To our knowledge, this is the first formal, legislative proposal for new trade arrangements in the wake of the UK's vote to leave the EU. We think it's the first, but it may not be. It almost certainly will not be the last, though how Congress deals with this major new development will, of course, depend on how things play out on the other side of the pond.
The Global Business Dialogue will hold its first post-Referendum event next Thursday, July 7, (details below), and future trade arrangements will be the central focus of that discussion.
In the interim we would note that, yes, how Americans look at the referendum - whatever its meaning over there - is yet another division point in American politics. One of the findings of the Lee-Cotton legislation, for example, is that:
"the United States supports the decision by the people of the United Kingdom to leave the European Union."
That is, obviously, not a view with which the Administration could agree. President Obama had, after all, urged the British public to vote the other way.
Differences in how one views the origins of something, however, need not preclude cooperation in fashioning responses to it. And in this case, there seems to very little difference between, say, Senator Lee on the one hand and President Obama on the other when it comes to the special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom.
President Obama observed in his June 24 statement on the referendum that:
"The special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom is enduring, and the United Kingdom's membership in NATO remains a vital cornerstone of U.S. foreign policy, security, and economic policy."
Senator Lee said yesterday that:
"Our nation's special relationship with the United Kingdom has promoted economic prosperity and security in both countries for over a hundred years. This relationship can and should be preserved."
Those sentiments are hardly a prescription for whatever comes next, but they may be a useful building block.
