Ahead of his meeting with US President Donald Trump at the G7 summit earlier this week in France, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that any potential trade deal requires “our American friends to compromise” – including lowering restrictions for UK companies selling insurance in the US.
Last month, President Trump said that the US was negotiating an “ambitious” free trade agreement with the UK government and that he planned to speak with Prime Minister Johnson about the deal at the G7 summit.
“We’re working already on a trade agreement,” Trump told reporters in July. “And I think it’ll be a very substantial trade agreement, you know [what] we can do with the UK, we can do three to four times [over] - we were actually impeded by their relationship with the European Union.”
Johnson, however, played down talks of a deal en route to the summit, warning of “very considerable barriers in the United States to British businesses which are not widely and readily understood.”
“I think there is a massive opportunity for Britain, but we must understand that it’s not all going to be plain sailing,” Johnson told reporters. “There are massive opportunities for UK companies to open up, to prise open the American market. We intend to seize those opportunities, but they are going to require our American friends to compromise and to open up their approach because currently there are too many restrictions.”
In addition to lowering tariffs on items such as railway carriages, wallpaper, and cauliflowers, Johnson also said that the US should do more to liberalise its insurance industry.
“If you want to sell insurance in the UK you only need to speak to two regulators,” said Johnson. “If you want to sell insurance in the US you have to speak to 50 regulators. The same point can be made about architects and many other professions.”
Held at the French town of Biarritz, the G7 summit marked Johnson’s first international summit since being named Prime Minister.
