UK-US trade deals could bring a business boom to Portsmouth says trade minister Penny Mordaunt

Penny Mordaunt said Britain is currently in talks with 20 US states to secure individual trade deals.

The Portsmouth North MP – who is a government trade minister – added that in the absence of progress towards an overarching UK-U.S. trade agreement, British negotiators are seeking state-level agreements, including a deal with Texas by October.

‘There’s been considerable progress on this and we are in discussions with around 20 US states,’ Mordaunt told MPs. ‘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 per cent of the United States economy.’

Speaking to The News, Ms Mordaunt said Portsmouth would ‘benefit’, adding: ‘This will mean technical trades like engineering, will find it easier to work on US projects. It will mean services such as legal and finance will be able to cut costs of working for the US and many firms will have easier access to bidding for US work. In addition, we were developing new partnerships in growth sectors, such as tech, defence, space and renewables.’