US President Donald Trump has suspended a major trade deal.
No Deal: Trump has pulled the plug on the £31bn bargain. (Image: Getty)
Donald Trump has suspended a £31 billion technology deal signed with Sir Keir Starmer during the American President’s much lauded state visit to the United Kingdom earlier this year.
It follows disagreements between the two countries over how the UK-US trade agreement is currently being hashed out.
Said to be worth a massive £31 billion, the “technology prosperity deal” was intended to build cooperation between the United States and the United Kingdom, with a focus on artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing and nuclear energy.
Whitehall bosses have confirmed the Americans suspended the deal during a visit by Labour business secretary, Peter Kyle.
Suspending the deal is reportedly intended to pile on the pressure on Sir Keir Starmer‘s floundering government, in areas where Trump is said to be looking for more concessions. These include the Trump Administration’s plans for more agricultural exports into the UK, and for the UK to loosen its food safety standards.
Earlier this year a trade agreement in principle was agreed between the President and the UK Prime Mister, however the full text was not hashed out, despite a flossy photo-op by the Prime Minister, who posed with the signed tech deal in September.
Starmer agreed to let 13,000 tonnes of American beef into the country without the need to pay tariffs, and the US now wants the UK to acknowledge and recognise American good and agricultural standards – despite there being no specific commitments to do so in the deal.
Whitehall has reportedly played down the suspension, saying that it would not have any immediate effect.
Despite the Government’s optimism, there has been no final agreement on steel exports to the USA, and it currently remains possible for Trump to cancel that part of the agreement at any stage.
Peter Kyle, and the science secretary, Liz Kendall, travelled to America last week to meet tech bosses, with their visit planned before Trump suspended the part of the deal covering that sector.
The Financial Times reported that a British Official had described their US counterparts as “very tough negotiators, but we are pretty sure we can get this back on track”.
A UK government spokesman said: “Our special relationship with the US remains strong and the UK is firmly committed to ensuring the tech prosperity deal delivers opportunity for hardworking people in both countries.”
