The U.K. governments commitment to leaving the European Union in less than three months with or without a deal has crippled its trade negotiating power, former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers said.
“Britain has no leverage. Britain is desperate. Britain has nothing else,” Summers told the BBCs “Today” program this morning.
“It needs an agreement [on trade with the U.S.] very soon. When you have a desperate partner thats when you strike the hardest bargain.”
However, Summers, who served as Treasury chief in President Bill Clintons administration, warned that American domestic politics, the ongoing trade war with China, and the plummeting pound made a post-Brexit trade deal between the U.K. and the U.S. unlikely.
Summers added that even if London and Washington could come to an agreement, the U.K. would be in a weak negotiating position.
“Britain has much less to give than Europe as a whole did, therefore less reason for the United States to make concessions,” he said.
“You make more concessions dealing with a wealthy man than you do dealing with a poor man.”
British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab is traveling to Canada, the United States and Mexico this week to seek to boost ties with non-European countries ahead of Brexit, his office said.
His trip comes after 45 American senators sent a letter to U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson on August 3, promising to back a trade deal between the two nations even in the case of a no-deal Brexit, according to Read More – Source
