The Biden-Sunak presser: a love-in… but still no trade deal

Rishi Sunak and Joe Biden’s White House press conference started late, presumably to make a point that the two had just found so much to talk about in their bilateral. Like a date that had gone really well.

When the pair eventually appeared before journalists, they spent most of their opening statements banging on about how much they had in common and how they agreed on everything. Biden described the “depth and breadth of our relationship,” “our common values” and said “there’s no issue of importance — none — that our nations are not leading together on.” Sunak claimed that “not for decades has the relationship between our two nations been so important” and that the only thing that had changed was “the challenges that we face.”

So Sunak got his important conference

Despite all this love, actually there was no free trade agreement. Instead the pair announced an “Atlantic Declaration,” with the two countries promising to work more closely on economic, technological, commercial and trade relations. Asked why there was not an agreement, Sunak claimed this was the best answer to the question of what the countries could do to work together to achieve the best for their citizens and that “the economic relationship between our two countries has never been stronger… the relationship is strong, it’s booming.” He told the press conference that “the challenges that we face are much more economic in nature… the only way we are going to meet those challenges is to work together” and that the agreement would support tens of thousands of small businesses in the UK by “removing red tape.” 

On artificial intelligence, Biden said “we are looking to Great Britain to lead that effort this fall,” which will have pleased Sunak no end, given the PM was having to argue his case to his own journalists that this country was big enough to lead the way on AI governance. But when it came to the next NATO secretary-general, Biden only said “maybe” to whether it was time for a British figure and that “they have a very qualified candidate” (Ben Wallace, whose name he clearly couldn’t recall). 

So Sunak got his important conference. He got an agreement that will allow the US and UK “even more closely together on all the big economic issues of our times” and he got a lovey-dovey chatter with Joe Biden about how well the pair got on. A successful trip which the PM will see as promising even more down the line.

This article was originally published on The Spectator’s UK website.