Teams from both governments have committed to meet twice a year to thrash out agreements on a range of important issues from developing future technologies, coordinating export controls for sensitive industries, finding a trade solution on critical minerals, agreeing a US-UK data bridge, partnering on sanctions policy and enforcement, working together on AI regulation, launching a joint clean energy supply chain plan and a civil nuclear energy partnership and further enhancing the already close relationship in defense, with the US committing to ask Congress to treat the UK as if it were a ‘domestic source’.  All in all, it is a hugely ambitious and positive list of objectives and certainly worth a read for those of you interested and you can find it here. 

As the Declaration focuses on the challenges and industries of the future, a successful set of negotiations around these issues could represent as important a change in the US-UK trade and investment partnership as would have been achieved by a more conventional trade agreement and we wish both parties luck.  The challenge, apart of course from the likely issues of substance which are bound to arise, is timing, and the awkward fact that both countries face elections in 2024.  In the same way that the 2020 Presidential election in the US put the kibosh on the trade negotiations, so the UK and US elections next year could have the same effect.  Whether the ideas in The Declaration would survive a change in government in either or both countries (as they should) is anyone’s guess.  At BAB we will follow the progress of these initiatives, offer to help wherever we can, and report back to our members through our policy committee and more generally.