United States: Trade Deal

Lord McNicol of West Kilbride Excerpts

Wednesday 6th March 2019 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Manzoor]

My Lords, we are not betraying any promise. This Question is about negotiations between the US and the UK. We are working closely with our closest allies to get the best deal we can for UK businesses, consumers and others. We should support that aim wholeheartedly.

[Lord McNicol of West Kilbride (Lab)]

Does the Minister accept that, with the primary US negotiating objective being to,

“Secure comprehensive duty-free market access”,

for the US, the UK will be forced to concede on standards, eliminate barriers and agree restrictions on who we can trade with? Page 2 of the recently published US-UK negotiating objectives paper lists as an objective:

“Establish a mechanism to remove expeditiously unwarranted barriers that block the export of U.S. food and agricultural products”.


I understand the US’s aim, but what will the Government do to push back on that?

[Baroness Manzoor]

My Lords, as I have said, as with all negotiations, those objectives mark the starting point of the US and not the end, so we will continue to discuss these issues very closely. We have already taken concrete steps towards further developing our strong trading relationship with the US. This includes signing early last month a mutual recognition agreement on conformity assessment, which will secure trade in goods worth up to £12.8 billion as we leave the EU.