MP ANDREW BRIDGEN: I am afraid that a Joe Biden win would return the UK to the back of the queue for a trade deal.
Next week is a huge week in politics for the US, the UK, and the free World. Voters in the US will decide not only who their President is for the next four years, but also, who will be the leader of the free world.
This critical decision comes at a time when we are grappling with a crippling worldwide pandemic and the resurgence of threats to our open, free-market democracies.
It’s fair to say that open, free-market economies which respect individual freedoms have been hit much harder by the COVID-19 outbreak than dictatorial societies, even if their totalitarian propaganda is taken with a huge pinch of salt. It’s a fact that an already closed and controlled society would suffer less social and economic disruption from a so-called “lockdown” when they effectively live in a form of constant lockdown already. Some will see this disparity of effects as a reason to question the sustainability of our way of life.
MP ANDREW BRIDGEN: We all need a leader elected next week who has the confidence and the character to champion the revival of post-COVID, free-market democracy. The next President of the US will also have to contain the expansion of the Chinese Communist Party and its moves towards control across the globe together with the kleptocratic regime in the Kremlin’s blatant opportunism. The leader of the free World also needs to have the ability to carry the less proactive members of NATO and other security alliances with him at a time when those that oppose us and our way of life constantly seek to divide us.
I have written before about the fact that, despite being in the European Union and its precursors for 47 years, the UK economy remained far more aligned with that of our largest trading partner, the USA. There is an old saying, which seems rather apt at the moment, that “ if the US economy sneezes, then the UK catches a cold.” Rebuilding the American economy is essential for the well-being and security of all democratic nations around the world.
The interminable UK-EU trade negotiations will, again, go down to the wire. Many on the UK side will be watching the result in the US elections next week with more-than-keen interest. In business and in international trade, all you need is choices to be able to get a good deal.
It’s not lost on the UK negotiators that the chances of a quick UK-US trade deal will be greatly enhanced if Trump is returned as President, given the comments from Barack Obama before the EU referendum about us being at the back of the queue if we left the EU.
A Biden win would surely diminish the prospects of the UK -US trade deal in the short term and, therefore, strengthen the EU hand as the negotiations head towards the wire.
Next week’s US election result will have ramifications and repercussions around the world. God Bless America.