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Author Carol M. Highsmith Licence: Public Domain Source Wikimedia Commons |
One of the arguments in favour of Brexit before the 2016 referendum was that it would enable the UK to join the North American Free Trade Agreement ("NAFTA") or some other free trade agreement with the USA. Donald Trump terminated NAFTA in his first presidency but he replaced it with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement ("USMCA"). He has now finished USMCA by imposing punitive tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports and talking about annexing Canada.
Negotiations between HMG and the US government on a possible trade deal started during Mr Trump in his first term and continued during the Biden administration. On 8 May 2025, the two governments announced the General Terms for the US and UK economic prosperity deal. This is not a comprehensive free trade agreement. The document is only 5 pages long and covers tariffs, non-tariff barriers, digital trade, alignment and collaboration on economic security, commercial considerations and opportunities and other matters. There is no provision for dispute resolution, and the only mention of intellectual property is confirmation in para 6 that both governments intend to discuss high-standard commitments related to intellectual property rights protection and enforcement.
An update was published by Mr Trump and Sir Kier Starmer on progress towards the implementation of the agreement on the first day of the G7 summit on 16 Jun 2025. I will monitor and report on progress in this publication.
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