WASHINGTON—The U.S. and the U.K. have agreed to start talks to deepen trade and investment ties, their first broad effort to promote bilateral trade since negotiations to forge a free-trade agreement between the two nations were suspended last year.
The discussions are aimed at closer collaboration on a range of issues including easing supply-chain congestion, decarbonizing their economies, promoting digital trade, supporting domestic workforces and labor rights, U.S. and U.K. officials said.
The talks will take place on March 21 and 22, when U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai is scheduled to meet the U.K.’s Secretary of State for International Trade Anne-Marie Trevelyan in Baltimore. Another session will take place in the U.K. later this spring, said the officials.
The discussions represent the Biden administration’s efforts to strengthen economic ties with friendly nations as the countries confront Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with economic sanctions and China’s growing clout in setting rules and standards for global trade and technology.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai.
Photo: DENIS BALIBOUSE/REUTERS
U.K. Secretary of State for International Trade Anne-Marie Trevelyan.
Photo: Stefan Rousseau/Zuma Press
The U.K. is the U.S.’s seventh-largest trading partner for goods, with $118 billion in combined exports and imports in 2021, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. The total bilateral services trade was valued at $115 billion in 2020, making the U.K. America’s largest services trading partner.
The U.S. in September launched a forum with the European Union to cooperate over emerging technologies and strengthen supply chains. Washington is also preparing to start a new framework to discuss economic and trade issues with Asia-Pacific nations.
Ms. Tai said in a statement that with the new dialogues, the two nations “begin an open-minded and deep discussion on how we can advance smarter and more strategic trade between our two countries.”
The U.S. and the U.K. started negotiations for a bilateral free-trade agreement in 2019 under the Trump administration, but the discussions were put on hold as the Biden administration distanced itself from new free-trade agreements to focus on investing in the domestic economy.
A USTR official said the U.S. hasn’t decided whether to resume the free-trade agreement negotiations with the U.K.
After its departure from the EU, the U.K. has been working to strengthen its own trade ties with friendly nations. The country, for example, has applied to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, the new iteration of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a robust regional trade agreement that the U.S. abandoned in 2017.
“Now, more than ever, we recognize the power of deepening trade ties with like-minded allies around the world,” Ms. Trevelyan said in a statement.
Write to Yuka Hayashi at [email protected]
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Appeared in the March 17, 2022, print edition as ‘U.S., U.K. To Start Talks on Trade Ties.’
