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Tory trade deals on the rocks
The Prime Minister’s pursuit of post-Brexit deals with other economies is going nowhere, reports TONY BURKE
Boris Johnson and Donald Trump. US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said that a UK-US trade deal this year was 'unlikely'

US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer had bad news for Boris Johnson last week.

Lighthizer told the House ways and means committee — the chief tax-writing committee of the House of Representatives — that securing a US-UK trade deal by the end of the year is unlikely.

It is Britain’s stated objective to strike deals with the US, Australia, New Zealand and Japan that would make up the shortfall of no deal with the EU — and open the way for Britain to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement For Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). That agreement covers Canada, Australia, Brunei, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.

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