LONDON (Parliament Politics Magazine) – Before her first ever official bilateral meeting with US President Joe Biden, Liz Truss acknowledged as she arrived in the US that the much-anticipated post-Brexit trade agreement between the UK and US could be years away.
There weren’t currently any negotiations happening with the US and she didn’t have an expectation that those would start in the short to medium term, the prime minister said to reporters on her way to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday.
Former foreign and trade secretary Ms. Truss stated that dealing with Russia aggression collectively was her top priority with international allies.
She claimed that she had shifted her focus for trade agreements eastward, stressing her desire for a trade agreement with India. By the end of the year, her predecessor Boris Johnson promised to have one in place.
Additionally, Ms. Truss hopes to reach an agreement with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which is made up of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.
Achieving UK membership in the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), an association of countries that includes Australia, Canada, and Japan and is one of the largest trading blocs in the world, is the third goal.
She stated, “Those are our trade priorities.”
Concerning the Northern Ireland Protocol
Her comments follow a warning from the White House earlier this month that any effort to reverse the Northern Ireland Protocol, which sets trade regulations between the EU, Great Britain, and Northern Ireland, could harm prospects for a bilateral trade agreement.
The White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, stated that there is “no formal linkage” between the two issues but added that any attempt to revoke the Northern Ireland Protocol “would not create a conducive environment,” which is essentially where the dialogue stands right now.
Similar statements were made by President Biden a year ago when he stated in the Oval Office with Mr Johnson, the then prime minister sitting next to him, that while the Northern Ireland Protocol and the US-UK trade deal were “separate” matters, he felt “very strongly” that he did not want changes to the Irish accords that would result in a closed border.
Regarding the trade agreements between the UK and Northern Ireland, there is still a disagreement between the UK and the EU. The UK insists that physical inspections of agricultural products and other items be eliminated.
Additionally, the UK has insisted on taking unilateral action if a solution cannot be reached and has drafted legislation that will allow it to rip up a portion of the protocol.
The plan, which Ms. Truss introduced this summer and which is anticipated to reach the Lords in the middle of October, poses a possibility of escalating tensions between the EU and perhaps the US as well.
While President Trump asserted in 2017 that the UK was “at the front of the queue,” Mr. Johnson and his government had pushed for a US trade agreement as a significant Brexit benefit.
Mr. Johnson, however, was obliged to acknowledge in 2021 that the US has “a lot of fish to fry,” and a trade deal might possibly not be secured by the 2024 general election. He said the Americans did negotiate quite hard.
Ms. Truss now seems to have shelved a free trade agreement with the world’s largest economy and Britain’s closest ally in favour of using her visit to the UN to concentrate on Ukraine and jointly confronting Russian aggression.
