LONDON, Dec 17 — Britain and the United States are holding talks to cut trade tariffs imposed in a transatlantic spat with the EU over subsidies for aerospace giant Airbus, US trade representative Robert Lighthizer said today.
At the same time, he played down expectations of a major UK-US free trade deal promised by President Donald Trump and sought by Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
“I’m talking to (UK international trade secretary) Liz Truss about trying to work out some kind of a deal,” he told the BBC in an interview.
“I’m hopeful we can get some kind of an agreement out you know, we don’t have a lot of time left.”
The talks come after Britain last week announced it would drop tariffs on US products which the EU imposed after the United States hiked duties on European produce because of state support for Airbus.
The change will come into force from January 1, when Britain leaves the European Union single market and customs union as a result of Brexit.
In doing so, London is hoping to curry favour with Washington and pave the way for a wider trade deal.
Lighthizer suggested the United States could lower its punitive tariffs, notably on Scotch whisky.
“We have the advantage in that both the US and the UK — particularly the current government of the UK — are not big subsidisers, where some other countries are more inclined to subsidise,” he added.
“So it would be helpful if we could come to some kind of agreement.”
Trump is in the dog days of his turbulent presidency, just as Britain gears up for Brexit and is in the process of finalising free trade deals around the world.
A deal with the world’s biggest economy would be a huge prize but is controversial in Britain, with fears Johnson could sign away access for US companies to the state-run National Health Service.
There are also lingering doubts about food standards, including imports of US chlorine-washed chicken and hormone-injected beef.
Lighthizer said it was “extremely likely” a deal will be signed “before long” but said “tough compromises” were needed, particularly on agricultural issues.
Much would depend on Britain’s future relations with the EU, which is its largest single trading partner, details of which are still being thrashed out in talks in Brussels.
“The nature of our relationship is going to be affected by the nature of the relationship between the EU and the UK, right,” he said.
“They’re a much bigger trading partner to you than we are, so that has an impact... I’ve always had the view that there’s just an awful lot of trade between the UK and the EU and it was hard to see there weren’t going to be any rules to that.”
London has already announced a number of trade deals with countries including Japan, largely based on existing accords with the EU. — AFP
