British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and US President Donald Trump agreed to conclude a bilateral trade deal by July 2020, according to the Sun newspaper, citing a senior British government official.
Earlier, British Foreign Minister Dominic Raab said that Britain intends to work with the United States to conclude a free trade deal after Brexit. Trump, in turn, said that the United States and Britain are rapidly moving towards a trade deal.
It is reported that Trump and Johnson may announce this decision during a meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
“Now both sides have the political will to conclude an agreement by July. This is a big victory for us, Trump is also ready to shout about it in the USA. On both sides of the Atlantic they understand that this must be done before this time (until July), because soon after this begins the election cycle in the United States”, – the source said.
At the moment, the situation around Brexit has reached an impasse: the UK must leave the EU before October 31, the country’s Parliament opposes the agreement with the EU in its current form, but is categorically opposed to Brexit without an agreement.
The EU refuses to resume negotiations and revise the agreement. The so-called back-stop is the main problem of the agreement between Britain and the EU. According to the current document, the backstop will enter into force in the absence of alternative arrangements after December 2022 and will provide for the preservation of a number of EU rules for Northern Ireland. This, in turn, may entail the need for customs checks on the border of Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom, and this, in the opinion of the British authorities, threatens the territorial unity of the country.