UK sets out mandate for trade negotiations with USA

Today, the UK Department for International Trade (DIT) published its proposed approach to the future relationship negotiations with the USA. It is anticipated that the negotiations between the two countries will begin this month. The talks will be led from the UK side by Crawford Falconer, the DIT's Chief Trade Negotiation Adviser.

The UK has commented that its main objective is to "agree an ambitious and comprehensive free trade agreement with the United States that strengthens the economic relationship with our largest bilateral trading partner, promoting increased goods and services trade and greater cross-border investment". The UK also underlined that, as in the UK-EU trade negotiations, that it will walk away "if it is not a deal that suits the UK because one of the key reasons people voted to leave the EU was to have control over their own rules and regulations".

The UK's mandate for the negotiation covers, amongst others: trade in goods, good regulatory practice and regulatory cooperation, transparency, trade in services, investment, intellectual property, competition, industrial subsidies, state-owned enterprises and designated monopolies, government procurement, sustainability, anti-corruption, trade and development, trade remedies, dispute settlement, SMEs, trade and women's economic empowerment, and territorial application.

The USA published its own mandate on its future relationship with the UK last year. In this document the USA highlighted that the "the UK's decision to leave the EU creates a new opportunity to expand and deepen the U.S.-UK trade relationship….and provide an opportunity to develop new approaches to emerging trade areas where the United States and the UK share common interests and are global leaders, such as digital trade and financial services".