What is a trade deal? UK-US trade talks since 2020
As UK-US trade talks evolve, flexible arrangements and the Economic Prosperity Deal raise questions about legal form and parliamentary scrutiny.
The US is the UK’s largest bilateral trading partner. Negotiations for a UK-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) began in 2020 but stalled, prompting both countries to pursue alternative arrangements. This led to the signing of the Atlantic Declaration in 2023, which marked a shift toward an incremental trade engagement. In parallel, the UK sought to strengthen economic ties by signing memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with individual US states to boost investment, jobs and businesses.
This scenario reflects a broader trend away from traditional, treaty-based trade agreements. Mini-deals are often more flexible instruments of a soft law nature, that is, they are not legally binding but comprise political commitments. While offering agility, mini-deals may raise challenges for treaty scrutiny in the UK. They are part of the ongoing discussions about reviewing parliamentary scrutiny of international agreements.
The UK and the US recently announced the general terms for their Economic Prosperity Deal (EPD). They are not legally binding commitments but the basis for ongoing negotiations. The legal form the future deal will take and how it will formalise and implement obligations remain uncertain.
About the author: Ana Peres is a Parliamentary Academic Fellow at the House of Commons Library and Assistant Professor at the University of Sussex.