White House national security adviser John Bolton encouraged the U.K. to move forward with a no-deal Brexit after meeting with Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday and said the U.S. is prepared to quickly establish alternative trade arrangements with the U.K. after it disentangles itself from Brussels.
After meeting with Johnson at No. 10 Downing Street, Bolton told reporters that the Trump administration would be willing to reach a “series of agreements” governing trade in different sectors of the economy “very quickly, very straight-forwardly” so that they will be in place for the U.K.’s October 31 Brexit deadline, the BBC reports.
“To be clear, in the Trump administration, Britain’s constantly at the front of the trade queue, or line as we say. We want to move very quickly. We wish we could have moved further along in this with the prior government,” Bolton said.
Bolton’s comments come as negotiations between Johnson’s government and Brussels have reached an impasse.
Johnson has urged his European Union counterparts to renegotiate the terms of the deal reached by his predecessor, Theresa May, but they thus far have refused, leaving the U.K. on the path toward a no-deal Brexit and the resulting economic fallout.
While many economists fear that leaving the E.U. without pre-negotiated trade arrangements and border policies would have dire economic consequences, Bolton said the U.S. “would support it enthusiastically,” according to Reuters.
In his comments to reporters on Monday, Bolton suggested that a series of smaller “sector-by-sector” deals could be reached quickly and would ameliorate the economic consequences of a no-deal Brexit.
“The ultimate end result is a comprehensive trade agreement covering all trading goods and services,” Bolton said, according to The Guardian. “But to get to that you could do it sector by sector, and you can do it in a modular fashion. In other words, you can carve out some areas where it might be possible to reach a bilateral agreement very quickly, very straightforwardly.”