Barack Obama: post-Brexit trade deal with UK could take 10 years

President says Britain would not get preferential treatment over the EU when it comes to negotiating new terms with US



It could take Britain 10 years to negotiate a trade deal with the US if it votes to leave the EU, Barack Obama has said.

Speaking to the BBC at the end of his final visit to the UK as president, Obama said: “It could be five years from now, 10 years from now before we’re actually able to get something done.”

Obama is in the last nine months of his presidential term and has spent the past three days in London as part of a state visit. During that time he urged Britons to remain part of the EU as they prepare to vote on membership of the 28-country bloc at the 23 June referendum.

Obama told the BBC that Britain would not get preferential treatment over the EU when it came to negotiating a new trade deal. He said: “The UK would not be able to negotiate something with the United States faster than the EU. We wouldn’t abandon our efforts to negotiate a trade deal with our largest trading partner, the European market.”

Published By - Theguardian.com - Sports New, LifeStyle News, Politics news, UK and world political comment and analysis: Sunday 24 April 2016 11.44 BST

Barack Obama: Brexit would put UK 'back of the queue' for trade talks

US president, visiting London, says ‘part of being friends is being honest’ as he lays out perils of leave vote in EU referendum



Barack Obama has warned that the UK would be at the “back of the queue” in any trade deal with the US if the country chose to leave the EU, as he made an emotional plea to Britons to vote for staying in. The US president used a keenly awaited press conference with David Cameron, held at the Foreign Office, to explain why he had the “temerity to weigh in” over the high-stakes British question in an intervention that delighted remain campaigners.

Obama argued that he had a right to respond to the claims of Brexit campaigners that Britain would easily be able to negotiate a fresh trade deal with the US. “They are voicing an opinion about what the United States is going to do, I figured you might want to hear from the president of the United States what I think the United States is going to do.

“And on that matter, for example, I think it’s fair to say that maybe some point down the line there might be a UK-US trade agreement, but it’s not going to happen any time soon because our focus is in negotiating with a big bloc, the European Union, to get a trade agreement done”.

Published By - Theguardian.com - Sports New, LifeStyle News, Politics news, UK and world political comment and analysis: Friday 22 April 2016 20.30 BST