Business News President’s Focus
After a controversial and protracted election, Joe Biden is the 46th president of the United States. But what does the president elect’s arrival in the White House mean for transatlantic relations? Professor Julian Beer, president of the Greater Birmingham Transatlantic Chamber of Commerce, says the UK and the US need each other more than ever.
relationship’? At our Transatlantic Chamber US Election
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breakfast event, I was asked for my view on who would win and I said that I thought it would be Joe Biden by a whisker and that normal service would be resumed with a career politician back in the White House soon. But, what does that now potentially mean for us (bar the lawsuits)? It is no secret that, in opposition, Biden
viewed Brexit as the wrong outcome for a number of reasons. These included undermining the stability of the EU while at the same time distracting the UK from taking a lead on the global stage in areas of common cause with the US, the Good Friday Agreement and the cessation on the UK as a gateway to EU markets, and having a strong influence on the other members on aligned interests, to mention a few. As the adage goes, we are where we are, and
Biden and his new administration have had plenty of time to come to terms with the reality of the current situation, if not the details of any final outcome of the UK’s negotiations with the EU. However, I am sure his focus will now be on influencing all parties to come to an amicable agreement.
‘Our relationship in the West Midlands with the US is very important’
So I think it might be less of the ‘special
relationship’ in the future and more the consideration of a different tripartite ‘special relationship’, including the EU in Washington’s approach to transatlantic relationships. In doing so, he will be focused, I’m sure, on
repairing US relations with Germany and France and the rest of the EU as a priority. At the same, as well as trying to balance out any remaining tensions within the EU and UK relationship as a result of Brexit, the US will also welcome the UK as an active ally on a wider global stage on joint interests as it re-joins the global debate on the big issues. In terms of the Brexit negotiations and in the
next round of trade talks with the US on a deal, this all adds to the complexity with the introduction of more variables but, calms the chaos of an erratic and often unpredictable approach of the current incumbent of the White House. The outgoing president, who although was a
vocal supporter of Brexit, held a less positive view on the benefits of the EU alliance including the UK’s membership on security and climate change, for example. He believed the UK was
12 CHAMBERLINK December 2020/January 2021
ormal service resumed in the White House – nearly. So, what does that potentially mean for our ‘special
Greater Birmingham
Transatlantic Chamber of Commerce
better off sailing its own course globally. Our relationship in the West Midlands with the
US is very important. We are one of the few regions to have a trade surplus with the US and have some 3,000 businesses exporting goods and services Stateside, from consultancy, coffee machines, food counters, clothes and from the automotive sector among many others. So, it is critical that whatever the outcome of
the Brexit negotiations, we speak as loudly and often as possible to our businesses here. We must encourage them to talk to their
business networks and contacts in the US to highlight to negotiators on both sides that, as we all try to come to terms with political and economic instability and try to recover from Covid-19 (let alone considerations of the bigger issues of global security and climate change), we still have more interests in common now as we have had historically in the old ‘special relationship’. The reality is that we need each other - even if we both have our eyes turned by others on the global stage.
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