Get real on trade deals

I read with interest the opinion of ambassador Woody Johnson today about the trade deal he is promoting between the U.S. and the UK.

I have spent a significant amount of time on trade issues, including as U.S. ambassador to the eU between 2014 and 2017 when I was heavily involved in efforts to conclude a transatlantic trade pact.

It is simply false to suggest that the biggest obstacle to a U.S.-UK trade deal is chlorinated chicken. Of course that issue is a silly distraction, as the ambassador rightly argues. But there are many other problems that would be very difficult to resolve.

even during the U.S.-eU negotiations it became clear that there is significant UK opposition to many market-liberalising measures that the U.S. was, and is, proposing.

and make no mistake: there is very little appetite in the U.S. for getting rid of many protectionist pieces of legislation, including those governing government procurement.

It is also false to suggest that all problematic policies in europe, including on biotech, are the fault of the eU and ‘short-sighted european bureaucrats’. Many of these policies are supported by member states’ governments, often over european Commission opposition, and they reflect very widespread popular views.

Those views may well be wrong, as I often argued, but they are entitled to respect.

above all, it is time to get real about the likely impact of a U.S.-UK deal. reputable studies have shown that even an ambitious deal would yield a 0.14-0.35 per cent increase in GdP for the UK. Hardly game-changing.

The idea that the UK would be making a great trade by dumping eU regulations and losing frictionless access to its largest market in return for a ‘magnificent’ U.S.-UK free trade deal is magical thinking.

Anthony GArdner, U.S. Ambassador to the european

Union 2014-2017.