UK’s Johnson says he’ll tell Trump health service won’t be part of trade talks

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says he intends to tell President Trump that the country’s state-funded health service will not be a part of future trade talks.

Johnson told reporters while flying to New York for the United Nations General Assembly that he would tell Trump “that when we do a free trade deal, we must take sure that the [National Health Service] is not on the table, that we do not in any way prejudice or jeopardize our standards on animal welfare and food hygiene in the course of that deal, and that we open up American markets,” according to The Associated Press.

{mosads}Johnson’s comments come as he and Trump have expressed mutual admiration for each other, with Trump calling the prime minister “a really good man.”

Johnson said he would make his expectations regarding a trade deal clear this week as the two leaders are expected to meet at the assembly in New York.

Johnson is attempting to strike a post-Brexit trade agreement with the United States as he navigates the country’s pending split from the European Union.

Critics have feared Britain’s National Health Service (NHS), a decades-old institution providing free health care to all legal English residents, could be opened up to private American companies as part of the trade deal with the U.S., according to the AP.

The prime minister is seeking to convince EU leaders to give Britain a new deal before the U.K. is slated to leave at the end of next month. Johnson is scheduled to hold talks with fellow EU leaders in New York this week, including French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar and European Council President Donald Tusk.

Johnson noted that he did not believe there would be a “New York breakthrough,” but sounded encouraged by progress since he took over for Theresa May, who resigned in May.

“If you think about when I first became prime minister, everybody was saying there’s absolutely no chance whatever of changing the existing agreement,” he said. “And I think nobody’s saying that [now].”