The UK signed a trade and investment agreement with South Carolina this week, its third such arrangement with a US state, and is exploring similar agreements with California and Utah, UK junior trade minister Greg Hands said on Friday.
Hands told Reuters that Britain remains persuaded that a comprehensive free trade agreement with the United States is beneficial for both nations, despite the fact that the Biden administration has halted all free trade talks for the time being.
Since leaving the European Union, Britain has inked trade agreements with Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, and it hopes to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, he noted.
“Yet our largest bilateral trade partner of all, the United States, we do not have a comprehensive free trade agreement with,” he said, noting that the two nations share similar norms on worker rights, the environment, and climate change.
Nevertheless, Hands stated that progress has been made on bilateral trade problems, including the resolution of a long-standing disagreement over aviation subsidies and the suspension of US tariffs on steel and aluminum.
He stated that an increasing number of US states, including Texas, are interested in joining North Carolina, Indiana, and now South Carolina in signing non-binding trade memorandums of understanding.
This week, Hands met with California’s lieutenant governor, Eleni Kounalakis, and they decided to begin discussions on expanding trade connections over the next year, with a focus on, among other industries, hydrogen, renewable energy, and financial technology. California is the most populated state in the United States, and if it were a country, it would have the sixth largest economy in the world.
He stated that he met with Utah state officials on Friday and was optimistic about achieving a “good agreement” after settling “smaller outstanding issues.”
States in the United States were eager to recruit British investment, while extending export opportunities was a top objective for British businesses, he added, listing aerospace and technology as two more promising industries for bolstering trade links.