Rushing into a trade deal with the US would harm the UK | Adam Marshall
As someone born in the US who has spent all his adult life in the UK, you might think I would be a natural advocate for a comprehensive US-UK free trade agreement. After all, more than 15% of all UK goods exports already go to the US - the biggest percentage for any single country, if the 47% of UK goods exports that go to the EU's 27 countries are discounted.
The US and UK are the world's two pre-eminent services exporters and the flow of knowledge and deals between them is similarly immense, as is the healthy competition between firms and financial centres. Because of this, a surprisingly large number of politicians and commentators seem to believe that, rather than pursuing quick wins that tackle some of the practical issues faced in UK-US trade, a comprehensive FTA with the US should be an early goal for post-Brexit Britain.
Related: Rex Tillerson: 'America first' means divorcing our policy from our values
Related: Hopes of EU-US trade agreement put on ice, say Brussels sources
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