Britain secures trade deal with Washington state

Britain is understood to have secured a trade deal with the state of Washington in the US, with a similar agreement to potentially be reached with Florida soon.

The region, which had initially set out to strike a bilateral trade deal with the US as a whole, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on trade with the state after the UK government opted to pursue state-level agreements.

The decision was in light of president Joe Biden’s move to put all talks of free trade agreements on hold, and came after the UK split from the European Union.

The news was confirmed by junior business and trade minister Nusrat Ghani in a statement to Reuters, who noted that while Florida was “next on the list” and “should be concluded shortly”, discussions were also underway in Texas, California, Colorado and Illinois.

Washington is the sixth state in the US to have secured an MoU with Britain, bringing its combined GDP to over two trillion pounds, as reported by the media outlet.

Ghani noted that such trade ties provided “a huge potential for collaboration” in industrial interests, with aerospace being a priority sector in Washington, as well as clean energy, life sciences, supply chains and agriculture.

Meanwhile, Britain added that the MoU would enable new commercial partnerships and facilitate capital investment.