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9 months ago
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President Joe Biden has shelved plans for a trade pact with the UK ahead of next year's election after Senate disagreements over the scope of the deal.
A draft outline of the pact and its 11 proposed chapters, prepared earlier this year by the United States Trade Representative's (USTR) office, indicated negotiations would start by the end of 2023.
However, after coming up against several headwinds, the deal is not expected to be put into action, two people briefed by the British and U.S. governments respectively told POLITICO, with both speaking under condition of anonymity.
'I don't think we're going to see that re-emerge,' said one those briefed on the proposed negotiations.
The proposal's timeline for talks set out that negotiations finish ahead of US and UK elections next year.
US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at a joint press conference at the White House in Washington D.C., on June 8, 2023
Joe Biden and Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, left, leave 10 Downing Street after a meeting in London, Monday, July 10, 2023
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy of Ukraine reaches past President Joe Biden to shake hands with President Gitanas Nauseda of the Republic of Lithuania during a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council at the level of Heads of State and Government, with Sweden, at the NATO Summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, Wednesday, July 12, 2023
The deal was closer in its contents to the U.S.-led Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) - which focuses on regulation and non-tariff barriers - than a full trade agreement.
But in November IPEF talks unravelled after senior Democrats spoke out against the Biden administration's negotiation of trade provisions that did not hold enforceable labor standards.
The UK government has long wanted a trade agreement with the U.S. as a solid post-Brexit prize, the outlet reports.
The draft was seen as a road map to eventually securing a comprehensive deal.
Britain's Business and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch pitched the deal in April during Biden’s trip to Belfast, Bloomberg reported, to reenergize discussions that first began under the Trump administration.
English (US)