Will President Trump Expand Trade Opportunities with the United Kingdom?

As President Trump returns to the White House on Monday, January 20, ag leaders are hopeful that his new administration will bring about progress on trade negotiations with the United Kingdom.

“We have basically no access into the UK for U.S. beef, and that’s a $2 billion market, of which we’re essentially out of,” according to Erin Borror, Vice President of Economic Analysis with the U.S. Meat Export Federation.

She says that the United Kingdom also presents an outstanding opportunity for other meat and ag exports.

“On the pork side, also tremendous potential. And the UK imports 630,000 tons of pork a year, about $2.8 billion. Again, U.S. pork hardly there,” says Borror.

“We just need reciprocal access. We need no tariffs, no quotas. You know, UK benefits from practically unfettered access into the U.S., and we need the same into the UK. So again, it’s only opportunities, really only upside. And hopefully with trade with friends, the UK could be one of those markets where there should be further opportunities – really, for U.S. agriculture, certainly for U.S. red meat,” she says.

She says she remains hopeful that significant trade talks that were held with the UK during the Trump’s first administration, could open new doors for U.S. beef and pork exports during Trump’s second administration.

“That is partially because there were FTA (free-trade agreement) attempts in the previous Trump administration. But, also just because the UK is the only major importer of which the U.S. has basically no market share, and it’s a one way street with trade. And we actually lost access through Brexit. We lost our duty-free access because the high-quality beef quota stayed with Europe,” says Borror.

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