Page 12 Daily Mail, Friday, August 23, 2019
Now Trump and Bo
start talking trade
Mr Trump and Mr Johnson will hold
one-on-one talks on the sidelines of the
G7 summit in Biarritz, France, this
weekend.
It will be the first face-to-face meet-
ing for the two leaders since Mr John-
son took office. The pair have held
weekly telephone conversations since
the Prime Minister entered Downing
Street four weeks ago.
After their latest call earlier this week,
Mr Trump tweeted: ‘Great discussion
with Prime Minister Boris Johnson
today. We talked about Brexit and how
we can move rapidly on a US-UK free
trade deal.
‘I look forward to meeting with Boris
this weekend at the G7 in France!’
Mr Trump has said he believes he and
Mr Johnson are ‘very much aligned’
and ‘feel very good about each other’.
‘I think we’ll make a fantastic and
big trade deal with the UK,’ the US
President said after a separate tele-
phone conversation with Mr Johnson
last week.
‘We should do much more business
than we’re doing with the UK. We’re
going to have a great trade deal with
UK and that’s moving along rapidly.’holders would do well to reflect on
the hate, violence, injustice, lawless-
ness and societal upheaval of that
time – and of the extraordinary
transformation ushered in by the
Good Friday Agreement.
‘America had a proud role in facili-
tating and brokering the Good Fri-
day Agreement, and America
remains a vital guarantor of it. ThisBy John Stevens
Deputy Political Editor‘Feel very good
about each other’Corbyn’s day
and he looks
HIS scruffy appearance in the House
of Commons is often the target of
much derision.
So when Jeremy Corbyn tried to
smarten up for a day in the country-
side, it was almost inevitable he
would end up looking less a country
gentleman and more like Compo
from Last of the Summer Wine.
The Labour leader’s wellingtonBATTLE FOR BREXIT
DONALD Trump and Boris Johnson
will give the green light to trade talks
when they meet at the G7 summit in
France this weekend.
The President and Prime Minister will
agree to start work immediately on draw-
ing up a timetable for negotiations. This is
the first major step towards getting an all-
important post-Brexit deal.
The so-called road map will be finalised by
officials in the next few weeks.
‘It will set out a series of deadlines for howtrade talks should progress in the next 12
months. The PM and the President will then
shake hands on the plan when they meet in
New York in the last week of September at the
UN General Assembly.
A source said: ‘Both sides are in agreement
that a trade deal is a priority and want to get
moving quickly on getting one done.’Earlier this month International Trade
Secretary Liz Truss flew to Washington
for talks with senior officials including
US trade representative Robert
Lighthizer.
She has described a UK-US trade
agreement as a ‘golden opportunity’
and has made it is her top priority.
A trade deal is expected to be dis-
cussed when US Vice President Mike
Pence visits London on September 5.
However, senior figures in the Demo-
cratic Party in Washington have warned
they could block any deal if the Good
Friday Agreement is undermined.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck
Schumer earlier this week wrote to US
secretary of state Mike Pompeo warn-
ing that Congress could work on a
cross-party basis to block a deal if a No
Deal Brexit introduces a hard border
on the island of Ireland.
A copy of the letter was also sent to
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab.
Mr Schumer called for the Trump
administration to stop ‘over-promising
an unconditional and unrealistic’ post-
Brexit trade agreement with the UK.
He added he will work with Demo-
cratic colleague Nancy Pelosi, the
Speaker of the House of Representa-
tives – and Republicans – to block any
deal that threatens the Belfast
Agreement.
In his letter, Mr Schumer said: ‘While
Britain is a unique and valued ally of
our nation, as the Democratic Leader
of the United States Senate, which
would consider prospective new bilat-
eral trade agreements, I write to
express my inveterate opposition to
any prospective trade deal with UK
that either undermines the landmark
Good Friday Agreement or facilitates a
return to a hard border.
‘As we approach the 50th anniversary
of the traumatic events that precipi-
tated the long and difficult period
known as “The Troubles”, all stake-