Britain and US hold crucial SECRET trade meetings on post-Brexit ‘special relationship'
FUTURE relations between Britain and the USA are being thrashed-out in a series of secret meetings by Brexit diplomats.
The department for international trade has already agreed to keep early-stage US-UK trade talks firmly behind closed doors.
All information exchanged within the UK-US trade and investment working group will be kept confidential by both sides.
Keeping the talks secret is designed to build trust and allow open internal communication, letters exchanged between the UK-US trade policy chiefs explain.
It means the content of the talks will not be subject to the Freedom of Information Act and it will be much more difficult for the public to learn what has been discussed.
The Government may make some information public, but this will only reflect Britain’s position, and not the US’.
In his letter to US officials, the UK-US trade policy director in the British Government, Oliver Griffiths, outlines a commitment to transparency.
He also vows to involve local government, the devolved administrations and the public in the process of negotiating.
The letter reads: “The Government recognises the need both to conduct trade policy in a way that is transparent and inclusive and to handle any information provided, in confidence, by the United States with appropriate care and security.
“Our commitment to transparency and inclusivity means Parliament, the devolved administrations and legislatures, local government, business, trade unions, civil society and the public from every part of the United Kingdom must have the opportunity to engage with and contribute to our trade policy.”
Liam Fox: There is great interest in the UK post-Brexit
However critics said the secrecy could raise key questions of transparency that had blighted the EU-US TTIP deal.
The US-UK trade and investment working group is one of 21 set up by International Trade Secretary Dr Liam Fox to explore Britain’s future global trading agreements.
US-UK trade is worth around £165 billion a year, while overall investment in each other’s countries is valued at around £500 billion.
And protecting the strong trading and diplomatic relationship between the two countries has been a major post-Brexit priority.
But campaign groups have accused the international trade department of giving a “Christmas gift for corporate lobbyists” by agreeing to keep talks secret.
International trade secretary Dr Liam Fox vowed consumers would be consulted on the future US-UK trade deal.
Speaking on the BBC’s today programme in November, he said: “We don’t want to get into a situation where we’ve been with the TTIP agreement with the US and the EU where a huge amount of work is done only to find the public won’t accept it.”
However Global Justice Now director Nick Dearden told Greenpeace’s news site Unearthed: “If the US and UK wanted to give the impression of unaccountable ministers conspiring behind closed doors to promote business interests, they could scarcely have done better than this.
“It’s exactly the kind of highly secretive approach that we’ve been fearing from a trade deal with Trump – and a Christmas gift for corporate lobbyists on everything from chlorinated chicken to private healthcare.”
Tamasin Cave, director of the Alliance for Lobbying Transparency, also said: “These are ideal conditions for corporate lobbyists: loads of opportunity to craft deals that benefit their bottom line, while under a cloak of secrecy.”
A DIT spokesman said:“The US-UK Working Group will prepare the ground for a comprehensive free trade agreement once the UK has left the EU, and it is important that during this process commercially sensitive information can be exchanged in confidence.
“The Department of International Trade has been completely open about our trade talks with the US and has made sure that information handling agreements won’t alter the department’s method of consulting widely on our approach to the talks. Only last month we also issued a public readout of the topics discussed in the latest meeting of the UK-US Trade Working Group, and held a stakeholder update meeting.”