Reminder of my rather long thead yesterday on UK-US trade talks. There's not much in it economically, even less for UK exporters. The best thing the US could do for the UK right now is to stop trying to destroy the global trading system.
Sam's argument for UK Free Trade Agreements is we need them if other countries (particularly the US) are likely to break WTO commitments. Some sympathy, but you have to then think carefully about what UK interests actually are and how you protect them
The biggest problem with the UK's Free Trade Agreement negotiations is trying to fix trade relationships this year covering 70% of our trade without knowing what we want. So our primary ask is zero tariffs. For a services economy. And FTAs are hard to change once agreed.
Final point for now. It isn't necessarily wrong to enter trade talks with US in order to change UK food laws away from those of the EU. But as we found in TTIP talks claiming dramatic economic impact when it isn't is a risky game. (TTIP primary goal was US-EU strength v China).
PS hard to know if replacement of Trump with Biden, if it happens, would be significant for a UK FTA. Trade is still relatively bipartisan in US, but obviously Trump more associated with Johnson. (UK implementation of Irish protocol far more important)
