There is no hope of a trade deal between Britain and the United States happening before 2025, reports claim.
UK government insiders cited by reports are alleged to have said there is no hope of a post-Brexit UK-U.S. trade deal happening before 2025.
Such a deal was said to be under active discussion between authorities in the UK and the Trump administration, only for such talks to be scrapped upon Joe Biden assuming office in 2021.
The expected landing date for such a trade deal has been constantly pushed back ever since, with authorities initially saying that there would not be a deal before 2022, and then later 2024.
Now, according to a report by The Telegraph, sources within the British government are saying that they do not expect any such negotiations to take place before the next presidential term in early 2025.
Such a date is seemingly based on the fact that Biden may have been booted out of office by that point, with it being conceivable that a commander-in-chief who is more friendly towards the UK could be in power at that point.
“The US can remain on the back-burner until we have a more sympathetic US President,” David Jones MP, the deputy chairman of the Pro-Brexit European Research Group, remarked regarding the revised timeframe for a trade deal.
“In the meantime, we can focus on more enthusiastic trading partners, who are accounting for an increasing share of the global economy,” he went on to say.
The lack of a trade deal with the United States is one of the many post-Brexit problems the UK government has made for itself, with stalled talks seemingly being a major point of annoyance for many within the ruling Conservative Party.
It was not supposed to be this way either, with the Donald Trump administration seemingly being keen on establishing such an agreement with the UK in the twilight of the 45th President’s time in office. But successive British governments barely managing to deliver Brexit, never mind showing interest in making the most of the opportunities it presented, squandered the chance.
That window of opportunity then closed once Joe Biden assumed office, with the Democratic President kicking the UK to the back of the queue for any sort of trade deal, seemingly in line with the U.S. Democratic Party’s favourable position towards the EU and general dislike of Brexit.
UK Prime Ministers have failed to reignite American interest in such a deal ever since, with the Biden administration frequently using ongoing tensions in Northern Ireland as an excuse to ignore trade deal negotiations with Britain.
The U.S. has even previously issued veiled threats against the United Kingdom over the Northern Ireland protocol, ordering the Conservative government to go along with the demands of the EU or risk losing out on a future U.S. trade deal.
“There’s no formal linkage on trade talks between the US and the UK and the Northern Ireland protocol, as we have said, but efforts to undo the Northern Ireland protocol would not create a conducive environment, and that’s basically where we are in the dialogue,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre previously said.
However, with such an EU-UK dispute seemingly being solved with the Windsor Framework, no such talks of a trade deal have appeared, with the UK once again seemingly being left in the lurch by Biden.