Does anyone else remember when all those post-Brexit trade deals would be created as easily as falling off logs, with the US being at the front of the queue (even though Barack Obama said otherwise?)
It seems that that was another lie we were told:
Biden ditches trade deal talks with Britain https://t.co/bLYzKmiHkK As we always knew would be the case after Brexit, we're at the back of the queue
— Richard Murphy (@RichardJMurphy) December 18, 2023
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
Buy me a coffee!
I didn’t even know that trade deal talks with the USA had begun.
Still, the USA is our second biggest trade partner if ranking by country, so trade deals can’t be that important.
If they weren’t we would not have tried so hard to get one
Well, I understand there was a ‘Bourne Supremacy’, a ‘Bourne Legacy’, (but it can’t be the ‘Bourne Identity’ since we don’t know who or what this Bourne is). Since it is reasonable to conclude it isn’t part of the eponymous, film franchise ($800m gross – I checked), I surmise this contribution is something else; best named ‘The Bourne Farce’ (one carefully aimed rotten tomato duly coming up).
🙂
Or maybe “One Bourne Every Minute”.
I don’t quite know how we got into this, but perhaps it’s assumed we were Bourne yesterday.
I’m sure that Sunak’s expression says ‘Help me!! Please!!!’.
I think if Trump were still in power we would have got a trade deal with the USA. However the Tories would have been so keen to get one that it would have been worse than no deal at all.
Looking at the timing of this announcement I wonder if Biden was waiting on Northern Ireland’s pro consul Chris Heaton Harris to deliver a working post GFA devolved government with DUP returning before entirely shutting the UK out of all further trade negotiations ? Why does anyone in the British governing believe a word the DUP says ? No one living in N.I. does.
The US government have also submitted endless bipartisan warnings to this UK government regarding the ongoing heinous meddling with fractured post civil war N.I.. The latest was a condemnation of the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy & Reconciliation) Act 2023 which breaks international law and sets a vile global legal precedent for full criminal amnesty for any state agent committing criminal atrocities.
The recent neo con call for the need to leave the ECHR immediately and the attempt to deploy the Rwanda Bill to deliver this is because the attempt to use the N.I. Troubles Act to achieve this same end is failing. They need to be out of the jurisdiction of the ECHR to implement their batshit crazy neo liberal ideology of destroying central and local government and the subsequent carving up of Britain into privately owned and run Charter City areas.
Finally, the DUP are deluded in their belief that a MAGA victory will return their Ulster nationalist autocracy to them. Putin will not allow Trump to do anything other than deliver on Putin’s longterm desire for a reunited Ireland.
I leave the last word to a certain Mr Mercury – singer & prophet:
Sunak walks warily down the street
With the brim pulled way down low
Ain’t no sound but the sound of his feet
Trade Deals ready to go
Are you ready? Hey, are you ready for this?
Are you hanging on the edge of your seat?
Out of the doorway the clauses rip
To the sound of the beat, yeah
Another one bites the dust
Another one bites the dust
And another one gone, and another one gone
Another one bites the dust, yeah
Hey, I’m gonna get EU too
Another one bites the dust
etc.
Do we really want chlorinated chickens on our shelves?
We’re better off without a deal.
I completely agree with your worries here. We don’t need their food production processes and products. You can obtain wholesome food there, but only from specialist sellers and from the roadside, if you come across one while driving there. The latter is unlikely, isn’t it. So, not really a factor here.
Sunak’s ego and related factors seem to be relevant here. He seems to be getting worse by the week. He would be doing the country a favor by calling for a general election for after the New Year.
The US will not sign any Free Trade Agreement unless it allows for importation of “ALL” USA agriculture products and agricultural machinery. This why Obama said “No”. Biden said “No”. Trump will say “No”. If the UK thinks Trump is on their side then the UK is being used and Trump will screw you. With respect to the UK, Trump is only interested in State Dinners at Buckingham Palace in HIS honor and his golf course in Scotland. I am willing to bet KCIII cannot stand to be in the same room with Trump.
You may not like US chicken but US mass produced beef is much better than UK mass produced beef in my opinion.
I was always under the impression that the USA, and Biden in particular, was never interested in any trade deal with the UK. I may be wrong but Biden said there’s ‘no chance of a deal’ very early on.
It shows the crap ‘begging bowl’ statecraft of the Tories – ‘please give us a deal, please’.
For nearly 100 years the United States has been the largest economy on earth (and much of that time by some margin). Its economy is so large, it doesn’t need sweeping trade deals with other countries (NAFTA being the regional exception), as it (along with other large trading powers such as China and the EU) can pick and chose and are large enough to dictate the terms of the rules of the game.
I think it a little odd, that the Tories, cut from the poshest of private schools (who trained men to run an empire) are having the attitude of ‘give us a deal – please’ – surely this is beneath them as: ‘we used to run an empire, and others took orders from us’. Oh wait – ‘we’re not an empire anymore, just a European country in a world of large powers and big trading blocs’. Oh dear.
Other than TV shows (Downton Abbey, Doctor Who, Vera, Bridgerton, etc..etc…) and Jaguars, can anyone name a few products the UK exports to the US? I really do not know.
Are Bentleys still manufactured in the UK?