US president quietly shelves trade pact with UK before 2024 elections

US President Joe Biden has quietly shelved plans for a “foundational” trade agreement with the UK ahead of the 2024 election — following Senate opposition and disagreements over the scope of the deal.

A draft outline of the pact and its 11 proposed chapters, prepared by the United States Trade Representative’s (USTR) office earlier this year, indicated negotiations would begin before the end of 2023, according to Politico.

But after facing multiple headwinds, the deal is not expected to go ahead, two people briefed by the British and U.S. governments respectively told POLITICO. Both were granted anonymity to speak on a sensitive matter.

“I don't think we're going to see that re-emerge,” said one of the people briefed on the proposed negotiations. 

The proposal’s timeline for talks — which would not consider market access or meet the World Trade Organisation’s definition of a free trade agreement — set out that negotiations would wrap up ahead of elections in Britain and the US next year.

The deal was closer in substance to the US-led Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) — which tackles regulation and non-tariff barriers — than a full trade agreement.

But last month IPEF talks fell apart after senior Democrats criticised the Biden administration’s negotiation of trade provisions that did not contain enforceable labour standards.

The British government has long coveted a trade agreement with the US as a significant post-Brexit prize.

The draft was considered a road map to eventually securing a full-fledged, comprehensive deal. Business and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch pitched the IPEF-style deal in April during Biden’s visit to Belfast, Bloomberg reported, to reinvigorate talks first started under the Trump administration.