Trump Adviser Bolton Touts Again US-UK Trade Deal after Hard Brexit but ‘in Pieces’

Trump Adviser Bolton Touts Again US-UK Trade Deal after Hard Brexit but ‘in Pieces’

The UK is “first in line” for a trade agreement with the US after it leaves the EU without a deal but that agreement will probably be realized gradually and in parts, according to Trump’s NSA.

John Bolton, the National Security Adviser of US President Donald Trump, has once again promised the UK a trade deal with the United States as soon as the former leaves the EU with a “hard” Brexit.

Bolton as well as his superior Trump have been vocal in their support for Britain’s departure from the EU, and at that for a Brexit without an exit deal.

Bolton spoke on Tuesday after meeting in London with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday.

He made it clear, however, that the future US – UK “post-hard Brexit” trade deal would not be comprehensive but would be done “in pieces.”

In his words, Washington would propose an accelerated series of trade deals to be done on a “sector-by-sector” basis, with an agreement on manufacturing being agreed first.

Those bilateral “series of agreements” could be carved out “very quickly, very straight-forwardly,” Bolton stated, as cited by the BBC.

“Both President Trump and I were leavers before there were leavers,” the US National Security Adviser said, while explaining that trade deals for financial services and agriculture would not be the first to be agreed.

He further argued that “doing it in pieces” is not unprecedented and the US understood the importance and urgency of “doing as much as we can agree on as rapidly as possible because of the impending 31 October exit date”.

“To be clear, in the Trump administration, Britain’s constantly at the front of the trade queue, or line as we say,” Bolton added, declaring his expectations for enthusiastic bipartisan support in the US Congress.

“We want to move very quickly. We wish we could have moved further along in this with the prior government,” Trump’s NSA said further, revealing that his proposed plan for US – UK trade deal or deals would likely follow World Trade Organisation rules

At the same time, Bolton lashed out against the EU for treating voters like “peasants”.

“The fashion in the European Union when the people vote the wrong way from the way that the elites want to go is to make the peasants vote again and again until they get it right,” he said.

Former British Foreign Secretary from the Labor Party, Jack Straw, responded with criticism to Bolton’s US – UK trade deal plan in media comments.

In his words, in return for a trade deal with the US, the UK would likely have to agree to some US demands such as allowing imports of US chlorine-washed chicken.

“This is a highly transactional administration… you don’t get something for nothing,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today program with respect to the Trump Administration.

According to Lewis Lukens, a former deputy chief of mission at the US Embassy in London and former acting US ambassador, the Trump Administration will likely make “strong demands” on the UK to back the American positions on China, Huawei, and Iran.

Thus, the US is likely to want a “clear indication” from the UK it would leave the Iran nuclear deal as Trump did on behalf of the US in May 2018.

Boris Johnson is going to have his first face-to-face meeting as UK Prime Minister with US President Donald Trump at a G7 summit in France later in August 2019.

(Banner image: John Bolton on Twitter)

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