Brexit: UK signs first US state-level trade deal with Indiana

The UK government is to sign its first trade deal with an individual US state, with more expected this year as it attempts to show post-Brexit progress.

The deal with Indiana seeks to boost the £1.1bn ($1.4bn) worth of goods the state already buys from the UK.

UK Trade Minister Ranil Jayawardena will sign the deal with the Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb on Friday.

The UK is looking to strike similar deals with about 20 states after talks on a broader US-wide agreement stalled.

International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan said the deal "will help deliver value to UK businesses and support our areas of shared interest, such as levelling up".

Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government once saw the prospect of a trade agreement with the US as a whole as one of the biggest prizes of leaving the European Union.

But hopes of a quick deal have faded since US President Joe Biden took office and raised concerns about the UK's handling of post-Brexit trade arrangements in Northern Ireland.

Instead, the UK's Department for International Trade is pushing for agreements with individual US states and cities, to help improve trade relations.

The UK says its deal with Indiana - a Midwestern state - will remove barriers to trade and pave the way for businesses to invest, export and create jobs.

Opportunities in areas such as renewable energy, advanced manufacturing and pharmaceuticals will be available to businesses under the deal, the UK says.

It says the deal would also streamline procurement processes, enable academics to collaborate more easily, and ensure that professional qualifications were recognized on both sides.

The deal was the "first of many agreements we'll be signing in the future as we look to bolster our £200bn trading relationship with the US", Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt said.

Writing for the Conservative Home website, she said deals with almost half of the 50 US states will follow, including Oklahoma, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Texas.

Usually trade agreements with the US are signed at a national level, between central governments.

But the US government under President Biden has not made a firm commitment to a free-trade deal with the UK, despite historic ties between the two countries.

The situation in Northern Ireland, where a dispute over a post-Brexit trade deal has created a block on forming its devolved government, has been a source on tension.

The deal - known as the protocol - is a special arrangement that keeps Northern Ireland aligned with the EU single market for goods, avoiding a hard border with the Republic of Ireland.

The UK has proposed legislation that would allow ministers to scrap some of the rules governing trade between Northern Ireland and Great Britain.

But some US lawmakers, who must approve trade agreements, have said they would not support a trade agreement with the UK if its actions jeopardised the peace process in Northern Ireland.

Last week House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she was "deeply concerned" that the UK was seeking to "unilaterally discard" the protocol.