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Ted Cruz

Ted Cruz on Brexit: U.K. 'will be at front' of trade queue

Jane Onyanga-Omara
USA TODAY
Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, speaks at Woodrow Wilson Middle School, Sunday, April 24, 2016, in Terre Haute, Ind.

LONDON — Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz said Wednesday that Britain would be “at the front of the queue,” not the back, for a trade deal with the United States if the country votes to leave the European Union. The assertion was a rebuttal of comments made last week by President Obama in London.

Obama, during his two-day visit here, said Britain would find itself “at the back of the queue” — using the British term for line — for new trade deals were it to leave the 28-member EU bloc following a June 23 referendum on the issue. A vote to leave the EU is known as "Brexit." Prime Minister David Cameron is campaigning for Britain to remain in the EU.

“Instead of standing with our allies President Obama routinely hurls insults at them,” Cruz wrote in an article published by The Times of London on Wednesday. He said Obama’s comment was “nothing less than a slap in the face of British self-determination.”

Obama gives U.K. 'friendly' advice: Stay in the European Union

“I believe Britain’s future in Europe is a matter for the British people to decide. If Britain does vote to leave the EU, the United States should respect that decision — and treat it as an opportunity for our own country,” Cruz said.

If he is elected president, Cruz said he will work to ensure the special relationship between the two nations is strengthened rather than weakened.

“If Brexit takes place, Britain will be at the front of the line for a free trade deal with America, not at the back. There is a vast amount of trade, commerce and investment between our two nations,” he added.

Obama says UK should remain in European Union

Britain's economy grew by 0.4% in the first quarter of 2016, down from 0.6% in the fourth quarter of last year, data out Wednesday showed. It came as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), an economic think tank, said Brexit would adversely affect workers in Britain financially.

Ángel Gurría, the OECD’s general secretary, told BBC radio that leaving the EU would be a "bad decision."

“Brexit is like a tax, equivalent to missing out on about one month’s income within four years, but then it carries on to 2023, 2030,” Gurría said.

"We have done the comparisons, we have done the simulations. In the end we come out and say: Why are we spending so much time, so much effort and so much talent in trying to find ways to compensate for a bad decision when you do not necessarily have to take the bad decision?” he added.

Obama reassures British tourists over LGBT laws

Robert Oxley, a spokesman for Vote Leave, a group that campaigns to leave the EU, told the BBC that the OECD was not "impartial" because it received $30.5 million in funding from the bloc between 2007 and 2014.

"The OECD is in the pay of the EU. José Ángel Gurría is part of a global bureaucracy,” he said.

He added: "After (we) Vote Leave and take back control we will be able to cut our tax bill because we will no longer have to fund overpaid and under-taxed international bureaucrats in Brussels. This will be bad for fat cat officials but good for the British people.”

Explainer: The what, when and why of 'Brexit'

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