Peter Mandelson’s resignation ‘slowed’ UK-US trade talks, says US ambassador

LONDON — Peter Mandelson’s resignation as U.S. ambassador “slowed” progress in transatlantic trade talks, Washington’s ambassador to the U.K. said Thursday.

Mandelson’s removal last September over his ties to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein “probably slowed things down,” Warren Stephens told a business conference in central London, referring to talks to finalize the Economic and Prosperity Deal signed last May.

“I give Peter a lot of credit for the [U.K.-U.S. trade] deal, because I actually called him and said, ‘Look, y’all gotta move faster than you’re moving,’ the top diplomat said. “And literally, the next day, we have a framework that was signed in the Oval Office.” 

While Stephens said the pact locks in “the lowest” tariffs of any U.S. trade partner, he called for the U.K. to move faster in wrapping up the next stage of talks.

“No one shakes hands on a deal and then refuses to deliver the promised product. People agree on terms, then implement the deal to profit both their businesses,” Stephens told the British Chambers of Commerce Driving International Trade Conference.

“We’re excited by these deals and we’re ready to act on them — we just want to see our partners showing that same urgency and commitment to delivery,” he added.

The legal text of a pharmaceutical deal for the U.K. to spend more on cutting-edge drugs is still being nailed down, and the U.S. has yet to lift 25 percent duties on British steel.

Britain is also pushing for tariff relief for Scotch whisky exports.

Meanwhile progress on the Tech Prosperity Deal, agreed during Trump’s second state visit last September, was paused in December as the U.S. pushed London to honor the terms of the EPD.

The two sides restarted work on the nuclear element of the tech deal earlier this year. A U.K. official, granted anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations, told POLITICO last month that negotiators hoped to unlock talks on AI and quantum soon.

Stephens said he now talks and messages “regularly” with Mandelson’s successor, Christian Turner, who took up his role last month, to progress the deal.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick met with Turner and Starmer’s Special Trade Envoy to the U.S., Varun Chandra, earlier this month. Chandra has said he’s aiming to tie up the loose threads of the deal by the end of June.