The UK has much to fear from a US trade agreement

Any deal with Trump would likely stray into areas such as food safety and drug pricing — and the president would come back for more.

By Sam Lowe

US President Donald Trump (R) waves as he and US First Lady Melania Trump (L) disembark Air Force One at Stansted Airport, north of London on June 3, 2018, as they begin a three-day State Visit to the UK. - Britain rolled out the red carpet for US President Donald Trump on June 3 as he arrived in Britain for a state visit already overshadowed by his outspoken remarks on Brexit. (Photo by Isabel Infantes / AFP) (Photo credit should read ISABEL INFANTES/AFP/Getty Images)

A UK-US trade agreement was always going to be a tough sell. American Ambassador Woody Johnson’s comment to Andrew Marr on Sunday that healthcare would need to be on the table in any future trade talks only served to make agreeing a fully-fledged deal all the more difficult.

That the US will drive a hard bargain in any future negotiation with the UK should come as no surprise. Only the EU, and perhaps China, have the economic heft to negotiate on near-level terms with the Americans, and even they struggle. The US’s objectives for its negotiation with the UK were published in February and — with the caveat that they were largely produced for a domestic American audience, shorn of all notion of compromise — are strikingly ambitious in their demands.