Washington: Washington and London have chosen the port city of Baltimore — just an hour’s drive from the US capital — as the site of Monday’s talks on deepening their economic relationship. The United States is Britain’s biggest trade partner, and the two countries are particularly interconnected when it comes to services trade and direct foreign investment.
In total, the US and the UK do some $263 billion (200 billion pounds) worth of trade per year. Following Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union, London has been negotiating agreements far and wide in an effort to boost its international trade footprint — and has sought in particular to reinforce its relationship with the United States. But even though the administration of former president Donald Trump seemed ready to make a new bilateral arrangement with London and had even opened negotiation talks, the administration of current President Joe Biden does not seem to be in a hurry to continue them.
“It’s important to remember that these (trade) agreements are just one tool at our disposal,” said a senior US trade official on the condition of anonymity. US Trade Representative Katherine Tai, who will lead the American side on Monday’s and Tuesday’s talks, is expected to talk about “the need to get creative and think outside the box when it comes to our trade dynamic with the UK,” another official said during a telephone conversation with reporters. “Some of our trade tools were developed decades ago, many decades ago, and don’t particularly represent the global challenges that we faced today,” the second official said.