Press

Sam Lowe, a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform, was quick to point out one area where the NHS is already “on the table” — American companies can bid for contracts such as Babylon Health’s GP advice service — and another that is not. The United States wants the NHS to pay more for drugs and could try to incorporate a new reimbursement structure in a trade deal.

“They propose … an agreement by both parties to recognize a variety of value criteria; and that [health technology assessment] should not be the principle framework for assessing value,” said Sam Lowe, senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform.

“There is little new here,” said Sam Lowe, trade expert at the Centre for European Reform think-tank. “Mr Baker wants a transition period and a basic free trade agreement without a Withdrawal Agreement and a backstop for Northern Ireland - something that the EU insists is not on the table.”

Sam Lowe, senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform, said it was “nonsensical” to argue there could be a big enough surge in US-UK trade to make up such a gap because London and Washington do not envisage a free trade agreement remotely as deep as the EU single market.“We are hugely integrated in the EU economy and for any US deal, the most we are looking at is tariff reduction,” he said. Other motors of trade such as common standards and regulatory alignment would be much less touched by any US-UK agreement.

“The US has long taken issue with the fact that the NHS’s approach to drug procurement… pulls down prices worldwide,” said Sam Lowe, senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform, in an op-ed.

No así, en aguas territoriales libias, como recuerda Camino Mortera-Martínez, experta legal del Center for European Reform. “Lo que intenta la UE es que no lleguen a aguas internacionales porque ahí estarían obligados a la búsqueda y rescate. En las aguas libias es Libia quien tiene la responsabilidad”.

Indeed, as Sam Lowe, at the Centre for European Reform points out, the UK White Paper talks about using “mutual recognition of conformity assessment” to allow US products into the UK, but the US is clearly not interested in negotiating on that basis.

“I don’t think we will be signing a large-scale trade agreement with the US any time soon,” said Sam Lowe, a trade expert at the Centre for European Reform, a London-based think tank. The only way that could happen in the short term is if the UK leaves the EU without a deal to smooth its exit, he added, a prospect that the government has warned could do serious damage to the economy.