It’s musical deals in world politics at the moment. Last week, Donald Trump and his senior officials intimated that a big new trade accord with India was imminent. Yet on Tuesday, Keir Starmer announced that he had reached a major agreement with Delhi. Then, late last night, the New York Times reported that Trump will today announce a beautiful new deal with the United Kingdom.
The British embassy in Washington has yet to comment. But earlier, Donald Trump had written on social media:
The President loves announcing deals more than anything: the symbolism is what counts
‘Big News Conference tomorrow morning at 10:00 A.M., The Oval Office, concerning a MAJOR TRADE DEAL WITH REPRESENTATIVES OF A BIG, AND HIGHLY RESPECTED, COUNTRY. THE FIRST OF MANY!!!’
He does like to tease. It now seems as if that ‘big and highly respected country’ is the United Kingdom.
If correct, the latest news goes against an earlier report in the Guardian that the United Kingdom had been relegated to secondary or tertiary status in the US State Department’s order of negotiating priorities – after the bigger trading blocs of India and the European Union.
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