The UK is one of three parties with which the USA wishes to conclude a trade deal, Washington has confirmed.
On 16 October, US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer notified the US Congress that the Trump Administration intends to negotiate separate trade agreements with the UK, the EU and Japan.
Describing the announcement as an important milestone in the process of expanding US trade and investment through deals with the three parties, Mr Lighthizer underlined the administration’s commitment to concluding negotiations “with timely and substantive results for American workers, farmers, ranchers, and businesses”.
On the US side, the process will also involve Mr Lighthizer, as the US Trade Representative, consulting the public on the direction, focus and content of the negotiations.
Objectives for the negotiations must be published at least 30 days before formal trade negotiations begin.
In his notification letter to Congress regarding the UK, Mr Lighthizer notes that an ambitious trade agreement between the two countries could further expand the current trade and investment relationship by removing existing goods and services tariff and non-tariff barriers “and by developing cutting edge obligations for emerging sectors where US and UK innovators and entrepreneurs are most competitive”.
The letter also acknowledges that the UK is not free to negotiate trade agreements until it has left the EU.
In 2017, US trade in goods and services with the UK was worth an estimated $235.9 billion, of which exports accounted for $125.9 billion and imports $110.0 billion. The US trade surplus with the UK last year was $15.9 billion.
US trade with the EU in 2017 was worth nearly $1.2 trillion, with exports totalling $527 billion and imports $627 billion, and a US trade deficit amounting to $100 billion.
The value of US-Japan trade in the same period is put at $283.6 billion – $114 billion in exports and $169.5 billion in imports.
