Post-Brexit U.S.-Britain trade deal to be reached no time soon
WASHINGTON, July 24 (Xinhua) — Britain and the United States here on Monday kicked off their first round of talks on a potential bilateral trade deal in the post-Brexit era, but British trade officials and experts didn’t expect such a deal to be reached anytime soon.
LEGAL HURDLES
Britain’s International Trade Secretary Liam Fox traveled to the U.S. capital for informal talks with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer. He will stay there for two days.
Fox said it was too early to say exactly what would be covered in a potential deal, adding that the focus is “to ensure we get to know each other’s issues and identify areas where we can work together to strengthen trade and investment ties,” according to the BBC.
Fox’s remarks, while echoing those of British Prime Minister Theresa May — who warned earlier this month that there was “a limit” to what could be done before Brexit — stood in stark contrast to the view of U.S. President Donald Trump, who expected a “powerful” trade deal to be completed “very quickly.”
Despite her optimism about the deal, May’s warning is right in the sense that with talks on Britain leaving the European Union (EU) still going on, London is not allowed to ink any trade deal with whatever party until it formally divorces Brussels — which is scheduled in March 2019.
While the EU ban doesn’t prohibit Britain from laying the groundwork ensuring bilateral deals to be settled soon after Brexit, such preparation maneuvers may well distract the country, which is busy enough with tough Brexit negotiations under way.
London has been in tit-for-tat quarrels with the EU as the latest round of Brexit talks ended without an agreement on either the cost of the exit or citizen’s rights.
LACKING EXPERIENCE
Negotiating experience is another factor that will possibly leave Britain in a disadvantageous position when facing the United States across the table.
Albeit the idea that leaving the EU will free the island country, which often prides itself on — and now longs for — independence from continental Europe, from awaiting consensus among other 27 member states in future deals, it lacks seasoned negotiators to conduct bilateral trade talks on its own after relying on EU expertise for almost four decades.
“We’re just getting back into the game of doing this sort of thing after 40 years of doing it via the EU,” Adam Marshall, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, told the BBC, adding that it concerned him whether Britain would “go up against the U.S. on a complex and difficult negotiation” in the early process.
Whereas the United States seems to be gaining an upper hand. Having appointed a number of hawks to form his administration’s trade team, Trump, a businessman-turned-president, had scrapped trade deals he considered “disastrous” for his country and threatened to renegotiate others.
“I can’t think of a more brutal way for novice U.K. trade negotiators to learn the ropes than negotiating with the Americans,” Simon Evenett, professor of international trade at the Switzerland-based University of St. Gallen, was quoted by CNN Money as saying.
DOMESTIC OPPOSITION
A rushed deal with the United States also faces mounting opposition inside Britain.
Bloomberg reported that opposition Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn was challenging the government’s willingness to strike a deal with Washington when Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris climate accord.
“That calls into question whether the whole of this government’s strategy on a one-off deal with the United States, which sounds awfully like the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) to me,” Corbyn was quoted by Bloomberg as saying.
The Labor leader is among those in Europe who are skeptic about the TTIP, vowing to stop the deal to protect British public services such as healthcare from being attacked by profit-hungry U.S. private firms.
The TTIP is former U.S. President Barack Obama’s vision of free trade between Washington and Brussels. It’s unlikely that the now collapsed pact will be revived under the Trump presidency given the president’s protectionist turn to focus on one-on-one deals from which he thinks the United States will reap more benefits.
In an opinion piece for the Guardian newspaper, Marshall said he was “distinctly uneasy” about the prospect of Britain rapidly hammering out a deal with the United States, since “other, more immediate priorities (should) take precedence.”
Referring to London’s comprehensive free trade deal with Washington as a “long-term aspiration,” Marshall argued that the British government should instead pursue “small, quick wins” to free up bilateral trade, adding the pressing need at present is to deal with the EU.