U.S. Links Trade Deal with U.K. to “Hard” Brexit

America’s ambassador to the U.K. says a quick and “massive” bilateral trade agreement between the two countries won’t be possible without a clean British exit from the European Union next spring.

The interim Brexit plan proposed by Prime Minister Theresa May would preclude such a deal, Ambassador Woody Johnson tells Britain’s Radio 4 Today program. That’s because it temporarily extends certain EU trade rules, thereby blocking the U.K from signing its own free trade deals with countries outside the bloc.

President Donald Trump said previously that May’s plan “sounds like a great deal for the EU.” It’s unclear whether the U.K. believes that a clean Brexit that severs the trade benefits it has as an EU member would be sufficiently offset by greater trade with the U.S.

BBC News points out that the value of Britain’s current exports to the EU is more than twice what it ships to the U.S. The value of the U.K.’s imports from the EU is five times that of American imports. BBC also suggests that continuing to abide by EU trade practices would be easier for Britain than adopting traders to adopt U.S. rules.