May’s Brexit deal could hurt UK-US trade pact: Trump

Bloomberg

US President Donald Trump dropped a rhetorical bomb on UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s efforts to get a Brexit agreement through parliament, warning the deal she reached with the EU could jeopardise Britain’s ability to strike a trade pact with the US.
“Right now as the deal stands she may not — they may not — be able to trade with the US and I don’t think they want that at all, that would be a very big negative for the deal,” Trump said.
The president called May’s agreement “a great deal for the EU” and urged the prime minister to reopen negotiations with Brussels, something both she and EU leaders who approved the deal have repeatedly declared they would not do. The pound dropped 0.4 percent against the dollar. “I don’t think the prime minister meant that,” Trump said of the limits the 585-page exit document would put on the UK’s ability to reach a trade pact with the US.
Trump’s first comments on the Brexit deal since it was unveiled earlier this month came at a delicate time for May. She is facing widespread skepticism from within her own Conservative party and more broadly about the terms of an agreement. The prime minister has announced that the contentious divorce terms would go to parliament on December 11 for a decisive vote many expect her to lose.

TOUGH TALK
On Tuesday, UK Cabinet minister David Lidington said any trade deal with the US was “always going to be a challenge” and sought to play do-wn Trump’s remarks as “not unexpected.”
The US “is a tough trade negotiator,” Lidington, May’s de-facto deputy, said in a BBC interview. Trump’s comments are also potentially inflammatory as they align him publicly with pro-Brexit campaigners such as Boris Johnson, the former foreign secretary, who are trying to force May to ditch her deal. Some of them are plotting to oust May herself.
The US president’s objections were aimed at the fact that under the terms negotiated by May the UK would remain in a customs union with the EU for a 21-month transition period while Britain negotiates a fuller trade deal with the EU. That could be extended in perpetuity and would remain in place if the UK failed to reach a longer-term pact with the EU.
May says that her aim is for a new commercial agreement with the EU that will allow the UK to strike trade deals with other countries around the world. The plan remains sketchy and the details have not yet been negotiated.

May seeks businesses’ help to sell Brexit deal
Bloomberg

British Prime Minister Theresa May is seeking the help of businesses to sell her Brexit deal to the British public and her own rebellious lawmakers, three people familiar with the matter said.
The premier and her chief of staff, Gavin Barwell, hosted more than 120 business chiefs at Downing Street in order to explain details of the deal she sealed at the weekend with the European Union. Business leaders were asked to lobby their local members of Parliament and emphasise that the job security of their constituents depends on the deal, according to the people, who asked not to be named because the meeting was private.
May spent the trying to sell the agreement to lawmakers in Parliament, during more than two hours of debate. Proceedings were dominated by criticism that laid bare the struggle she faces to get the deal approved by the House of Commons. She has until a decisive vote on December 11 to persuade lawmakers to back the deal, and has warned that the alternative is either no deal or no Brexit. During the meeting, few legislators spoke to support her.