Joe Biden is to move further away from the notion of a comprehensive US-UK free trade agreement under his “America first” strategy, analysts say. Brexit Britain has long been hoping to reach a deal with Washington following its departure from the European Union in 2016 but its ongoing dispute over the Northern Ireland protocol has also thrown the possibility of talks into question. Speaking to Express.co.uk, University of Southern California Professor Jonathan Aronson suggested Biden will not pursue any new trade negotiation in the short term to protect his electoral chances and not “upset the trade unions.”
Prof Aronson said: “Biden is a little more America First in terms of his policies. He is not going to do anything to completely upset the trade unions.
“That probably means there’s a better opportunity to work in areas like technology and digital trade than in other realms of all this.
“In terms of the economies of both counties, obviously Britain has been struggling so it’s not clear the United States wants to do a huge deal with Britain until Britain gets its own act in order.
“The United States is sort of preoccupied with Ukraine, with China, with climate change now, with politics and other things so the bandwidth at the very top to tackle anything major with Britain is probably pretty limited.”
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The California-based academic also suggested the United States will not intervene to push the UK and the EU into reaching an agreement on Northern Ireland.
Prof Aronson added: “I don’t think that the United States is going to push Britain too much on anything. And I don’t think Britain is going to be able to push the United States too much on anything.
“The people who are involved at the middle level of the bureaucracy are certainly watching, certainly would like to see some resolution but they don’t want to mess the apple cart with anybody right now.
“They’re not going to do anything bold unless it works well for the United States and actually if it works well for the EU.”
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“But these are very difficult benefits to pin down because the Americans also demand certain things if you negotiate a free trade, which would be access to Britain’s agricultural sector.”
He added: “Some industries gain access, other industries face increased import competition, there is an asymmetry between these two processes.
“For instance, agriculture, and other industries, which now have a degree of protection – what’s going to happen to them if they face the onslaught of American economies of scale?”
The United Kingdom has so far struck a series of state-by-state agreements with US States, including North and South Carolina and Indiana.
