prompted its Chinese owner, Jingye, to decide last month to close its blast furnaces in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, which would end the production of “virgin” steel in the UK. The government stepped in with emergency legislation, passed in a single day last Saturday, to prevent that.The legislation has given the industry, workers and politicians time to work out how to build a doubly sustainable UK steel industry: one that makes money, while minimising carbon emissions.The future for Scunthorpe, if it is to have a future, will almost certainly be the electric arc furnace (EAF)