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Exclusive: Senior officials in the UK’s Department for International Trade are pushing for a trade deal with the US to be first signed into law after Brexit, multiple sources have told Business Insider.

Officials including Crawford Falconer, the UK’s chief trade adviser, believe that implementing a US deal first would be a symbolic boost for Britain as it starts life outside the EU, according to department insiders.

The UK government wants to negotiate deals with the US, EU, Australia, and New Zealand before the end of December when the Brexit transition period is due to finish.

Talks with the US are set to get off to a rocky start after Washington reacted angrily to UK plans to impose a new digital services tax on big tech companies.

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Senior officials in the UK government are pushing for Boris Johnson to place a trade deal with Trump at the front of the line after Brexit.

The UK is set to begin negotiating a new trade deal with Donald Trump’s administration immediately after Britain leaves the European Union on January 31, with the aim of finalising some sort of arrangement by the end of 2020.

However, the UK government also wants to secure a deal with the EU, as well as Australia and New Zealand, in that time.

The UK Chancellor Sajid Javid said this week that talks with the EU would come first, prompting US Trade Secretary Steve Mnuchin to say he was a “little disappointed” that US talks wouldn’t be prioritised.

However, two sources who have discussed the matter with Department for International Trade’s officials said that while the department expects to wrap up deals with Australia and New Zealand first, they want a deal with the US to be the first signed into law.

This, they told Business Insider, was because DIT officials, including Crawford Falconer, the UK’s chief trade adviser, believe it would be a major symbolic moment for Britain as it enters a post-Brexit world, and would represent a victory for the UK government amid warnings about the difficulty of negotiating with the US.

Johnson’s Conservative government is keen to strike a deal with the US before the end of the Brexit transition period. UK negotiators are reportedly preparing to begin trade talks with Washington before they begin talks with the EU.

While the government has said it aims to secure a comprehensive trade deal with the US by the end of the year, it is thought to privately believe that a bare-bones agreement, designed to be built on in years to come, is more realistic.

A Downing Street source said that the government had not yet produced a timetable for implementing prospective trade agreements. Business Insider has asked DIT for comment.

US trade talks get off to a bumpy start

Aaron Chown/PA Images via Getty Images International Trade Secretary Liz Truss meets with US Ambassador to the UK, Woody Johnson, at Winfield House in London.

The challenge of negotiating a deal with Trump’s administration became greater in recent days after the US reacted angrily to UK government plans to introduce a digital services tax on big tech companies. Steven Mnuchin, the US treasury secretary, warned that the US could retaliate by slapping tariffs on UK car exports to the US.

Talks are expected to hit a flashpoint when focus turns to agriculture. The Trump administration has said it will prioritise greater access to the UK’s agricultural markets, so it can sell more food and agriculture products to Britain.

This has led to concerns that Johnson’s government will accept US standards for food production – a well-known example of which being chlorine-washed chicken – in order to secure an agreement with Washington.

Trade minister Conor Burns last week told MPs that the UK government would publish its objectives for trade talks with the US and other countries, “at the start of new free trade agreement negotiations.”

Staunchly pro-Brexit Conservative MPs support prioritising a trade deal with the US, at least partly because doing so would probably take the UK closer to US regulations, and make it harder to negotiate close trading ties with the EU.

Comments made by Chancellor Sajid Javid in a recent interview suggested that the UK government was paving the way to a closer regulatory relationship with the US once Britain departs the EU.

Javid told the Financial Times that there would “not be alignment” with the EU after Brexit.

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