Legal and commercial experts have asked whether the US-UK agreement complies with the rules of the World Trade Organization.
Ignacio García Bériero, a former senior European Commission in the Bruegel Think Tank said that the British decision to reduce prices for American exporters without extending the same agreement to other countries risked legal challenges at the WTO.
As part of the concept of the “most favored nation” of the WTO, countries must offer the same rates of prices to all countries, unless they are reduced via a bilateral trade agreement which covers “almost all of the trade”, which the UK's Pact did not announce on Thursday.
“It is concern that the United Kingdom has offered preferential tariff concessions in the United States. In the absence of commitment from the United States to eliminate prices on other countries, this cannot be justified,” said Bécero.
But a trade lawyer, who refused to be appointed, stressed that the WTO rules allow trade agreements to be introduced by progression. “They could say that this is the start of negotiations (the free trade agreement), then take 10 to 15 years to conclude ''.”
