Trump’s plan for US providers in NHS could scupper hopes of UK-US trade deal
The NHS is likely to derail any chances of the UK opening up fresh talks on a free trade deal with the incoming Trump administration, i understands.
A Trump White House is expected to include health services in any potential negotiations on a free trade agreement with the UK, according to documents dubbed “Trump’s blueprint for power”.
Project 2025, which sparked widespread controversy in the US during the election campaign, states that the Trump administration will adopt a pre-existing model trade agreement that would open up UK services to the US, including health.
While Donald Trump attempted to distance himself from the manifesto in the election race, the document was drawn up by several officials from his first term administration, including director Paul Dans, who was chief of staff at the Office of Personnel Management while Trump was president.
According to the policy paper, the incoming US government should adopt a free trade template drawn up by “policy leaders in the United Stated and the United Kingdom” including right wing think tanks the Heritage Foundation and the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
The template, which was developed under the previous Trump administration in 2018, states that “health services are an area where both sides would benefit from openness to foreign competition”, before adding: “Although we recognize any changes to existing regulations will be extremely controversial.”
The Project 2025 document adds that adopting the template would “greatly reduce negotiating costs”, adding that it is also “readily adaptable for agreements with Europe and any other allies that are willing to liberalize [sic] their economies and build a stronger alliance with America”.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves said in the summer that she wants to revive the UK/US trade talks, while prominent allies of the President-elect, including Robert Greenway, former deputy assistant to the president on Trump’s National Security Council, have claimed a trade deal would be a “priority” for the incoming President.
A free trade agreement with the US was long held up by Brexiteers as the big prize for leaving the European Union, but a series of UK administrations failed to make it a reality.
New Tory leader Kemi Badenoch attempted on Wednesday to put pressure on the Government to try to resurrect trade talks with the US, which she said were “cancelled by the Biden administration”.
Sir Keir Starmer told the Commons that “of course we will discuss issues of our economy with the president-elect, as we already have done”.
But any plans from the US to include the NHS in talks is likely to end hopes of negotiations resuming before they have even begun.
Government sources told i that it had no plans to open up the NHS to foreign competition.
Back in 2019, an investigation by Channel4 Dispatches revealed that trade talks between the Trump administration and Boris Johsnson’s government had discussed “drug pricing” to try and allow US pharmaceutical firms to charge the NHS more for their products.
Campaigners have warned the Government against any plans to put the health service on the table when it comes to trade talks.
Johnbosco Nwogbo, lead campaigner at public ownership campaign group We Own It said: “There is no doubt that US healthcare corporations have long viewed our National Health Service as a potential cash cow.
“Trump is back in the White House and talking tough on trade deals with the UK. Keir Starmer needs to be clear that the NHS is off limits in any trade negotiations with the Trump administration.”
