Vital work has begun on building stronger economic and trade relationships with the UK’s closest trading partners as the Chancellor travels to New York for discussions with Wall Street investors.
In the first of a series of targeted ‘missions’ to key global financial and political centres, Mr Osborne will urge leaders from some of America’s biggest investors to stick with the UK following its decision to leave the European Union, presenting this as a golden opportunity for them to help define an even stronger relationship with Britain.
The meetings with leading figures on Wall Street follow the Chancellor’s activity in London last week where he met the UK’s main lenders and international investment banks based in Britain.
He has also spoken to Speaker Paul Ryan twice in recent weeks about a stronger trading relationship and this week will welcome US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew to London as well as travelling to Brussels for discussions with other EU Finance Ministers.
Next week he will lead a trade mission to Singapore and China.
The trading relationship between the UK and the US is a pivotal one: the US is the largest single destination for UK exports, and the UK is America’s largest trading partner in Europe. In 2014 UK exports to the US totalled £88 billion (17% of total UK exports) and last year, the UK was the US’s sixth largest trading partner.
Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne said:
“While Britain’s decision to leave the EU clearly presents economic challenges, we now have to do everything we can to make the UK the most attractive place in the world to do business.
Britain and the US have been at the forefront of open trade in the last 200 years and pursuing a stronger relationship with our biggest trading partners is now a top priority. That’s why I am travelling to the US, China and Singapore in the coming weeks and why my message to the world is that Britain maybe leaving the EU, but we are not quitting the world. We will continue to be a beacon for free trade, democracy and security, more open to that world than ever.”