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US ambassador frontrunner advocates for new digital trade deal, steering away from ‘old-fashioned’ goods and mortar agreement
The frontrunner to become the next US ambassador has said the UK should move beyond the “special relationship”.
Lord Mandelson is considered to be among the top choices to replace Dame Karen Pierce, whose tenure is likely to be extended to manage the transition to the next Trump administration.
It is unclear when Dame Karen, who oversaw the final year of the president-elect’s previous stint in the White House, will be replaced.
She had her position extended after the Covid-19 pandemic affected her first years in the role.
The Labour grandee, who is said to be among candidates including Ed Miliband and Baroness Amos, said he believed it was time for a “new relationship” between the UK and the US.
He told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg: “I’m actually more interested in a new relationship rather than a special one”.
Lord Mandelson also advocated for a “digital and technological economic agreement” between the two countries.
He said it would be a “different sort of trade deal, not the old-fashioned sort of free trade agreement of goods and mortar.
“More sort of clicks and portals of the future, I would say, is the sort of trade deal that we need.”
He added: “I think that given that the United States and the UK are both such advanced digital countries and economies, there’s enormous scope here for us to align and to deepen the industrial economic trade partnerships between ourselves across the Atlantic.”
Trade will be a central pillar of relations between the two countries once Donald Trump enters the White House, particularly after he has indicated he wants to impose tariffs on all foreign goods imported into the US.
Lord Mandelson became the European Trade Commissioner between 2004 and 2008, negotiating trade agreements with several countries in the role.
He said that such a digital and technological deal “should embrace the European Union”, adding: “If we can get all of us working together with common trade policies, we will all benefit much more than if we were simply doing so alone or bilateral.”
But there have been reports that Lord Mandelson’s ties to the EU would lead Mr Trump to block the Labour grandee’s appointment.
The Mirror reported that there were concerns among those in Mr Trump’s circle that Lord Mandelson’s previous role as trade commissioner would mean he would be working in the interests of the bloc, rather than just the UK.
Rishi Sunak had wanted to name Sir Tim Barrow, the former ambassador to Ukraine, Russia and the EU to the British embassy in Washington, despite tensions over appointing someone to the role before the general election.
Meanwhile, Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader and personal friend of Mr Trump’s, had expressed a desire to work as an intermediary between his administration, the UK and the Government.
Asked whether Downing Street would take up his offer, Darren Jones, a Treasury minister, said: “I think that’s probably unlikely. My advice to Mr Farage would be he might want to concentrate his efforts on the constituency in Clacton that elected him into office, as opposed to spending his time in the United States of America.”
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