After Brexit becoming absolute with the advent of the new year. Britain has been running around to keep enjoying the same amenities it did as part of the EU.
As soon as the new American President came to office, Boris Johnson had hoped for utilizing Brexit at its best. By entering into some sort of trade deal that would have benefitted Britain.
However, these hopes faded away after an announcement by Biden’s administration that commerce agreements were not the top priority, currently.
UK’s trade secretary, Liz Truss said that any trade deal with U.S would not be possible before 2022. She said much of the work to make such pact had been done by them but they have to wait.
Janet Yellen, Biden’s candidate for the seat of Treasury Secretary said their current priority was on their own economy. She stated that President made clear before striking any trade deal, the economy of U.S had to be upgraded. She added that President said he won’t be signing any trade deals until something is done for U.S infrastructure and workers.
On Friday, press secretary of White House, Jen Psaki told the media that there were currently no deadlines for deal. She said that the administration’s main focus was on fighting corona pandemic and the economic recession it caused to Americans.
UK’s former ambassador to U.S, Kim Darroch told BBC that the trade-deal between UK and US now is a far fetch. He said that Biden’s in its first term would not be signing any trade deal with UK. He added Britain is not their top priority. He stated that if Biden wanted to make a trade deal, he would be looking for a better prospect than UK. He said there were two bigger options available to them than to deal with a country of 65 million people.
Darroch was definitely referring to a new trans-Pacific agreement with China or a trade deal with EU. He referred to a statement of Obama from 2016 in which he talked about consequences of Brexit. Obama said that if UK passes Brexit referendum then it would be back in queue when trade talks initiate.
British officials were not certain to strike any trade deal with Trump but were working behind to devise a plan. With Biden, they were sure get better a deal then Trump. Guess the odds are not in the favor of UK as Biden is not looking for any trade deals currently.
One of the allies of the current UK administration say that any UK-US deal would be an example for the world. As such deal would show how serious these countries are about reviving rule-based trade and moving beyond the reservations of Trump. Before offering any deal, UK needs some plan for agriculture and pharmaceuticals are as they most difficult to negotiate. If these areas left unresolved, then there might be hurdles in agreeing on a trade deal for both countries.
Although UK has to be swift about it because after April the “fast-track” approval protections of US will expire. Under these protections, lawmakers at congress cannot make substantial changes to any deal though they can vote for it. By voting they may accept it or deny it whole. But if the deadline is missed, then any offer by UK would be at the mercy of US Congress.
Hope UK will figure something out, they have plenty of time till April 2021.