Efforts to deepen trade ties welcomed

Transatlantic business chiefs have welcomed efforts by the UK and US to reduce existing barriers to trade.

It follows a second round of talks as part of the UK/US Trade Dialogue on the Future of Atlantic Trade, which took place in Aberdeen.

The transatlantic dialogues - which bring together government ministers, senior officials, trade unions, businesses and civil society from both sides - are aimed at deepening trade and investment ties between the UK and the US.

The first round of discussions took place in Baltimore earlier this year.

Duncan Edwards (pictured), chief executive of BritishAmerican Business, of which the Greater Birmingham Transatlantic Chamber of Commerce is part, welcomed the talks and is hopeful of progress in a number of areas such as digital and green trade and supply chain initiatives.

He said: “The transatlantic business community very much supports the efforts that the United States and the United Kingdom are making to build on their existing relationship through the Trade Dialogues and advance some of the crucial policy issues of our time, including support for small businesses, supply chain resilience, the energy transition, or the promotion and regulation of digital and green trade.

“The discussions held at the Trade Dialogues are an opportunity to strengthen the transatlantic trade and investment ties between the UK and the US and continue to reduce existing barriers to trade.

“It is important that discussions focus on achieving tangible progress on each of the identified workstreams and lead to joint initiatives on SMEs, digital trade, green trade, and supply chains which collectively can contribute to the UK government 's levelling up agenda.

“Strong US-UK cooperation will be beneficial to both economies and across all sectors. ”