A new trade deal between the United Kingdom and the United States does not seem feasible under the current terms of the Brexit agreement, the US ambassador Woody Johnson to the UK let himself heard. “It doesn’t look like it would be possible,” he said. Donald Trump’s offer of a “quick, massive, bilateral trade deal” now thus seems very unlikely after the US President commented that Ms. May’s proposal had sounded like a “great deal for the EU”.
In November, Mr. Trump said that the Brexit deal might hamper a US-UK trade deal if it passed. “We have to take a look at seriously whether or not the UK is allowed to trade,” the US President said at that time. “We are still going through the stages of deciding where exactly the country is going,” Mr. Johnson added but his comments already made a blow to UK Prime Minister Theresa May who has argued that her country would be able to strike a better and more advantageous deal without the EU.
In the meantime, her cabinet is trying to come up with a plan to avoid chaos in case Britain would split from the EU without a trade deal. Ms. May is also insisting that her teams are busy negotiating new trade deals with major trading partners. To that end, a Downing Street spokesperson commented that “we want an ambitious trade agreement and we stand ready to conclude such an agreement as a priority after we leave the European Union.” The UK will stay close to the EU and its trade rules for a transition period that runs through the end of 2020 under the draft agreement, which the British Parliament is about to vote on.
