Remainer threat to US trade deal
LIZ TRUSS will mark a key moment in Britain’s postBrexit renaissance as a global trading nation next week. On Monday, the International Trade Secretary is due to set out the Government’s negotiating aims for a trade deal with the US. Her team will begin the hard work of turning the transatlantic special relationship into a far more lucrative one.
Whitehall insiders see the forthcoming talks with Donald Trump’s White House administration as a potent symbol of the possible Brexit dividend.
“This will be a big moment,” said one Government source.
The negotiations are being seen in Downing Street as an important step in the UK’s journey towards becoming a truly sovereign country with an independent trade policy free from the grip of Brussels.
Millions of households could benefit from cheaper food and consumer goods while firms grab new openings under a future UK-US trade deal.
Yet Boris Johnson’s aides are concerned the political debate on the issue so far has become sidetracked by opposition scaremongering about the UK being swamped by chlorinewashed chicken from American farms and the NHS being dismantled by US private healthcare giants.
The Project Fear prophets of doom who failed to block Brexit now appear intent on wrecking improved trading links with the global superpower that has been the UK’s closest ally for decades, they suspect.
Liam Fox, Ms Truss’s immediate predecessor as International Trade Secretary, is keen to see the Government trumpet the potential advantages of more US trade.
“The big benefit would be access to the US services market,” the former Cabinet minister told me yesterday. “Services are the biggest part of our economy, it is where we have our expertise. There are big opportunities there.” He said the UK’s insurance and legal services sector in particular had much to gain from increased access to the US market.
“We need to set our ambitions high,” Dr Fox said, urging the Government to seek a “new goldstandard free trade deal” that could take some time to negotiate, rather than swiftly cobbling together a slim agreement for short-term political gains on both sides of the Atlantic.
Ms Truss has been cracking on with preparing the ground for the US trade negotiations, meeting US trade representative Robert Lighthizer earlier this week. Yesterday, her department confirmed that senior civil servant Oliver Griffiths will lead the UK negotiating team.
A source in her department said the negotiating mandate to be unveiled on Monday will be a substantial document. It is expected to set out bold ambitions for replacing the regulation and tariff regime previously imposed on the UK by Brussels while rejecting any drop in environmental or workplace standards and protecting the NHS.
MS TRUSS and her negotiating team are aware that concluding a US deal will be an arduous and lengthy process. It is certain to be put on hold for the second half of this year for the US presidential election in November.
Yet for all the complexity, officials are hopeful a deal can be concluded soon after the UK gains full independence from the EU at the beginning of next year.
A recent free trade deal between the US, Canada and Mexico took over a year to negotiate, with the teams meeting every three weeks.
Ms Truss is an admirer of Margaret Thatcher and an enthusiast for free markets. She is seen in Number 10 as having the necessary optimistic temperament to trumpet the benefits of a comprehensive trade deal with the US. Her biggest challenge in the coming months will be stopping the embittered Remainer doom-mongers from rubbishing what could be the Brexiteers’ biggest win.
RICHARD Burgon has a cult following at Tory Campaign HQ where his hard-Left outbursts are seen as propaganda gifts. The Labour deputy leadership candidate’s recent policy ideas include setting up a Tony Benn School of Political Education and organising Strikers’ Solidarity Tours. Some Tories call him “the gift who keeps on giving”.
LAURA Farris revealed some of her constituents have yet to adjust to her succeeding former minister Richard Benyon as Newbury MP. In her maiden speech, Tory Laura said: “Even now, 10 weeks after my election, there are people who have taken the trouble to look up their new MP, written out my email address and begun their email: Dear Richard.”
GORDON Brown has come up with a novel excuse for his dire popularity ratings during the financial meltdown under his premiership. “We didn’t communicate properly,” the former Labour PM said, adding: “People wanted game shows…, they didn’t want to listen or hear about the financial crisis.”
JOHN Bercow will make a keynote speech at a pro-EU event being held in the QE2 Conference Centre in Westminster next week. The venue is earmarked to be a temporary home for peers when the House of Lords is closed for renovation in five years’ time. Given the campaign to stop him getting a peerage, the former Commons Speaker’s speech could be as close as he gets to lording it in the upper house.