UK too desperate to secure US trade deal, Summers says

Bloomberg

A British-American trade deal won’t be easily agreed after Brexit because the UK wouldn’t accept the punitive terms on offer, according to former US Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers.
“Britain has no leverage. Britain is desperate. Britain has nothing else. It needs an agreement very soon. When you have a desperate partner that’s when you strike the hardest bargain.”
President Donald Trump has promised a deal between the US and the UK would be concluded quickly once the latter leaves the European Union, though analysts have questioned that timeline. Bloomberg Economics calculations show that a free trade agreement with the US would offset just a fraction of the cost of a no-deal Brexit.
Summers, speaking in an interview with BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday, said that any trade deal that Washington would agree to wouldn’t be “exciting for the prospect of the British economy.”
“I find it unlikely that there will be a substantial increase in British US trade and close to inconceivable that there will be an increase nearly so large as to make up for what Britain is losing in terms of reduced access to the EU.”
Summer also highlighted the potential roadblocks to any deal — turbulent American politics, the US-China trade war and the weakening of the UK currency.
“The deterioration of the pound is going to further complicate the negotiating picture because we will see it as giving Britain an artificial comparative advantage, and make us think about the needs to retaliate against Britain, not welcome Britain with new trade agreements.”
Trump Sees Chance With Boris Johnson to Lure UK on Huawei
As Boris Johnson hurtles toward a no-deal Brexit that could leave the UK diplomatically adrift and economically vulnerable, President Donald Trump is looking to seize an opportunity to lure the country away from Europe on some of his top foreign policy priorities that include Huawei.
Yet with Johnson focused on negotiating a breakup with the European Union — and perhaps a snap election at home — the White House may have to be patient in its hopes that the UK’s leadership change will bring closer alignment on issues including sanctioning Iran’s nuclear program and blocking Huawei Technologies Co. equipment from new 5G mobile networks.
Trump is pressing his case regardless. He and Johnson spoke by phone last week about “areas of further cooperation,” including trade, 5G technology and global security, according to a White House statement. With Johnson — a “good man” Trump has long praised for wanting to leave the EU — now at 10 Downing Street, the US sees Johnson’s need for an eventual bilateral trade deal with America as leverage to peel Britain away from Europe on key issues.
Working in the US’s favour is Johnson’s need to seal a trade deal with Washington after the UK’s departure from the EU, expected on October 31.

. To help smooth that process, Johnson could take more symbolic steps to spurn Europe and sidle up to Trump.