Kemi Badenoch eyeing trio of trade deals with US states for post-Brexit economic boost
KEMI Badenoch is eyeing a trio of trade deals with American states for a post-Brexit economic boost.
Work is underway to sign agreements with New York, Colorado and Oregon before the election, The Sun can reveal.
Insiders say a full-fat trade deal between Britain and the United States stands no chance of being inked any time soon.
Trade Secretary Ms Badenoch is instead focusing her efforts on bespoke agreements with individual states.
The government has already bagged deals with Indiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Utah, Washington, and Florida.
They have a combined GDP of £3.4trillion - bigger than France - and imported £7.3billion of British goods since the deals were signed.
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New York is seen as the jewel in the crown of state-level trade deals to tap into its near-£2trillion economy.
But of the three states in the pipeline it is at the earliest stages, while Oregon is also not imminent.
Colorado is close to being signed after ministers signalled their intention to seal a memorandum of understanding last year.
A government official said: “Joe Biden has taken the option of a US trade deal off the table so we're targeting individual states instead.
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“Some of these states have bigger GDPs bigger than major European countries and their economies fit perfectly with what UK firms are looking for.
“Take our biggest to date - Florida - which has a massive aerospace industry as the home of NASA, and the UK aerospace industry is eager to do more business with them.
“This is just the start, and with more state-level discussions starting all the time, we're using our Brexit freedoms to build new trade relationships with the US.”