Deputy Agriculture Secretary Dr. Jewel Bronaugh hopes for a future free trade agreement with the U.K. after leading the USDA agricultural trade mission in London.
Thirty-seven delegates from U.S. agribusinesses, farm organizations and state departments of agriculture accompanied Bronaugh to attend 235 meetings with over 40 U.K. buyers to discuss what an agriculture trade deal between the two countries could look like.
The European Union (EU) has some of the most extensive animal welfare laws in the world. With the U.K. no longer a part of the EU, the U.S. is taking the opportunity to create a trade deal that would allow more U.S. products into the U.K.
Brexit’s impact on international trade
Before Brexit, the U.K. was part of any international trade agreements made by the EU. After Brexit went into effect January 2021, the U.K. now needs to make new trade deals with other countries either by making a rollover deal or writing a new one.
A rollover deal is essentially a copy of the already existing EU deal with a country. Countries that have accepted rollover deals with the U.K. include Canada, South Korea and Switzerland.
The U.S. will not be accepting a rollover deal.
Two key factors
There are two key factors that stand in the way of a U.S., U.K. free trade agreement. The first is that the U.K. has strict rules on agricultural imports that have undergone genetic modification. However, Bronaugh hopes parliament will pass the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Bill, which would allow more flexibility for researchers and commercial breeders to use genetically modified organisms, or GMOs.
The second is that President Joe Biden and other U.S. lawmakers do not want to make a trade deal with the U.K. while there are still concerns about how the U.K. is handling the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
New trade agreements
The U.K. has successfully made three new trade agreements since the start of the Brexit transition: the deal with Australia was signed December 2021 and deals with New Zealand and Singapore were signed February 2022.
Since an agreement with the U.S. may take more time than expected, the U.K. has started making trade deals with individual states – the first being Indiana which signed a Memorandum of Understanding in May this year.
