Published 12:38 IST, October 1st 2020
Britain will work with Trump or Biden to clinch US trade deal after election: UK minister
Britain will work with the US Republican leader Donald Trump or Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in order to clinch a US trade deal, says UK minister.
Britain’s Trade Minister Liz Truss, on September 30, said that the UK will work with the US Republican leader Donald Trump or Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in order to clinch a US trade deal. In an interview with ITV, Truss said that Britain is working with both parties in the United States. While he declined to comment on the chaotic first US presidential debate, he, however, said that there is a ‘strong support’ for a trade deal with the United Kingdom.
She said that the country will work with whoever is in the White House. Further adding that it is not their job as ministers in the UK to intervene in foreign politics. “Our job is to bat for British interest,” Truss said.
Following the UK’s January 31, 2020, departure from the European Union, the US continues to be a strong partner to Britain and looks forward to negotiating an ‘ambitious’ US-UK free trade agreement. Currently, both the countries trade over $260 billion worth of goods and services each year. UK-US are also each other’s number one source of foreign direct investment and their two-way direct investment totals over $1 trillion.
UK says ‘no threat’ to open border
Meanwhile, last month, senior Democrats had warned that any attempt by the UK government to backtrack on the Brexit agreement on Northern Island would jeopardise a future US-UK free trade deal and could hobble bilateral relations across the board if Joe Biden wins the presidency. Biden is a staunch defender of the Good Friday Agreement, of which the US is the guarantor, and which requires an open border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
Democratic Party member had said that any UK move away from those parts of the EU withdrawal agreement that put the 1998 peace deal at risk would present a major impediment to a close relationship between London and Washington in the event of a Biden presidency. Britain, on the other hand, has repeatedly said that there was no threat to the open border between the two Irelands.
Updated 12:37 IST, October 1st 2020