Britain could do slimmed down trade deal with US within months, says former minister

Britain could do a slimmed down trade deal with the United States within months, the last politician to oversee negotiations with Donald Trump's administration over a UK-US agreement has told Sky News.

Last night Sky News revealed that leading members of the Trump administration believe a trade deal with the UK could be sealed in a matter of months.

Mr Trump has singled out Keir Starmer for praise and suggested that he wanted to change UK trade policy.

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Britain was negotiating a full Free Trade Agreement with Mr Trump during his first presidency, but this was junked by his successor President Biden.

The negotiations were overseen by then Tory trade secretary, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, who told Sky News that a deal could even be struck with the US before the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement is concluded.

Ms Trevelyan said about half the work on a deal had already been concluded under the Boris Johnson administration.

"I was the trade secretary just at the end of the first Trump administration, and we had already, been moving discussions, probably about halfway there. In terms of the trade negotiations."

She said that the US can work faster than the EU on trade negotiations, and that might be concluded first.

"I think absolutely that's possible. I think the challenge with anything with the EU is you're dealing with, you know, multiple countries who all have to agree. And the challenge with any trade deal, which is why TCA took a long time to negotiate to the level that we got, is that everyone's pulling a little bit differently."

On President Trump's style, she said: "I think, realistically, because of the way Trump works, which is transactional but very determined, he'll take decisions, big decisions."

The negotiation between the UK and the US began in May 2020 when Liz Truss was trade secretary and lasted until the end of Mr Trump's time in office in January 2021. Ms Trevelyan was trade secretary from September 2021 to September 2022.

Up to five chapters - areas of trade negotiation - had been completed but the most difficult, agriculture and trade, had not been sorted.

The United States has different food standards to the UK and EU, and is not currently able to sell into our market - which has previously been a big ask.

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However Ms Trevelyan said that omitting agriculture from the deal could get it over the line, providing there were sufficient other wins for the US.

She said that the UK and US trade deal could make a big difference.

"A UK-US trade move will be a big, punchy, broad ranging trade deal," she said.

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"I think what's important is what are we good at? What's the UK good at? What do we want to be able to do more? Our financial services, second only in the world to the US, are fantastic.

"(You look for) lots of things where we don't crash into each other. Really important for success in a trade deal is where you get that complementarity.

"What is it that the US has that they want to sell to us that, you know, isn't of concern to us? So some of the conversations with California around some of their nuts and properties like that, there's all sorts of different pulls and pushes that you work together as a whole."

She went on: "It'll be everything from financial services through to whisky and everything in between. The market is enormous, important issues around metals, steel and aluminium are really important ones. So, we had got caught, when I had just come into post, actually an EU tariff last time round that President Trump was putting tariffs on people around steel aluminium."

But Lord Kim Darroch, the UK's ambassador to the US during Donald Trump's first presidency, said he was sceptical about a UK-US trade deal.

Speaking to Sophy Ridge on the Politics Hub, Lord Darroch said the UK's problems stem from the fact that food and agriculture standards are higher here than they are in the US.

He explained that there are "two big regulatory schemes" in the world, one being the EU's and the other being America's.

"At the moment, we are still basically aligned with the EU," he said.

"One of the objectives of the Americans would be to pull us into their regulatory system," he adds, and - given we do more far more trade with Europe than America - "I don't see that being in the national interest."

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