New trade deals with the US and India mark the emergence of a post-Brexit strategy with real depth, writes Bepi Pezzulli.
They promised us Global Britain. What we got, for a while, was Brexit in a hairnet, filling out customs forms with biro and suppressed rage.
But now, with the India Free Trade Agreement signed and a substantial new deal inked with Washington, Britain’s post-Brexit strategy is beginning to acquire strategic depth.
The US–UK Economic Prosperity Agreement is not a full-spectrum free trade treaty, but it is the most significant commercial pact between the two countries since Britain left the EU. It eliminates tariffs on UK steel and aluminium exports to the US. It slashes duties on British cars from 27.5% to 10%—up to an annual quota of 100,000 vehicles. Aerospace exports, crucial to Britain’s advanced manufacturing sector, will now move into the US market tariff-free.
In return, Britain has agreed to increase tariff-free quotas for American beef—13,000 tonnes, up from 1,000—and loosened its grip on some product standards. UK negotiators held the line on the digital services tax, which remains at 2% despite US complaints. Other key industrial exports—aircraft parts, metals, precision components—will see faster customs clearance and streamlined treatment under US trade law.
Washington benefits modestly but deliberately. The deal strengthens America’s supply chains across the Atlantic without relying on Brussels. It expands market access for politically sensitive US exports like beef. And it enables President Donald Trump to portray himself as not only a punisher of rivals but a rewarder of allies. All this, without needing congressional ratification.
London gains more. Labour, having inherited Brexit after years of disdain, has now scored its first meaningful post-EU win. The tariff cuts safeguard high-value industrial jobs, particularly in politically delicate areas. UK aerospace, an often-overlooked export powerhouse, receives a major boost.
Symbolically, the agreement reaffirms that bilateralism need not mean isolation. Economically, it shows that Britain can still forge deals with superpowers, without rerunning Brussels’ model.
Crucially, the structure of the deal is incremental and reviewable—avoiding the rigidity that doomed TTIP or similar mega-agreements. This is a more adaptive model of trade liberalisation, one better suited to 21st-century volatility.
Seen alongside the just-signed UK–India Free Trade Agreement, the implications are geopolitical as much as economic. Britain now stands with a special relationship in the West, anchored in defence, technology, and capital and another in the East, grounded in growth, demographics, and market expansion. These two alignments are not mutually exclusive. Together, they form a scaffold for a leaner but more strategic British trade policy—one rooted less in bloc politics and more in national interest.
The gist of it is that Britain has stopped auditioning to rejoin Brussels and started building a commercial empire of its own. And it’s doing it in English.
Bepi Pezzulli is a Solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales specialising in Governance as well as a Councillor of the Great British PAC.
Website: www.bepipezzulli.eu
Bepi tweets at @bepipezzulli
Main Image: For illustration purposes only. Image created on AI.
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