LONDON (Reuters) – Britain said it was in discussion with around 20 U.S. states to secure individual trade deals as soon as next month, trade policy minister Penny Mordaunt told parliament on Thursday.
In the absence of progress towards an overarching UK-U.S. trade agreement British negotiators are seeking to secure state level agreements, including a deal with Texas by October this year
“There’s been considerable progress on this and we are in discussions with around 20 U.S. states,” Mordaunt said.
“We are going to do a state level agreement with Texas we hope by October of this year, and we will start signing these agreements with U.S. states next month. The first eight that we have in the pipeline will be equivalent to 20% of the United States economy,” Mordaunt said in parliament.
(Reporting by Farouq Suleiman; editing by William James)
