Penny Mordaunt discusses post-Brexit UK-US trade deal

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The trade minister described Brexit as a massive opportunity for the UK and countries like the US with a shared vision. Ms Mordaunt revealed that while London and Washington DC are in the sixth round of free trade deal negotiations at a federal level, most opportunities lie with individual US states.

She said: “We’ve left the EU. There’s a lot of criticism about that. We’re still talking through some of the issues related to that, but this is a massive opportunity for us, but also for countries like the United States who share our vision of capitalism.”

Ms Mordaunt explained that 93 percent of US growth is generated by some metro areas so she considered it sensible to focus attention there while the UK and US continue to negotiate a free trade agreement.

The minister told MPs on Thursday that Britain is expected to sign its first economic pacts with US states in May with an arrangement with Texas secured by October.

She told fellow parliamentarians the first eight agreements in the pipeline will be equivalent to 20 percent of the United States’ economy.

Ms Mordaunt told GB News on Sunday: “The things that we’re doing at state level are going to remove barriers to trade. Ultimately, it’s about bringing people together – people, money and ideas to solve problems, to create new business opportunities.

“That’s what we’re trying to do so we’ve got to put the hard work in. We’ve got to re-establish those connections.

“In the US we’re talking to 20 states currently. That’s going to be a growing number. This is big stuff. It will reduce costs for business. It will open up new trade opportunities for UK businesses and make it easier for them to provide goods and services to the US.”

She added that the Government is also pairing up states or large cities with parts of the UK in search of opportunities.

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Britain has been pursuing an FTA with the administrations of former US President Donald Trump and current incumbent Joe Biden for some years.

Katherine Tai, US counterpart to UK Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan, appeared to pour cold water on the prospect of a trade agreement in March, telling a press conference that such a deal was a “very 20th-century tool”.

Experts have suggested Mr Biden is not that interested in free trade agreements and more concerned about promoting good quality jobs in the US, restoring the country’s lead in advanced technology and where possible, strategic independence from China.

Dr Peter Holmes, a fellow at the University of Sussex’s UK Trade Policy Observatory, told Express.co.uk earlier this month: “Biden does not feel opening US markets to British exports is the top priority for trade policy. They are not interested in trade liberalisation.”

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With progress stalled on a UK-US free trade deal, the Government has turned its attention towards a focus on striking agreements with individual states.

On Britain’s global role, Ms Mordaunt said: “When people say to me what is our role in the world, I say it’s to be ourselves and actually Ukraine – the situation there – is getting us to remember who we are as a nation and what we have to offer – that convening power for people, money and ideas – to bring those things together.

“We hate seeing bullies. We want to stand up for freedom and we’re moved and motivated when we see courage in other people and that’s what our country’s about.

“We can do a huge amount, whether it’s one trade, on national security or defence, as we are in Ukraine.”

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Boris Johnson told negotiators to get a free trade agreement done with India by Diwali in October as he celebrated a “massive push” during a meeting with the country’s leader, Narendra Modi, in New Delhi on Friday.

But he indicated at a press conference that he did not try to encourage Mr Modi to go further in dropping India’s neutrality over the Russian President’s invasion of Ukraine.

Mr Johnson conceded there would be difficult issues ahead, including on tariffs, particularly on whisky.

He also signalled he was open to accepting higher levels of migration from India to take skilled jobs in Britain.

He said an FTA would allow Delhi to lift tariffs on British machinery and in turn, the UK could lift tariffs on Indian rice and textiles.

The Prime Minister also committed to supporting India to build fighter jets in a bid to reduce the number of arms the nation buys from Moscow and also wants to wean it off Russian fuel.

But India’s foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said Mr Johnson put no pressure on Mr Modi over his position on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

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