Britain has pinned its hopes on Donald Trump for a US trade deal, after Joe Biden scrapped early stage talks.
Whitehall sources told The Telegraph that ministers hoped a post-Brexit free trade agreement (FTA) could be revived under a second Trump administration after next November’s US election.
Mr Biden has been reluctant to discuss a deal with the UK after launching a series of protectionist “Bidenomics” policies, and the chance of an FTA under his administration is now thought to be “zero”.
On Monday, it was reported that he had quietly scrapped talks over an interim deal, known as a “foundational” agreement, which would have seen transatlantic cooperation on 11 areas of trade and regulation. The agreement would have paved the way to talks over a full deal.
The president is under pressure from the Left of the Democratic Party in Congress, where senators have argued that such an agreement would undermine protections for US workers ahead of next year’s election, Politico reported.
Non-Biden White House ‘more amenable’
Mr Biden has since halted trade talks with other countries, as the White House focuses on building up US manufacturing in key industries, including green energy and computer chip production.
Mr Biden has also been accused of snubbing the UK after failing to appear at the King’s Coronation in May.
However, it is thought that Mr Trump’s election next year could lead to the return of talks over a full deal, once described by the former president as “very substantial” and likely to increase current trade levels by “three to four, five times”.
He later withdrew from talks over concerns about the Brexit deal reached with the EU by Boris Johnson’s government.
A Whitehall source told The Telegraph: “When an agreement was being drawn up, it was because Trump had said that a trade deal with the UK was a possibility, so a non-Biden White House might be more amenable.
“We have always said on our end that if America wants to do a deal, we’re ready to do a deal.”
They added: “There’s a lot you can do outside a trade deal, but Trump was previously someone who said that a trade deal was a possibility.”
Talks could be run by Labour
Striking a major deal with the US has become a point of principle for Conservative ministers, after Barack Obama told voters in 2016 that Britain would be “at the back of the queue” if it voted for Brexit.
The US is the UK’s largest trading partner as a country, accounting for 17 per cent of all exports in the year to June 30, 2023.
However, there have also been major holdups in negotiations over trade, including a longstanding controversy over Britain’s decision not to allow chlorine-washed chicken from US farmers to be exported to the UK.
Any future Trump administration would be unable to start negotiating with the UK until after the next inauguration in January 2025, which could mean talks are run by Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party.
The Telegraph understands Labour’s plan for US trade relations would not involve seeking a full FTA with the US, which officials believe would take too long and be mired in disputes over chicken and other agricultural products.
Instead, the party would prefer to pursue smaller agreements in specific areas to avoid hold-ups over key issues like chlorine-washed chicken and increase the West’s independence from China.
The sector-specific deals pursued by Labour would likely include agreement on critical minerals used in electric car batteries, like lithium and cobalt, the pharmaceutical industry, AI and quantum computing.
A UK government spokesman said: “The UK and US are rapidly expanding co-operation on a range of vital economic and trade issues building on the Atlantic Declaration announced earlier this year.”