The prime minister, en route to the United Nations General Assembly, told reporters on Tuesday:
“There aren’t currently any negotiations taking place with the US and I don’t have an expectation that those are going to start in the short to medium term.”
Her focus for trade deals had moved eastwards, she said, citing her desire for a trade deal with India. Her predecessor, Boris Johnson, pledged in June to secure one by the end of the year. Ms Truss also wants a deal with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), made up of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The third target is to achieve UK accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) grouping of nations that takes in Australia, Canada and Japan and is one of the world’s biggest trading blocs.
“Those are our trade priorities,” she said.
Ms Truss now appears to have mothballed a free trade deal with Britain’s closest ally and the world’s biggest economy and wants to use her trip to the UN to focus on Ukraine and collectively tackling Russia aggression.
Now that sounds like more bad news to me but a world trade analyst may see it another way …
Now it is wrong to suggest that during the referendum campaign the promoters of the leave campaign put forward a US trade deal as the necessary and rapid result of the leaving the EU. Wait, no, sorry, ‘accurate’ and ‘state’ should have been the fourth and sixth words in that sentence. The other words missing are empty, promises and bare faced lies.
Free Trade is no longer the order of the day to other major economies, the focused has changed since the pandemic, now it is on shortening supply chains and prorecting jobs.
@swimfeeders , Just what l was about to say swimmy !!
What do we need a trade deal for, ( with anyone!) ??
We have nothing to sell, and as such will be the buyer ! Ergo, customer
dictates price ultimately !!
So the major part of the leave argument about being in the EU stopping the UK making trade deals on its own was completely wrong for just about every reason - more so now that no-one wants any more of them? What arguments are left to justify (the self inflicted harm that is) Brexit?
