Concordia

Concordia Winter 2021

Brexit

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domestic agenda, to the immense frustration of the UK government. We see no sign of a resumption in the near term but believe there is a lot that can be done to improve what is already a very good trade relationship, without the need for a full free trade agreement. Separate agreements on tariff reduction, data transfer, digital trade, labour mobility, mutual recognition of professional qualifications and a real effort to make things easier for small and medium sized businesses, would be easy to achieve and very valuable.

senate which might both flip in the mid-term elections next year. Hence the huge effort to get the Infrastructure Bill and ‘Build Back Better’ Bill through while he can. As for Obama and Trump before him, the second part of the term is likely to yield very little legislation. There are also differences on climate policy and we have seen this recently in the positions taken at COP 26. While Biden, on his first day as President, signed back up to the Paris Climate Agreement which Trump had left, the speed and willingness of the American people to change their consumption habits is going to be a real issue. Car and plane travel in the US are of an entirely different scale from that of the UK or EU and there is little commuter or long-distance rail infrastructure in place. Rising petrol and air travel prices have a disproportionate impact on lower- and middle- income families and will be a vote loser and maybe even a cause for protest as they were in France with the Gilets Jaunes. The societal impact of energy transition is of great political significance and has the potential to be enormously disruptive. transatlantic relationship between the US and the UK. The security and intelligence partnership is as strong as ever and both countries remain right at the top of league tables of places to do business. No doubt there are challenges… there always will be in dynamic, open democracies but it should come as no surprise to anyone that the US and UK rank number one and two as preferred destinations for refugees and economic migrants. No one here is talking about heat pumps. Overall, I remain very positive about the

“Overall, I remain very positive about the transatlantic relationship between the US and the UK.”

The political relationship between the two governments seems fine, although the Covid crisis has meant there has been less than usual of the interaction between the two groups of ministers. There is a lot that unites the two administrations as both have adopted social democratic responses to the pandemic and a commitment to ‘levelling up’ or ‘building back better’. The challenge will be in execution and both incumbents will be keeping an eye on their future political fortunes. Here in the States, there isn’t much room for Biden with a tiny, unreliable majority in the House and a 50:50