BALTIMORE, Md. (Reuters) -Top trade officials from the United States and Britain ended two days of talks on forging deeper and more inclusive trade relations on Tuesday, and will convene again in Scotland in April, British trade minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan told reporters on Tuesday.
Asked if the allies could resume formal negotiations on a free trade agreement, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said she would not prejudge the outcome, but said such deals were “very 20th century tools” and it was important to look for creative, innovative solutions given new challenges.
Tai said that in approaching trade relationships, “one size does not fit all,” and the United States and Britain have particular shared values.
“I would say think about it as the USDA of trade dialogues,” she said of the relationship, comparing it to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s ongoing dialogues and multi-level engagements with foreign governments across a range of country-specific issues from food safety to biotechnology.
Trevelyan said Britain stood ready to pull together a free trade agreement but added that the purpose of the U.S.-UK current dialogue was “to really be able to think about where we want to be going with our relationship … how we build that 21st century trading relationship between our two great nations that have these shared values.”
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Leslie Adler and Mark Porter)
