Americas Minister looks to strengthen Britain and US's trade alliances with current visit to American Midwest

Britain's Americas and Caribbean Minister, David Rutley, has departed to the United States to encourage further alignment over the two nations' trade relationship. Minister Rutley is travelling to the Midwestern region of the US with stops in the states of Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio.

Part of Minister Rutley's Midwest visit will include making an appearance at the 91st US Conference of Mayors in Columbus, Ohio, where he will engage and converse with valuable figures in the political and business landscape. This will be with the aim of building up economic growth through assembling further trade partnerships across cities in the US.

The economic relationship between Britain and the US has been discussed very recently as British Foreign Secretary, James Cleverly, flew out to Washington earlier this month to discuss various matters including bilateral international trade.

Both nations have invested over $1 trillion in one another's economies so Minister Rutley will be eager to sustain the trade relationship that has been forged and make it even more valuable. This will be by promoting Britain as an ideal business collaborator for American states, leading to the creation of more jobs in both countries.

The US remains Britain's biggest destination around the world for foreign direct investment. Britain is truly devoted to US-based operations with no other nation providing more jobs stateside than Britain as over one million workers in the US are employed by British businesses.

Minister Rutley spoke on the already established partnership which Britain shares with the US and what it represents. He commented: "The US and the UK have more than $1 trillion already invested in each other's economies and our relationship drives growth and supports millions of jobs."

He further added: "We're working in partnership to take full advantage of the rich bounty of business opportunities on both sides of the Atlantic."

Britain has already established a good relationship in the trade sector over the last few years with the Midwestern states Minister Rutley is visiting. This is evident from Britain being the second biggest export destination for Kentucky in 2019 whilst the US state exported $3.5 billion of goods to Britain last year.

Also, Kentucky received imports worth $1.2 billion from Britain last year.

Ohio received $1.7 billion of British imports last year whilst Britain was Ohio's fourth biggest export destination for goods in 2019. Last year saw Ohio hand out $1.6 billion in exports to Britain.

Britain Is currently the seventh biggest export market for Indiana and $1.4 billion of exports made its way to Britain last year. On the opposing end, Indiana imported $1.7 billion in goods from Britain last year.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak outlined a five-point plan for Minister Rutley to carry out and the priorities included focusing on economic growth in addition to higher-paying jobs being created. The conversations which Minister Rutley has with key state-level business and political leaders on his trip to the Midwest will be vital in building alliances in important and valuable sectors.

Britain is looking to build on its business alliances with the US by also reinforcing trade relations with individual American states. So far crucial talks have taken place with Indiana, South Carolina, North Carolina plus Oklahoma, with a Memoranda of Understanding having been signed with each of the states.

Britain is also in the midst of current talks with other US states that include California, Utah and Texas over hopefully coming to an agreement on additional arrangements. This will allow for British and American organisations to endure a much more seamless process when looking to collaborate as the new arrangements will make matters more cost-effective and straightforward.

Elsewhere, Rishi Sunak is set to officially visit the US for the first since being made PM as he will hold talks with US President, Joe Biden, in Washington next week regarding Britain and the US's economic ties. Also, there is set to be a discussion between the two over providing further military support for Ukraine to help the nation deal with its ongoing conflict with Russia.