The Guardian

No deal: PM’s hopes of securing trade pact with Biden in disarray

Heather Stewart Political editor

Britain’s hopes of a post-Brexit trade deal with the US have all but evaporated, barring a dramatic change of heart from Joe Biden, it emerged yesterday, as Boris Johnson prepared for face-to-face talks in the White House.

Johnson once regarded a bilateral free-trade agreement with the US as a key Brexit win, highlighting the prospects for British exporters unfettered from the EU. But government insiders privately concede that they see little prospect of progress towards a one-to-one deal, as the Biden administration focuses on other priorities.

When Johnson was asked yesterday whether he still hoped to strike a free-trade agreement with the US by the time of the next general election, making trade cheaper by cutting tariffs, he said “we’re going as fast as we can” but declined to confirm whether it could be achieved before 2024.

When the US president was asked about the prospects of a deal as the pair met in the Oval Office, Biden responded: “We’re going to talk about trade a little bit today, and we’re going to have to work that through.”

The UK is now understood to be considering alternative options, including seeking to join the USCanada-Mexico trade deal instead of striking a bilateral agreement with Washington.

A senior government source said: “There are a variety of different ways to do this. The

question is whether the US administration is ready. The ball is in the US’s court. It takes two to tango.”

The UK government is understood to have made the point to the US that after signing a string of recent bilateral agreements, Britain now has closer trade relations with Canada or Mexico than the US despite the socalled special relationship.

Last night Biden warned the prime minister that peace in Northern Ireland must not be jeopardised by tensions over post-Brexit trade rules, stressing the importance of maintaining the careful balance that was achieved by the Good Friday agreement.

“I feel very strongly,” he said, when asked about the Northern Ireland protocol. “We spent an enormous amount of time and effort in the United States. It was a major partisan effort.”

Johnson is expected to spell out the UK’s concerns about the operation of the Northern Ireland protocol – the agreement aimed at preventing a hard trade border on the island of Ireland – in a series of meetings on Capitol Hill today.

Responding to Biden, Johnson said: “We are completely at one, because nobody wants to see anything that interrupts or unbalances the Belfast or Good Friday agreement.”

Later on in the bilateral talks, the pair exchanged gifts. Johnson gave Biden a signed copy of astronaut Tim Peak’s book, Hello, is this Planet Earth?, inscribed by Peake with the message: “I hope this book provides a reminder of what we are fighting to save as our countries battle climate change together”.

Biden gave the prime minister a framed photograph of them at the Carbis Bay G7 summit earlier this year – and a White House-branded watch.

Johnson was keen to showcase the strength of his relationship with Biden on his US trip after a fraught summer in which the UK appeared to be denied key information about the

US withdrawal from Afghanistan. He has claimed the US-UK partnership is at its strongest for “decades”.

Speaking to the US broadcaster NBC yesterday, Johnson played down differences with Biden over the Afghanistan withdrawal, which saw the Taliban sweep into Kabul and led to a chaotic evacuation.

Asked if he had been forced to wait 36 hours to speak to Biden directly about the situation in Afghanistan, he said: “I don’t discuss my calls with other leaders but to the best of my recollection we talked very frankly about the whole thing.”

Pressed on whether he agreed with Biden’s decision to set and stick to a date for the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, he said: “America has been there for 20 years and it’s a respectable argument to say ‘enough is enough’.” He added: “Could we have done things differently? Perhaps we could.”

As he arrived in Washington by train from New York, Johnson welcomed Biden’s announcement of a significant increase in US climate funding for developing countries, raising the prospect that the $100bn target set a decade ago could be reached before the Cop26 summit in November. Biden told the UN general assembly that the US would double its contribution, from $5.6bn to $11.2bn.

Johnson said the announcement was “game-changing”, and he wanted to see similar levels of ambition from other rich countries.

The US and UK have worked closely on climate but little progress has been made in recent months on deepening trade ties. Biden appointed a chief agricultural trade negotiator, Elaine Trevino, only last week, and has not yet appointed a new ambassador to London. Agriculture would be likely to be a key element of any deal.

The foreign secretary, Liz Truss, who is travelling with Johnson, said she hoped to link trade and diplomacy more closely in her new role, highlighting the potential for UK jobs from the Aukus deal.

Johnson also met the US vicepresident, Kamala Harris, in the White House. The PM said there had been “real progress” on trade, citing the lifting of the “curious” US ban on exports of British beef. He also praised the US decision to double its contribution to climate financing.

After the scramble to pull out of Afghanistan, Conservative MPs warned Johnson bilateral relations with the UK had been allowed to deteriorate since Biden’s election, and urged him to deepen connections.

Downing Street points to the Aukus deal as evidence that relations with the US remain strong.

‘America has been in Afghanistan for 20 years and it’s a respectable argument to say “enough is enough”’

Boris Johnson Prime minister

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