Max Colchester
Appearances
WSJ What’s News
U.S., U.K. to Unveil Trade-Deal Framework
This isn't going to be a comprehensive trade deal that covers a lot of sectors. It's likely to be focused on a few key areas, notably the steel tariffs that Trump imposed on the UK and automobile tariffs that the two countries imposed on each other. And there will also be potentially a tweak to the amount of tax the UK levies on big US tech companies here.
WSJ What’s News
U.S., U.K. to Unveil Trade-Deal Framework
The UK and the US are very close transatlantic partners. Trade between the two countries is broadly balanced. So there wasn't a huge trade deficit as there is, for example, between the US and the EU or China. So this is always going to be one of the easier trade negotiations to undertake. And actually, most of the trade between the US and the UK is in services, not in goods.
WSJ What’s News
U.S., U.K. to Unveil Trade-Deal Framework
So it's important, but it's also quite symbolic. And it shows the Trump administration is serious when it says it does want to try to ease some of the trade restrictions it imposed earlier this year. But I think what it shows is that the tariffs are here to stay, that the US will maintain a basic tax on imports into its country. And that isn't up for negotiation at this stage.
WSJ What’s News
U.S., U.K. to Unveil Trade-Deal Framework
The idea that Trump's moves are sort of the death knell for globalization might be slightly overstated. So we've seen, for instance, the U.K. just this week sign quite a comprehensive trade deal with India. So now you've seen the fifth and sixth largest economies in the world signing a deal to ease trade. So it seems like Trump's efforts have actually kind of spurred
WSJ What’s News
U.S., U.K. to Unveil Trade-Deal Framework
countries to get more serious about lowering trade barriers, if anything, to offset the tariff effect of the U.S. That was Journal correspondent Max Colchester.
WSJ What’s News
House Republicans Face Difficult Trade-Offs to Pass Tax Bill
The main implication actually is not so much as practical as in as it resets the mood music around the relationship between the UK and the EU. What we're seeing today is a series of agreements on potentially allowing young people to move more freely between the EU and the UK. There's an agreement to try and make it easier to trade. food and other agricultural products between the two.
WSJ What’s News
House Republicans Face Difficult Trade-Offs to Pass Tax Bill
There's access to a big defence fund, potentially. So there's a lot of things that are being thrown in here to try and ease tensions and build trust towards potentially a deeper relationship in the future.
WSJ What’s News
House Republicans Face Difficult Trade-Offs to Pass Tax Bill
The details are still being hashed out, but there's an EU fund being set up where basically finance is being pooled on the EU side and British arms makers would be able to sell to governments using that fund to procure weapons.
WSJ What’s News
House Republicans Face Difficult Trade-Offs to Pass Tax Bill
And there's a greater emphasis also on more talks on security cooperation, being able to move UK troops through the EU and pooling intelligence and data on criminals and the like is also on the table.
WSJ What’s News
House Republicans Face Difficult Trade-Offs to Pass Tax Bill
The two big factors are Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the election of Donald Trump. Those are the two factors which really made the EU and the UK realize that actually they needed to band together to weather those two storms. The UK is one of the biggest military spenders in the world and is Europe's biggest military spender.
WSJ What’s News
House Republicans Face Difficult Trade-Offs to Pass Tax Bill
And so it made sense to bring it closer to the EU as the EU and Europe tries to counter Russia. And Trump's trade war means that Actual like-minded allies should try and do more business with each other as opposed to just focusing on the U.S., which was the U.K. 's plan after Brexit. So we've seen a sort of geopolitical reality check on Brexit.