Back of the Queue? No UK-U.S. Trade Deal Until at Least 2024, as Biden Prioritises China: Report

A free trade agreement between the United States and the UK is unlikely to be signed until at least 2024, as the Biden administration is set to focus on China and domestic issues, American sources told a British broadsheet.

The pro-Brexit former President Donald Trump had championed a UK-U.S. deal; however, the crucial agreement for Britain has reportedly been put on the backburner by the famously anti-British 77-year-old Democrat.

A former U.S. Trade Representatives Office official (USTR), who has worked with Biden’s Trade Representative nominee, told The Daily Telegraph: “It [a UK deal] is going to be some years at a minimum.”

“You might not get to it in the first term. I predict they’ll do it, but there’s a material chance they don’t,” the source added.

“It would be a mistake to assume this (the UK negotiations) continues. I’m sceptical they’re going to move forward from what I’ve seen and heard,” the former official continued.
Another former American trade official told the paper: “They’re not going to pursue something that’s not essential to what he [Mr Biden] is doing. The UK has already asked us questions, what does this mean for us? I think there’s a chance it [a deal] doesn’t happen at all [under Biden].”

The officials said that U.S. trade efforts will focus on China rather than on signing individual free trade agreements, with little will in the Democrat-controlled Congress to push for trade deals in general.

Former President Trump, a longstanding supporter of the pro-sovereignty Brexit movement, championed UK free trade agreement efforts during his presidency. However, amid persistent extensions to the official departure from the European Union, a general lack of emphasis by the British government, and ultimately the Chinese coronavirus, a deal was never signed.

Biden, for his part, has long expressed his opposition to Brexit and may be looking to fulfil former President Barack Obama’s warning that Britain would go to the “back of the queue” if the country voted for independence from the EU.

Last week, the Democrat administration published a 308-page trade agenda dossier, listing four potential free trade deals, with the UK being listed last behind Kenya, Japan, and the European Union.