They were in the the supposed negotiating second tier 2 weeks ago.
It will save British jobs, especially in car manufacturing and steel.
The latter is particularly important to the British government as they took over operational control of the Scunthorpe steel works a few weeks back.
Main concession from the initial sketchy details is about beef exports from the US. Thing is, terms appear from initial details to be exactly in line with what the EU allows, the beef needs to be certified to a particular standard covering tracebility, no hormone use, etc...
US producers are generally not that interested and the quota is set at 13,000 metric tons.
Britain produces 900,000 metric tons of beef a year and imports huge quantities from the EU already anyway.
Of course, you're doing a deal with a fascist. Which generally isn't good.
Here's the actual deal:
It's merely a statement of intent. It's not a deal at all.
On the beef thing, which is almost certainly a big deal in the public's eye and you're seeing lots about it in the UK press:
"U.S. beef exports to the United Kingdom are currently subject to a 20 percent tariff within a quota of 1,000 metric tons (mt). The United Kingdom will remove the 20 percent tariff. Additionally, the United Kingdom will create a preferential duty-free quota of 13,000 mt for U.S. beef. In return, the United States will reallocate to the United Kingdom 13,000 mt of its existing “Other Countries” tariff rate quota (TRQ) for beef."
From the wording, it's just expanding the current import scheme, allowing more in and taking quotas from other exporters to the US.
That would impact on Irish agriculture were it not for the fact that beef exports to the US have collapsed since 2020.
Irish beef and dairy have the opposite export experience to the US.
www.farmersjournal.ie
Also, this is interesting, and a bit disappointing to see in there:
"In order to ensure more competitive, reciprocal, and secure access to our procurementmarkets, both countries reaffirm their procurement commitments under the Agreement onGovernment Procurement (GPA) and their respective free trade agreements, and intend to discussthe implementation of our respective procurement commitments, including through the UnitedKingdom’s new National Security Unit for Procurement and the United Kingdom’s new powersunder the Procurement Act 2023, which provides that non-“treaty states” are not guaranteed nondiscriminatory treatment in procurement."
This impedes efforts to build up military capabilities separate to the US. If you can't exclude US suppliers, then you're not really in a position to be fully sovereign, are you?
