President Trump on Sunday promised a “very big trade deal” with a post-Brexit United Kingdom after meeting with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on the sidelines of the Group of Seven summit.
Trump also described Johnson as “the right man for the job” to deliver Brexit in remarks to reporters following the leaders’ breakfast meeting at the summit Biarritz, France.
{mosads}The face-to-face meeting marked the first between the two since Johnson took over as U.K. prime minister from Theresa May in July. Johnson has said he plans to withdraw the U.K. from the European Union by the deadline at the end of October, but it remains unclear exactly how it will happen.
Both leaders on Sunday expressed optimism about the prospect of a bilateral trade deal between the United States and U.K. post-Brexit, though Johnson acknowledged there would be “tough talks” ahead.
“We’re having very good trade talks between the U.K. and ourselves. We’re going to do a very big trade deal — bigger than we’ve ever had with the U.K.,” Trump told reporters.
“At some point, they won’t have the obstacle of — they won’t have the anchor around their ankle because that’s what they had,” Trump said, referring to the EU. “So, we’re going to have some very good trade talks and big numbers.”
Trump predicted the two countries would be able to agree to a deal on trade “pretty quickly.” Johnson said he wouldn’t “dissent” from Trump’s remarks but noted that trade negotiations in the past have proved difficult.
“I have memories of American trade negotiations in the past, and I have a formidable respect for U.S. trade negotiations. And I know that there will be some tough talks ahead because, at the moment, you know, we still don’t — I don’t think we sell a single joint of British lamb to the United States. We don’t sell any beef. We don’t sell any pork pies,” Johnson said.
“And there are clearly huge opportunities for the U.K. to penetrate the American market in the way that we currently don’t. And we’re very interested to talk about that with you,” he said.
In a joint statement following the meeting Sunday, Trump and Johnson said they directed their governments to launch a “Special Relationship Economic Working Group” to develop principles for increased bilateral cooperation for the two countries on economic issues.
Trump is also meeting with other world leaders one-on-one Sunday, including Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.