Britain talks with private US states about trade | Abroad

The British Secretary for International Trade, Anne-Marie Trevelian, is now targeting trade talks with the states. “One of my secretaries of state, Penny Morton, is currently in California for talks like this. He will also travel to Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina and Oklahoma, “he told the Bloomberg News Agency.

After the UK’s exit from the European Union, trade agreements between Brussels and Washington could no longer be used by the British. No alternative agreement yet. This hurts the Johnson administration. One of his Brexit promises was that the UK would easily negotiate a more favorable trade agreement with the US based on its own merits than the EU had.

Nothing has come up yet. Although the EU and the US have recently reached an agreement to gradually reduce US import tariffs on steel and aluminum, those trade sanctions still apply to the British. As a reminder, in 2018, the administration of former President Donald Trump introduced a 25 percent tax on imports of steel products and 10 percent on aluminum products.

According to Trevelyan, the agreement with the EU is a priority because the EU exports more steel and aluminum to the United States than the UK. He also said that President Joe Biden now understands that domestic affairs are more important than negotiating international trade agreements. “But we are ready to start those conversations again,” he added.

Later this week, Trevelyan will also meet with US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimonto for the first time. So he will also raise tariffs on steel and aluminum.