Rishi Sunak blames pandemic and war in Ukraine for failure to strike US trade deal

Rishi Sunak has refused to accept the government’s failure to strike a trade deal with the US is a “broken promise”, blaming the pandemic and war in Ukraine for the “changing situation”.

During a visit to the US, the prime minister was asked if he accepted “as a matter of fact” the Conservatives have not met their 2019 manifesto ambition to strike a deal with Washington within the first three years of government.

He said: “I think you have to look at the macro economic situation. It’s evolved since then and it’s important the economic partnerships evolved to deal with the opportunities and threats of today.

“If you look at what’s happening now, we face more threats of our economic security. So it’s important that actually the UK and the US are talking about how do we strengthen our resilience, working together, improve the strength of our supply chains.”

Mr Sunak was pressed that this is still a “broken promise”.

He said: “Since then we’ve had a pandemic. We’ve had a war in Ukraine and that has changed the macro economic situation.

“The right response to that is ensure that we’re focusing our engagement economically on the things that will make the most difference to the British people.”

It was put to Mr Sunak that the war and pandemic had not stopped the UK from striking deals with other countries since Brexit.

He said the UK has “grown our trade with America by 20% last year” and also pointed to a £14bn investment from the US into British jobs.

He insisted “the real challenge we face are the threats to our economic security” and that is what he will discuss when he meets President Joe Biden later today.

“I think that’s the thing that we should be focusing on right now.”

Mr Sunak admitted on Wednesday that a free trade agreement with the US “has not been a priority for a while” for either country.

Speaking to reporters on the plane to Washington he said: “When it does come to trade, you know, what we have been doing with the US are looking at specific and targeted ways to improve trade between our countries.”

Former prime minister Boris Johnson and his government had championed a US trade deal as a big Brexit bonus, while President Trump insisted in 2017 the UK was “at the front of the queue”.

But Mr Johnson was forced to admit in 2021 that the US has “a lot of fish to fry” and that a trade deal might not be secured by the 2024 general election. “The Americans do negotiate very hard,” he said.