West ‘cannot be agnostic or naive’ about where goods are made, Reeves tells IMF

The Chancellor was speaking ahead of a meeting with US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent on Friday.

Rachel Reeves, wearing a blue suit, speaks at the forum Debate on the Global Economy in Washington — Rachel Reeves said she wanted to see trade barriers come down, but added the US ‘have a point’ that trade had become too unbalanced (Jose Luis Magana/AP)

The West “cannot be agnostic or naive” about where goods are made, the Chancellor has told a gathering of foreign finance ministers as she prepares for talks with her US counterpart.

Rachel Reeves told the International Monetary Fund’s spring meetings in Washington that she wanted to see tariffs and trade barriers come down, but added the US “have a point” that global trade had become too unbalanced.

Arguing that the US and UK governments had “a democratic mandate from people to change things”, she said: “There’s been a feeling in my country and in America and many other developed countries that the system we have today delivers for some, but not for all and that jobs have been hollowed out in certain sectors of the economy.”

She went on to say that global trade imbalances were “a problem” because “it does matter where things are made and who makes them”.

President Donald Trump speaks during an event to announce new tariffs in the Rose Garden at the White House (Mark Schiefelbein/AP)

The Chancellor said: “We cannot be agnostic or naive about that, especially in the world in which we live today where resilience and security matter more than they have done for a long time.”

Her comments come ahead of a meeting with US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent on Friday, at which she is expected to discuss a potential UK-US trade deal aimed at mitigating the impact of tariffs announced by Donald Trump at the start of April.

The US president imposed a 10% import levy on goods, as well as a 25% charge on steel, aluminium and cars, partly as an attempt to return manufacturing jobs to America.

But they also follow a move by the Government to take over the running of British Steel, with ministers arguing it was a matter of national security to ensure the UK retained some primary steelmaking capability rather than see it outsourced to China.

Ms Reeves made her comments during a panel discussion on the future of the global economy, which saw IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva praise her efforts to “lift up growth in the UK”.

Ms Georgieva said: “She is tackling very tough issues, getting reprioritisation of spending, getting the regulatory environment to be more rational and then taking on the battle to get it done, and it’s really impressive.”