Kemi Badenoch has revealed the date for the next major Brexit trade deal which could transform Britain’s fortunes after leaving the EU.
The Business and Trade Secretary told a major conference in Greenwich that she would be flying to Florida in two weeks’ time to sign a trade deal with Florida.
With a GDP of £1.1 trillion ($1.4 trillion), Florida is America’s fourth biggest economy and would be in the top 15 economies in the world if it was a separate country.
Experts have said that deals with US states are in many ways more valuable to the UK than a single federal trade deal with America which President Biden has blocked because it gives Britain access to the service industry.
Marco Forgione, director general of the Institute of Export and International Trade (IoE&IT) has pointed out previously that 80 percent of the UK economy is made up of the service industry and a US deal could not provide it access to the American markets while state deals can.
In a question and answer session at the Alliance of Responsible Citizenship conference in London, Ms Badenoch told an international audience that she is a fan of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis who has made a name taking on “woke corporations”.
She said: “I like Ron DeSantis. I’m actually going to be in Florida in two weeks to sign a trade deal.”
She added: “I understand what it is he is trying to do.”
Ms Badenoch also used the session as the keynote speaker to launch an attack on “woke capitalism” and major companies putting virtue signalling above profits.
The minister said: “It seems companies are now competing over who can signal virtues the most.”
She also warned that companies are too prone to “safe-ism” and not willing to take risks, warning that it was entrepreneurialism in the UK and the Western world.
Ms Badenoch warned that this approach had seen the rise of companies spending more time with diversity or net zero targets rather than making money.
She was applauded when she blamed “various branches of academia, who don’t actually have to deal with the consequences of their ideology” for the rise of woke capitalism in boardrooms.
The big announcement on Florida though had been previously signalled by Mr Forgione who is consulted by the Department for Business and Trade (DBT).
In September he met with another trade delegation from Jacksonville getting ready for a major new deal.
Mr Forgione said that a Florida deal is “very significant”.
He told Express.co.uk: “Florida is in the pipeline for approving an agreement.
“And that will be focusing much more on the FinTech side of things, you have got a big port in Jacksonville as well with a direct trade link to the UK.”
