On his trip to the US this week, Boris Johnson was forced to acknowledge that an all-encompassing, bilateral trade deal with the US might be hard to achieve. It’s unsurprising, given antipathy to aspects of such deals from Joe Biden’s trade union supporters.
So how will Johnson keep his dream of a US deal – on which he staked much of his credibility – alive? And what does the US – now firmly with the “whip hand”, as one trade expert told the Financial Times today – want from the UK in return?
Trade negotiations are about much more than tariffs on beef or cars, though these tend to be the things that grab the headlines and create sticking points. They’re increasingly about services, now largely digitally enabled – and about the rules (‘non-tariff barriers’, in trade parlance) that protect us from poor or exploitative business operations. And there’s no service like the National Health Service.
