The maths of a trade deal with Trump do not add up

Indeed, as Sam Lowe, at the Centre for European Reform points out, the UK White Paper talks about using “mutual recognition of conformity assessment” to allow US products into the UK, but the US is clearly not interested in negotiating on that basis.

While it is true that Switzerland does have a carve-out to accept hormone-reared beef (so long as it doesn’t go into the rest of the EU) there is no evidence to suggest that the EU would grant the UK likewise after DiT’s initial exploratory conversations.

And even if it did, as Mr Lowe points out, it would just mean that British farmers would be facing competition from cheaper US beef rather than the heavily protected Swiss agricultural sector. Good luck to British farmers with that.