US-UK trade deal

With most of the world focused on stopping the COVID-19 pandemic, the Trump and Johnson administrations are moving forward this week with US-UK trade negotiations that civil society groups in both countries worry could privilege corporate profits at the expense of the environment, consumer safety, public health and worker rights.  

Reaction to reports that US-UK trade talks are to restart virtually next week.

A group of charities and campaigning groups has written to the government today, calling on them to halt trade negotiations with the United States to focus instead on the health and economic consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

The letter was sent following comments made by the United States Trade Representative on Monday 23 March 2020 in which he confirmed that “both the United States and the United Kingdom are committed to starting trade negotiations as soon as possible”.

As the UK trade minister Greg Hands visits the United States for trade talks (1), an alliance of civil society groups this morning delivered nearly 70,000 signatures to the Department for International Trade calling on the UK government to commit to keeping controversial ‘corporate courts’ out of post-Brexit trade deals.

On Monday, the UK is expected to release its negotiating objectives for a trade deal with the United States, at the same time as it begins formal negotiations with the European Union over future trade arrangements.

A US-UK trade deal could have far reaching implications for global justice – this briefing outlines the big issues to watch out for, including what we already know has been discussed, the secrecy of the negotiations, and the timeline for the talks.

“He’s clearly rattled by the scale of opposition to a US trade deal – and he should be”.

Global Justice Now returned to court today to challenge Boris Johnson’s government to release details of secret trade talks held with at least 21 countries including the USA, China, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

Campaigners will challenge the Department for International Trade in court on Thursday 12 December over its failure to release full details of dozens of post-Brexit trade talks. The papers, including the redacted minutes of US-UK negotiations which have become a major political issue during the general election, were released to campaign group Global Justice Now in heavily redacted form earlier this year. But campaigners claim the blacked out documents are an affront to democracy, arguing that the far-reaching implications of trade deals today necessitate high levels of transparency and scrutiny which the government is blocking.

A Global Justice Now spokesperson said:

“The leak of the Trump Trade Files has revealed the threat to NHS drug prices, to food standards and to our democracy itself from a US-UK trade deal. Wherever the leak came from, no one has disputed that the documents are real. They are information, not disinformation.

"Voters can now clearly see what the Conservative government has been willing to put on the table in these trade talks, and will be able to make an informed choice on 12 December.”

Documents have been leaked from six rounds of trade talks between the US and the UK. We look at what the documents say and what it means.