The UK cannot afford to miss out on future trade with US states
The Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, must demonstrate to the President of the United States, Donald Trump, how important the US-UK relationship is to secure future trade deals with US states, say leading audit, tax and business advisory firm, Blick Rothenberg.
Simon Gleeson, Head of the firm’s US Desk, said: “The prospect of a US-UK trade deal seems more challenging than ever with the risk that bi-lateral trade between the US and UK will become a lower priority in light of the Trump campaign accusing Labour of “blatant foreign interference” in the election and seeking a formal investigation into the party’s members’ campaigning for Kamala Harris.”
He added: “However, there are trade pacts with individual US states and the UK. As of today, Texas is the largest and eighth US state to conclude a trade pact with the UK, bringing the combined GDP to £5.3 trillion – a quarter of US GDP. The UK is Texas’ 8th largest international goods export market, with total trade in goods already worth £14.7 billion in 2023.”
Simon said: “Given how valuable trade between US states and the UK is to both countries, it is important new trade deals continue to be secured. To support this, it will be critical for both new governments to honour the Atlantic Declaration announced in 2023, a first-of-its-kind covering bi-lateral economic, technological, commercial and trade relations.”
He added: “At the time the Atlantic Declaration was made, both countries committed to exploring ways to grow trade already worth £315 billion. This is now strategically more important than ever to the UK economy given the very top-heavy Autumn budget by Chancellor Rachel Reeves and ongoing debate on how realistic the growth projections are.”
Simon said: “Business leaders, founders and the entire tech community will be seeking assurances and overtures by UK government and trade officials to ensure there is strong ongoing cooperation from the US in all areas from security to innovation and tech to life-sciences.”
