On Monday, United States President Donald Trump commented that the newly agreed upon withdrawal agreement approved by the EU will hurt future trade deals between Britain and the US.
Trump said to a group of reporters in front of the White House “I think we have to take a look seriously at whether or not the U.K. is allowed to trade, because you know right now if you look at the deal, they may not be able to trade with us and that wouldn’t be a good thing… But right now, as the deal stands, she may not — they may not be able to trade with the U.S. and I don’t think they want that at all, that would be a very big negative for the deal.”
In response these comments by Trump, a spokesman for Downing Street said “The political declaration we have agreed with the EU is very clear we will have an independent trade policy so that the UK can sign trade deals with countries around the world including with the US.” The spokesman further elaborated that Trump may be incorrect in saying that the US will not able to trade with the UK, by saying “We have already been laying the groundwork for an ambitious agreement with the US through our joint working groups, which have met five times so far,”
Earlier this year, Trump had said that a trade deal between the US and UK would “absolutely be possible,” which Trump had said after an interview with The Sun where he said “If they do a deal like that, we would be dealing with the European Union instead of dealing with the UK, so it will probably kill the deal,” signalling that if the deal is done as is, he would not approve.
This comes at a time when Theresa May is trying to get the plan approved by parliament, which is set to have a vote on the issue on 11 December. So far, according to an analysis by The Guardian, 89 Tory MPs will not or most likely will not vote for May’s Brexit deal. This vote would be held after a five-day Commons debate where May will have to secure enough support to pass her deal.
