US

Failure to strike US trade deal ‘not a broken promise’, PM says, as he blames pandemic and Ukraine war

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 on 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.”

Articles You May Like

Chocolate among items feeding grocery inflation ahead of Easter
Rayner refuses to publish ‘personal tax advice’ over council house sale – unless Tories do same
Hunt says UK should ‘absolutely’ be concerned about Islamic State after Moscow attack
King ‘frustrated’ by speed of recovery and ‘pushing’ staff to return to duties, his nephew says
PGA Tour Power Rankings: Top 25 with two weeks until the Masters