Trump’s ‘Big’ Trade Offer Is Really Very Puny
The closer we get to a U.K.-U.S. trade agreement, the less impressive it looks.
Let’s do a deal.
Photographer: WPA Pool/Getty Images EuropeThroughout the 2016 Brexit referendum campaign and at many points during the Brexit debates that followed, a free trade deal with the U.S. was dangled by Brexiters as the prize that beckoned if only they’d hold their nerve. That prize may soon be there for the taking, but the closer it gets, the less impressive it looks.
This week Boris Johnson’s government published a weighty document setting out the U.K.’s objectives for a deal that would bring “better jobs, higher wages, more choice and lower prices for all parts of the U.K.” Donald Trump welcomed the start of talks, enthusing about the “fantastic and big” trade deal the two countries will do. In reality, it will probably be neither.