LIFT-OFF! Brexit Britain boldly goes where no EU Commission has gone before

It’s blast-off for the seventh UK-US MoU - with Florida – a £1.1 TRILLION economy

Montage © Facts4EU.Org 2023

UK signs Memorandum of Understanding with US State worth more than Spain

On Tuesday (14 Nov 2023) – and unseen by most people because of other news – the UK’s Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch was in Jacksonville and signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to boost trade and investment between the UK and Florida.

Florida has a GDP of over £1.1tn – the fourth biggest of any US state and roughly the same size as Spain. The MoU is designed to help make it quicker, easier, and cheaper for UK and Florida firms to do business and is targeted at sectors in which the UK and Florida have particular strengths such as space, fintech, AI, and legal services. This brings the total to £3.3 TRILLION and plays to the UK’s strengths.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

Brexit Britain's seventh deal with a US State

Business and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed Memorandum of Understanding to encourage trade between the UK and Florida
Pact targeted at high-potential sectors such as space and fintech and designed to boost exports and investment between the UK and Florida
This is the latest the UK has signed with a US state, bringing the total to seven states with a combined GDP of £3.3tn – just under the GDP of Germany

[Sources: Department for Business and Trade | The Rt Hon Kemi Badenoch MP | Governor's Office, Florida.]

The economic size of the US States with which the UK has done deals so far

Indiana : $470.3
North Carolina : $762.9
South Carolina : $308.9
Oklahoma : $243.4
Utah : $259.3
Washington State : $761.4
Florida : $1,439.1
TOTAL : $4,245.3 bn

[Source : U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, data for 2022.]

Space – the next frontier

This MoU is the first the UK has signed which focuses on the space sector. Florida is home to the NASA Kennedy Space Center and has world-leading capabilities in launch infrastructure, manufacturing, and satellite development, presenting huge opportunities for the UK’s growing space industry – now with an income worth over £17.5 billion and employing nearly 50,000 people.

After Tuesday’s signing the UK now has MoUs with seven US states – Indiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Utah, Washington, and Florida – with a combined GDP of £3.3tn, just under the GDP of Germany. The UK is also actively engaging with further states including Texas, California, Colorado, and Illinois.

Business and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch said:

“Florida is a major economy in its own right, with a bigger GDP than most European countries. From launching satellites to developing the latest fintech software, Florida’s leading high-tech companies offer huge opportunities to the UK’s rapidly expanding tech sector.
“Today’s signing shows our US state-level strategy is working and delivering for UK firms, giving them a competitive edge in some of the most exciting markets in the world. I want to thank Governor DeSantis and his team for helping to make this MoU happen.”

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said:

“Florida is the national leader for business growth and economic development, and today’s MOU signing will continue to ensure our state remains the model for American excellence.
“I am honored to stand today with MP Badenoch to strengthen the economic partnership between our state and the United Kingdom.”

What do these Memorandums of Understanding actually deliver?

The MoUs signed with US states are already delivering for UK companies. For example, Cambridge-based Marshall Aerospace is opening a new aircraft maintenance facility and engineering hub at the Piedmont Triad International Airport in North Carolina – an investment worth $50m.

The company has credited the UK’s relationship with North Carolina and the UK’s recent MoU for enabling the environment for their investment.

Here is what they said in North Carolina about the UK company’s investment

“The Piedmont Triad Airport Authority is thrilled to welcome Marshall Aerospace as the latest addition to the airport’s impressive campus of aerospace companies.”
“Marshall Aerospace is a global company providing engineering, support, and services for civil and military aircraft platforms. Marshall Aerospace specializes in converting, modifying, maintaining, and supporting civil and military aircraft and providing personnel, training, and technical advice. Marshall is renowned and respected worldwide for its quality of service, engineering excellence, flexibility, and reliability.”

- The Piedmont Triad Airport Authority, North Carolina

The US is the UK’s largest trading partner - much larger than any EU country -and the biggest investor in the UK. Every day more than one million people get up and go to work for British companies in America, and almost 1.5 million people do the same for American companies in the UK.

Observations

Deals like this matter in the real world

The firing of Home Secretary Suella Braverman by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has buried a lot of other news this week.

We therefore felt it important to bring at least one more piece of positive Brexit news to the attention of our readers. MoU’s are not fully-fledged trade deals but they are important in opening up US markets to British companies, State-by-State, as we have shown.

These deals matter. Those who dismiss them have clearly never worked in exporting businesses, as several members of the Facts4EU.Org team have. And incidentally one of our team has actually spent time in North Carolina, mentioned above, and can personally vouch for what a delightful US State it is.

We must get reports like this out there

Reports like the one above take far longer to research, write and produce than many people realise. If they were easy, readers would see other organisations also producing these daily. However, there’s little point in the Facts4EU.Org team working long hours, seven days-a-week, if we lack the resources to promote them effectively – to the public, to MPs, and to the media. This is where you come in, dear reader.

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[ Sources: Department for Business and Trade | The Rt Hon Kemi Badenoch MP | Governor's Office, Florida ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Fri 17 Nov 2023

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Reader Comments 20

1. IAN SCHOFIELD , Friday, November 17, 2023, 09:26:

Great news. Hopefully as the UK moves steadily away from the limited orbit of the EU we can once again see the whole world as a market to trade with, rather than a protectionist diminishing EU.
Thanks to facts4eu.org for bringing this news to everyone’s attention.

2. Sparky , Friday, November 17, 2023, 11:30:

This is a positive step but let's not get over excited. Brexit media have been jumping up and down about the agreement but only because there is very little positive Brexit news to shout about.
.
This is a MOU not an FTA. The Cons 2019 manifesto promised a US trade deal with in 3 years.
.
The UK has a significant trade deficit with Florida. For whom will this make trade easier, the UK or Florida?
.
Exports to Florida are reasonable at £2.2 bn but pale at £340bn to EU.

3. terence patrick hewett , Friday, November 17, 2023, 11:45:

Are yes, EU share of world trade...the incredibly shrinking willy.

4. Sparky , Friday, November 17, 2023, 12:13:

3 TPH. Ah yes, that old Brexitear claim. The EU economy has grown in size, but the rest of the world economy has grown faster. Mainly led by China and other Far East economies due to the purchases we in the UK have made wether that be product made in China etc or the Hyundai your neighbour just bought.

5. NH , Friday, November 17, 2023, 12:16:

2. Sparky , "very little positive Brexit news to shout about."
.
Are you missing the point ? New trade deals are not an "either or" relationship. As you have stated Brexit has resulted in increased exports to the EU and at the same time we can enter into specific agreements that are designed to suit the UK market. If we were in the EU we would have to pay them a fortune, pay for huge additional debt which we would not benefit from, pay huge amounts to support a failing currency and we would not be able to make new trade agreements which would benefit the UK.
.
The Florida agreement is just one of many agreements. Our trade with the USA is very beneficial. It is going rapidly and we have a significant surplus. When were were in the EU our trade with the EU had stagnated and we had a huge deficit. What we can presently see is that the EU is in a constant state of never ending conflicts and in many areas failing to compete in world markets. The UK has not yet taken advantage of all the Brexit Freedoms but we are moving forward in a very positive manner.

6. terence patrick hewett , Friday, November 17, 2023, 12:18:

@ sparky
Not a claim: a fact.

7. terence patrick hewett , Friday, November 17, 2023, 13:06:

I have to admit to a morbid curiosity in imagining how Pres.O'Biden would mangle Kemi Badenoch's name.

8. NH , Friday, November 17, 2023, 14:52:

4. Sparky , "Ah yes, that old Brexitear claim"
You seem to want to stick your head in the sand and delude yourself. The EU's underperformance is based on almost 40 years of data. This data does not come from Brexit organisations it comes from organisations such as the IMF, WTO and national produced data. During this 40 year period the EU underperformed every region in the world except the old Soviet Union. The only reason the Soviet Unions figures were so bad is because of the events in 1992. If these are removed from the data the EU underperforms the Soviet Union. For the period it's existed the Eurozone has been the lowest region in the world behind the EU and the Soviet Union.
.
Your claim that growth that growth in Asia is because we have been buying their products is nonsense. In countries like China there has been massive growth due to urbanisation and growth in their domestic market. This has lead to huge advances in education, efficient production and huge advances in technology. Unfortunately the EU does not seem to do technology it focuses on inefficient regulation, inefficient slow expensive government processes, national wealth redistribution and social values.

9. terence patrick hewett , Friday, November 17, 2023, 15:36:

According to PwC: "The World in 2050", the EU's share of world GDP will decline to 9% by 2050. Although my own feeling is that the EU won't be there at all by 2050: it will have reverted to a simple trading bloc.

10. jon iivesey , Friday, November 17, 2023, 17:56:

4. Sparky , "3 TPH. Ah yes, that old Brexitear claim. The EU economy has grown in size, but the rest of the world economy has grown faster." And what should we conclude from this? I conclude that the rest of the World is becoming more competitive in manufacturing compared to the EU, and the EU progressively less. The only way I can see out of that, unless the EU can produce a startling improvement in skills, which would be hard with such a poor University system, is to liberalise the EU's wage markets and make creating new companies much faster and simpler, and to follow the UK into high-tech and services.
Unfortunately for European countries, the Commission seems to be more interested in blowing up trade negotiations by foisting European "values" and protectionist quotas on potential trade partners who don't have the patience to negotiate with the EU for ever because they have their own problems to solve.
If anyone thinks that the EU model is working, think back a couple of decades to the time when the EU was predicting that it would become the "other" super-power. In fact, since then EU growth has been miserable compared to the US and today we all think of China as the other power that US Presidents have summits with. The EU hasn't just missed out on growth, but it has dropped an entire notch in World significance. In a milder fashion, it's like the way the USSR did not just change ideologies, but dropped from being a World power to being just a regional power.

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