New UK Trade Commissioner to Focus on North America

The United Kingdom has hired a trade commissioner to focus specifically on North America. Ramping up efforts to prepare for post-Brexit trade negotiations, the U.K. hired two regionally focused trade commissioners that leadership says will lead trade relations with “key markets of the future.”

Antony Phillipson, the current director-general of international trade in North America, has been tapped to serve as the U.K. Trade Commissioner for North America, according to Politico. The U.K.’s trade chief says that with 90 percent of growth expected to come from outside the European Union, the U.K. needs to “look at where the emerging markets are.”

A year ago, the U.K. claimed U.S. President Trump was ready to begin bilateral trade talks, and Trump said he “looked forward” to working with the United Kingdom. Last year, Commence Secretary Wilber Ross said that the United States has made clear it is prepared to launch talks as soon as the U.K. is ready. Meanwhile, in 2014, the U.K. was reported to rely on the EU for 27 percent of its food imports.

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