Majority of Americans Continue to Support UK-U.S. Bilateral Trade Deal

Brexit
SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images
Victoria Friedman

The majority of Americans back a bilateral trade deal with Brexit Britain, while more than half believe the Special Relationship is more important now than it was five years ago.

A poll conducted by the U.S.-based Emerson College found that the nearly two-thirds of Americans, 62 per cent,  support a bilateral trade deal with the UK post-Brexit, in the second consecutive year that the poll found strong support for improved trade between the two countries.

Commissioned by the Association of Marshall Scholars (AMS), a charity which sends American postgraduates to study in the UK, the poll also found that more than half (58 per cent) believe the Special Relationship is even more relevant today than what it was five years ago.

Forty per cent see the British as their most valuable foreign partner. A combined 89 per cent said they view a good transatlantic relationship as ‘very important’ (61 per cent) or ‘somewhat important’ (28 per cent).

Areas where Americans hope to see better cooperation include security and defence, economic partnerships, improved diplomatic ties, and cultural exchanges.

“The transatlantic alliance appears to be increasingly important in the eyes of the American public,” said Dr Nell Breyer, executive director of the Association of Marshall Scholars, in a press release seen by Breitbart London.

“Despite a period of deep uncertainty for the British public, Americans voice strong support for continuing to advance economic and strategic ties between the United States and the United Kingdom,” Dr Breyer added.

Spencer Kimball, Emerson College pollster and assistant professor, said: “It appears that, at least from the American perspective, a very special relationship still exists between the UK and the U.S. That is demonstrated in the unusually high consensus around the issue.”

President Donald J Trump has often expressed warmth and enthusiasm for deepening Anglo-American ties. The President and his representatives have said that the U.S. is looking to “deepen and expand” its relationship with the UK, including a bilateral free trade deal.

In July, President Trump revealed that his team was working on an agreement that could result in trade “three to four or five times what we’re doing”.

Last month, Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke with American business leaders, saying that after shaking off excessive EU regulations, Brexit Britain will become a more attractive destination for foreign investment.

“We’re going to take advantage of all the freedoms that Brexit can give whether it’s new tax allowances for businesses or speedier public procurement contracts or creating new free ports, enterprise zones, devising better regulations for sectors the UK leads the world [… and] more competitive tax rates,” Prime Minister Johnson had said.

Eurocrats fear a UK diverging from the EU and developing closer trade links with the U.S., with France saying it is concerned about the UK becoming a “tax haven” at “the gates of Europe”.

Remainer Tony Blair said that the UK’s wish to become more competitive would stop the country from staying closely aligned to the EU at the end of the transition period. Evoking a new phase of Project Fear, the globalist-progressive said on Sunday: “Europe is now on notice from Britain and its ministers that Britain wants Brexit to compete around tax and regulation, to become an off-shore competitor with the European Union.

“What is absolutely clear is that Europe is not going to have that. They’re going to say to the UK side — this is why this negotiation is going to be very ugly and very difficult — they’re going to say, ‘No, we’re not giving you tariff-free access to our markets if you’re going to start using a whole lot of competitive tax and regulatory measures in order to undercut us’.”

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