No 10 wants to privately lobby the US to restart talks on a bilateral trade deal when President Joe Biden visits Northern Ireland on April 11, a US news outlet has reported.
It cited unnamed sources as saying that UK Business and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch has been leading Downing Street’s efforts to get what London hopes will be a trade accord in “all but name.”
The next step is expected to be negotiations on unresolved issues not related to market access, the insiders argued, adding that the final stage may see talks on the reduction or removal of tariffs.
When asked about the plan, the Department for Business and Trade only said that the UK would “continue working with the US at a state and federal level to unlock huge opportunities for businesses and boost collaboration on SMEs, supply chains and digital trade.”
Senior US officials have also kept mum on the matter, with the country’s National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett only stressing “the importance of continuing to deepen the strong, enduring economic relationship between the UK and the US.”
Biden’s trade representative, Katherine Tai, for her part, earlier played down the value of free-trade agreements as a “very 20th-century tool.” She recalled that previous bilateral deals have made the US economy more vulnerable and resulted in the decline of American industries.
Democratic lawmakers are, however, calling for a reinvigoration of the Washington-London trade talks, pointing to the fact that the UK and the EU had managed in late February to clinch a deal over Northern Ireland, known as the Windsor Framework.
“Ever since the Brexit vote, which was now seven years ago, the biggest stumbling block has by far been the Northern Ireland issue, and the fact that the UK and the US did not see exactly eye to eye. There is no question that a major irritant in the bilateral US-UK relationship has been taken off the table,” Brendan Boyle, a Democratic congressman from Pennsylvania, told a British newspaper.
He spoke as Chris Coons, the Democratic senator from Delaware and a close ally of Biden, reportedly introduced legislation that would give the US president the authority to negotiate a free trade agreement with the UK.
According to the British newspaper, “the bill would give Biden two years, or until a few months into a hypothetical second term, to secure an agreement and fast-track a vote in Congress to approve any deal.”
London and Washington have been negotiating a trade deal since the UK’s withdrawal from the EU in 2020. British lawmakers remain downbeat about progress in the talks, claiming that the agreement is “not expected” in the immediate future.