London starts trade talks with key ally

WASHINGTON/LONDON－After a delay caused by the coronavirus pandemic, officials from the United States and the United Kingdom have opened negotiations on a trade agreement that the UK government hopes will bring a post-Brexit economic and diplomatic boost.

UK International Trade Secretary Liz Truss and US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer held a video conference call on Tuesday at the start of the two-week round of negotiations.

The two sides, which each have about 100 officials involved in the talks, said in a statement that a transatlantic free-trade agreement would "contribute to the long-term health of our economies, which is vitally important as we recover from the challenges posed by COVID-19".

Tuesday's opening plenary will be followed by virtual meetings until May 15; the first of these was scheduled to begin on Wednesday.

While it was unusual to negotiate on all areas at once, the two sides were keen to move forward quickly. Further talks will involve more than 300 US and UK staff and officials in nearly 30 negotiating groups, Lighthizer and Truss said in a joint statement.

"We will undertake negotiations at an accelerated pace and have committed the resources necessary to progress at a fast pace," they said.

It is Washington's first major new trade negotiation in 2020. London has also been working out trade terms with the European Union following its exit from the bloc in January.

Britain left the EU on Jan 31 after almost half a century of membership and now must forge a new trade relationship with the 27-nation bloc, and with other countries around the world.

'Positive dynamic'

London's goal was to expeditiously complete both negotiations and there could be a positive dynamic between them, even though they are being headed by different lead negotiators, one UK official told journalists in a background briefing.

Karen Pierce, the British ambassador to the US, told reporters that it was "a very good sign of confidence in economic recovery" that the two countries were moving ahead with the talks.

While Downing Street sees new opportunities in the deal for the country's businesses, the opposition Labour Party and some farming-sector advocates warn of the high risks that a deal may bring to the British market.

The Labour Party said the National Health Service, food standards and workers' rights should not be sacrificed in any deal with the world's largest economic power.

There are rising concerns in Britain that a trade deal would lower barriers to controversial US exports such as chlorine-washed chicken and hormone-treated beef. Farm leaders have called on the government to make a clear statement about food imports to the country in post-Brexit trade deals.

Lighthizer, who has called the UK trade talks one of his top priorities for 2020, published objectives more than a year ago that sought full access for US agricultural products and reduced tariffs for US manufactured goods.

Airplanes, precious metals

Trade in goods between the US and the UK was valued at $127.1 billion in 2018, with the two sides roughly in balance, while the services trade topped $134.8 billion. Britain is the seventh-largest partner for the US in goods trade, just after South Korea, according to the US Census Bureau.

Airplanes and precious metals were the top export items from the US to the UK, while vehicles and machinery led the way on the products shipped to the US.

The UK government attaches great symbolic and political importance to securing a free-trade agreement with the US, though the economic benefit would be relatively modest. It said in March that eliminating tariffs on transatlantic trade in goods would increase the size of the UK economy by only 0.16 percent over the next 15 years.

Many economists say those figures pale in comparison with the harm caused by Britain's departure from the EU. And critics of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government claim that striking a deal with Washington will require Britain to accept looser US food and environmental standards, a claim the government denies.

Agencies - Xinhua