UK-US Trade Dialogue Focuses on Labor Rights, Environment, Durable Supply Chains

The top trade official in the British government and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said they want to do even more trade and investment between the two countries, even as a free-trade agreement is not the end goal. Secretary of State for International Trade Anne-Marie Trevelyan had hoped that the Biden administration would continue the free trade negotiations started during the Trump administration, but that has not happened. Marjorie Chorlins, who leads the U.S.-U.K. Business Council at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, also spoke at the March 21 plenary in Baltimore, saying the business community strongly supports more U.S.-U.K. economic cooperation.

She said the two countries, both highly advanced, diversified and well-regulated economies, should go further than their current trade relationship, and that digital trade, life sciences, intellectual property protection and supply chain security could all benefit from greater cooperation.

She said the resolution of the Section 232 tariffs on British metals and of the retaliatory tariffs from the U.K. are urgently needed.

Trevelyan told the audience that "we are making really good progress" on the steel and aluminum tariffs, and once they are gone, "this is going to clear the way for us to be able to focus on the next steps of our U.K.-U.S. relationship."

Chorlins told Trevelyan that the business community is pleased with the pro-free-trade approach of the Boris Johnson administration. "We note, of course, with interest your recently concluded FTAs with Australia and New Zealand," she said.

And, she said, she's happy that the USTR is seeking creative ways to promote closer ties with the U.K., but she added that America could "perhaps, even eventually, get back to the table for more formal trade negotiations."

Tai touched on the issue of Section 232 tariffs, saying that bilateral discussions on the matter began in January. In light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and democracies' coordinated efforts to sanction Russia, "it has never been more important for us to work to strengthen our economic ties with our closest allies -- like the United Kingdom," she said.

She said that she and Trevelyan and their staffs are looking for concrete steps to use trade to strengthen the protection of labor rights and the environment; to ensure trade policies support domestic workforces, and promote environmentally sustainable trade and efforts to decarbonize their respective economies. She said that they are looking for concrete steps to use global trade to lift up minority and female business owners and to build "strong, durable supply chains that can withstand future global shocks."

AFL-CIO International Department Director Cathy Feingold, who also spoke at the plenary, said that for too long workers and trade unions in both the U.K. and the U.S. had no influence on trade negotiations, and that they were "exposed to brutal global completion" that lowered the standard of living in both countries.

Feingold said a ban on the input of goods made from forced labor is a critical part of incorporating workers' rights into trade, and pointed to the abuse of Uyghurs in China's Xinjiang region and rubber gloves made with forced labor from Malaysia as examples for why the issue is important. The U.K. does not have an import ban, as the U.S. does, but does require companies to report what they are doing to combat forced labor under the U.K. Modern Slavery Act.