Britain will side with the EU against the US if Donald Trump triggers a new trade war, a senior minister has signaled.

Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds told colleagues: Britain will need to ‘weigh the consequences’ of the new US president’s trade demands if they risk damaging relations with the EU.

He told colleagues last night that Britain has a greater trading relationship with the bloc than America and that he would be wary of terms that could have a “negative” impact on relations with Brussels.

He also warned that Britain would be ‘much more vulnerable’ than the US in the event of a trade conflict between Beijing and the West; This made it unlikely that Britain would be able to replicate Washington’s stance in such a scenario.

Concerns have risen about a potential hit to the UK economy following President-elect Donald Trump’s repeated campaign promises to impose a 20 per cent duty on all imports.

He also threatened to impose tariffs of up to 60 percent on Chinese-made goods and appointed leading China hawks to foreign and defense positions.

Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds has told colleagues the UK must ‘weigh the consequences’ of any trade-related demands from the new US president if they risk damaging relations with the EU.

Concerns have risen about a potential hit to the UK economy following President-elect Donald Trump’s repeated campaign promises to impose a 20 per cent duty on all imports.

Mr Reynolds told the House of Lords International Treaties Committee that US tariffs on UK imports ‘will be a difficult thing for us to deal with’.

He added: ‘The US is a large and important trading partner for the UK; It has bilateral trade of £300 billion, but compared to the EU it has bilateral trade of over £800 billion.

‘Frankly, if there are things that we are offered or asked to do that would lead to a negative relationship on the European side, we need to weigh the consequences.’

Mr Reynolds said the UK, as a ‘globally focused’ trading nation, would be particularly affected by a trade war with Beijing.

‘I think maybe the most important thing to say is that there are a lot of parts of the US presidential campaign that are actually about how the Western world as a whole should think, on a sort of cross-party basis in the US. The cabinet minister said of his relationship with China.

‘And again, I think we need to be clear with the British people that, as a much more globally focused trading nation, the UK will be much more vulnerable if there is a much wider trade conflict with China and the West. Accordingly, let’s say, the USA is.

‘So being asked to do the same thing that another country is proposing could be a much more painful situation for the UK than it might at first appear to people who are unaware of how trade concentration affects our economy.’

It comes after Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer told Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday he wanted ‘respectful’ relations with Beijing as he became the first prime minister to meet the leader since 2018.

The Prime Minister has discussed ‘deepening’ Britain’s ties with China despite the communist country’s support for Russia and human rights abuses at home.

Sir Keir became the first British prime minister to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping since 2018 when they held talks at the G20 in Rio.

Britain’s relations with Beijing remain frozen following China’s crackdown on democracy protests in Hong Kong.

China has also been widely condemned for its brutal treatment of the Uyghur population in Xinjiang, which Labor once described as ‘genocide’.

Speaking after meeting Mr Xi, Sir Keir said he wanted a “serious and pragmatic” relationship with China and wanted to be “clear on the issues we disagree on”.

“The world’s second largest economy is one of our largest trading partners and so we have issues that we need to discuss openly,” the Prime Minister told broadcasters.

‘Of course, being open about things we disagree on. But I will always act in the national interest and that was the basis of our discussions this morning.’

No10 also confirmed Chancellor Rachel Reeves will visit Beijing next year to meet her counterpart, deputy prime minister He Lifeng.

Foreign Affairs Minister David Lammy visited China earlier this year.