Britain hopes to join transatlantic trade agreement next year, no date for US-UK deal yet

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – While it is not known when post-Brexit Britain will be able to sign a full and comprehensive free trade deal with the United States, Boris Johnson hopes to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) partnership in 2022, Reuters reports.

The Biden administration has not so far rushed toward a free trade treaty with Britain, and is reportedly conducting a wide review of its trade agreements, Reuters notes. Nevertheless, if Britain can join the CPTPP meanwhile, it will benefit from the pact’s removal of 95% of tariffs between its current 11 members, Japan, Canada, Australia, Vietnam, New Zealand, Singapore, Mexico, Peru, Brunei, Chile, and Malaysia.

Although there is currently no timetable for official talks on a UK-US deal, Britain’s trade minister Angela Trevelyan said in a statement Wednesday that the necessary groundwork was ongoing, Reuters reports.

“We haven’t got a date in the diary. What we have got is a continuing dialogue on the opportunity to look sector by sector on those key areas that we know will fall into that full, comprehensive deal in full course,” Trevelyan said.
“Free trade deals are monstrous, monstrous documents and you can work on separate chapters and make good progress on those while thinking about the whole picture,” Trevelyan added.

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