By Simon Johnson

Copyright yahoo

The new Scottish Secretary has rubbished First Minister John Swinney’s “nonsense” claim that he was responsible for putting a whisky trade deal with the US on Donald Trump’s “radar”.

Mr Swinney met the US President in the White House on Tuesday to discuss cutting tariffs on Scotch whisky and claimed afterwards this “was not previously on the agenda.”

The First Minister boasted there was a “real chance of a better deal” thanks to his intervention and said “the ball is firmly in the UK Government’s court” to get it over the line.

But Douglas Alexander, who was appointed Scottish Secretary last week, said Mr Swinney was “fully aware” before the meeting that UK trade negotiators had been discussing whisky with their American counterparts.

Mr Alexander, who was previously a trade minister, accused the First Minister of “playing politics with people’s jobs and the prospects of the Scotch whisky industry.”

The Lothian East MP also noted that the British Embassy in Washington had “facilitated” Mr Swinney’s meeting with the President and warned that domestic political bickering “only weakens our influence abroad”.

His intervention, which suggested that Mr Swinney had deliberately misled the public, came ahead of next week’s state visit by Mr Trump to the UK.

The Government hopes to use the visit to announce improvements to the US trade deal unveiled earlier this year, which applies a 10 per cent tariff to most UK exports, including whisky.

The US has long been Scotch whisky’s biggest market by value, with £971m of sales last year. It is estimated that the tariff is costing the industry, which is the UK’s most valuable food and drink export, about £4m a week.

But Mr Swinney claimed at a press conference on Wednesday that whisky was not on Mr Trump’s “radar” before he held a meeting with the President in Scotland at the end of July.

The First Minister said he “got the issue on the agenda” and he had used this week’s meeting in the Oval Office “to create a platform for the UK Government to negotiate and deliver on Scotch whisky.”

“A better deal for whisky was not previously on the agenda – and it now very much is,” he added.

But Mr Alexander said UK ministers and officials have been engaged in “intense discussions” with their US counterparts since the original trade deal was announced in May.

The Scottish Secretary said it was “simply nonsense to suggest otherwise” and whisky was “very high” on their list of priorities.

Asked about Mr Swinney’s claims, Mr Alexander told BBC Radio Scotland: “When he said that he had put whisky on the agenda, with great respect, we’d already done a deal with India, where whisky was a central feature of that deal.

“But also, John Swinney knows that we had (UK Business and Trade Secretary) Peter Kyle on the ground in Washington on Monday.

“We’ve had negotiators on the ground in Washington every day this week, and because we’ve shared that information with him, he’s fully aware that long before John Swinney arrived in the Oval Office, we were talking with and engaging with the US administration on the issue of whisky.

“So I welcome the fact that John was in Washington. Frankly, if we have divisions at home, we will be less influential abroad. But the reality is, we shouldn’t be playing politics with people’s jobs and the prospects of the Scotch whisky industry.”

Mr Alexander said the UK Government was “working hard between now and the state visit, and as necessary beyond the state visit to deliver for the whisky industry and all those who work in it here in Scotland.”

Mr Swinney said he used his meeting with Mr Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to argue a cut in the tariff would benefit American bourbon producers. Scottish distilleries use bourbon casks in their production and there is trade valued at £300m between the two sectors.

However, Mr Swinney admitted that Mr Trump “believes in tariffs” and sources close to the discussions estimated that the chance of the President agreeing to a change for whisky was less than 50-50.

The Scottish Government was approached for comment.