Comment UK and US will keep it special, says ambassador
continue.”
While the UK negotiates the terms of leaving with the 27 remaining EU countries, trade with the US would be unaffected, he said.
“While the UK and the remaining 27 figure out what their future relationship will be, I think the United States and the United Kingdom and the small businesses and big businesses and all the connections that happen, continue.”
And the lack of a specific trade deal such as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership would not be a problem, he said.
“Look at all the trade in goods and services and investment and cultural exchanges and student exchanges and the number of flights that go back and forth between the United Kingdom and United States.
“That didn’t happen overnight, it didn’t happen because of one deal, it is decades and decades of accumulated connections.”
President Obama said in April that the UK would be at the “back of the queue” in terms of negotiating a trade deal with the US, if it left the European Union.
It provoked a strong reaction. Downing Street staff were initially delighted, believing that the comments would help David Cameron win his campaign for a “remain” vote in the referendum, but the President also came under fire from Brexit campaigners who accused him of interfering in the June 23 referendum.
Ambassador Barzun said the comment was misinterpreted, and suggested it had been reported out of context.
He said: “President Obama’s point at the time was, as a member of the European Union, the European Union was at the front of the queue with this Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership deal.
“There was nothing punitive about it. If you take that phrase in isolation and reprint it elsewhere, you can see how people might feel that it was, but it wasn’t meant that way, it wasn’t said that way.”
The Ambassador insisted President Obama had made it clear that “of course it’s up to you and if you ask, here is what we think. And regardless of the outcome on June 24 and going forward, this special relationship is unbreakable and unshakeable no matter what the result is, because of the emotional, cultural, commercial, you name it, ties that bind our two countries together.”
Some opponents of Brexit argue that the UK’s influence and standing – and possibly its value as an ally – will be diminished as a result of leaving the EU.
But asked about this, Ambassador Barzun highlighted ways in which the UK will continue to be influential: “Permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, vibrant and fully paid-up member of NATO,G7, G20 – all these organisations where, by an accident of the alphabet we sit next to each other at those tables, because if it’s English spelling it’s United States, United Kingdom.
“But it is no accident that we are shoulder to shoulder in places around the world, because we share the same beliefs and values, and we are willing to speak up, stick up, for them.”
We are each other’s number one investors, and no-one even comes a close second US ambassador Matthew Barzun