The US-UK trade agreement narrows China’s supply chains

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The United Kingdom has accepted strict “security” of the United States for its steel and pharmaceutical industries, in which diplomats see as a workforce that Washington could use to exclude China from strategic supply chains in other countries.

Thursday’s trade agreement He offered fare to the two industries, but only with the condition that Britain “works to meet the requirements of the United States” on its security chain safety and “property of relevant production facilities”.

United Kingdom officials said that the disposition was applied to all third countries, but acknowledged that Trump had noted it China It was the intended goal.

As industry groups sought to clarify the nature of United States’ requirements on supply and property, commercial experts argued that the agreement indicated that the Trump administration increased long -term demands to restrict Chinese inputs to strategically important goods.

“Washington wants the United Kingdom and other countries to open their books and finally move away from Chinese trade and investment, especially in sensitive areas such as steel,” said Allie Renison, ex -official in the United Kingdom commercial department.

It text From the US-UK five-page agreement, which rapidly gathered in seven weeks after Trump announced global import tasks on April 2, it specifies that the rate relief for British products will depend on so-called research in Section 232: probes to determine if and how specific American security imports affect.

He adds that U.S. plans to reduce rates for the United Kingdom are based on “shared national security priorities”, as well as what he describes as the “balanced commercial relationship in countries”.

Sam Lowe, a commercial leadership in Flint Global consulting, said he hoped to “see similar conditions replicated in other offers, particularly in export nuclei in Southeast Asia as Vietnam and Cambodia.”

But the senior EU trade officers said that the conditions related to China had potentially serious branches for their efforts to agree on the block agreement with Washington.

Two officials involved in negotiations with the Trump administration told The Financial Times that the blog would struggle to replicate these economic security elements of the US trade agreement.

“There is no unity on how to approach China,” said one of the officials of the 27 EU members.

The Labor Government of Britain has rejected accusations of “complete nonsense” by opposition conservatives that this week’s agreement, which also offers fare for aluminum in the United Kingdom, Hands Washington a “veto” on supply chains.

“There is no veto in Chinese investment in this commercial agreement, this is not this trade agreement,” said Darren Jones, secretary in Treasury, on Times Radio.

One of the British officers said: “The United States does not want, since the United Kingdom will have much lower rates in the rest of the world, to become somewhere where countries or companies could avoid its rules through the United Kingdom exports to the United States. Details will be worked on.”

Renison, now at the Newgate Consulting, said that the demands of the United States were in line with an accelerating tendency, noting that the Biden administration had demanded to see the UK audit on a Chinese steel company before raising the previous Trump steel rates.

He said Beijing was probably depicted in some way if the United Kingdom final agreement with the United States, which will be subject to later negotiations, League Great Britain in a more complete alignment with the United States’ approach to trade with China.

UK industry groups said they were pressing the Government for more information that no immediate indication of what could be the proposed rate reductions or supply chain.

British pharmaceutical industry insiders said the final terms will depend on the result of United States Research Announced in April about the national security implications of pharmaceutical imports.

“Clearly, the United States and the United Kingdom are planned for more negotiations after the conclusion of section 232 of Pharma,” one said.

UK Steel, the industry lobby group, highlighted the lack of clarity in the five -page text, including the failure to refer to any reduction in zero rates, as well as questions about the conditions of the supply chain and a suggestion that the dues would be applied.

“The terms of the agreement highlight a series of hoops to jump before the United Kingdom steel sector can see the advantages of this agreement,” said the United Kingdom Steel. “To fully evaluate the impact on our sector, we must fully understand the conditions of the supply chain that must be fulfilled, how the quotas are defined and when they will come into force.”