After India and US deals, Starmer needs to rebuild relations with UK's biggest trading partner

Trade deal with India could be worth £5 billion a year with Scottish salmon and Irn-Bru among the beneficiaries, but questions remain about US deal and talks with EU loom

What a week! You wait years for a trade deal – then two come along at once.

The Labour party had been facing a barrage of questions over its electoral performance, the economy, and internal squabbles. Then came the trade deals with India and the USA, both of which were failed ambitions of the previous government.

But while we are all relieved to have some promising economic news, the question is: “How good are they, actually?” The answers we want from the Labour Government are about what these much-vaunted agreements – especially the one with the US – will mean for farming, the creative industries, pharmaceuticals and, for us in Scotland, whisky.

READ MORE: Jobs saved by "historic" US trade deal, Rightmove set for growth and British Airways orders new Boeing fleet

Donald Trump shakes hands with Peter Mandelson, the UK's ambassador to the US, during the announcement of a new trade deal between the two countries (Picture: Anna Moneymaker) | Getty Images

Tale of two trade deals

During the last Trump presidency, the industry was caught up in a row over Airbus sanctions which led to 25 per cent duty on whisky. Nobody wants to see that again, so when I asked trade minister Douglas Alexander directly could he reassure us of the implications, his response didn’t exactly give me confidence that the terms are nailed down.

This is after all, as he pointed out, not a free-trade deal in the conventional sense, but one that focuses on the specific sectors of cars, steel and agriculture.

Alexander acknowledged that there is still work to be done in other sectors, including whisky, indeed all food and drink. And there's the rub. This could be a tale of two very different trade deals.

India is the biggest market in the world for whisky, according to the Scotch Whisky Association, with potential that it has been working hard to unlock for the past decade. Lowered tariffs under this week’s deal will open it up not just to the big beasts of the industry but smaller producers too.

It is predicted that, over the next five years, it could create over £1 billion of exports and 1,200 jobs in the UK. Scottish salmon and that other iconic beverage, Irn-Bru, will also, says the government, benefit from access to the Indian consumer base.

READ MORE: What the US trade deal means for Scotland and the UK

Holy grail of growth

The entire deal is estimated to offer at least £5 billion a year and the foundations of that holy grail of growth for which recent governments have been striving. But while our whisky producers, and others, are cock-a-hoop about the terms of the Indian trade deal, we don’t yet know exactly what the US one will offer.

Its critics claim that, for whisky and those other sectors not specified in Thursday’s announcement, it will, at best, be little better than a return to the status quo before Trump’s tariff tirade. At worst, it could undermine our farmers by allowing in cheaper American beef or leave tax loopholes for US tech giants to exploit.

Of course, that is a step forward from where we were previously, and we should all hope that there is more progress to come. The first opportunity could come with a forthcoming meeting with the EU where Keir Starmer hopes to continue to rebuild our relationship with our biggest trading partner.

In the meantime, we have to wait with bated breath to find out the details of that agreement with the US, in firm knowledge that the biggest beneficiary so far has been the Trump publicity machine.

Christine Jardine is the Scottish Liberal Democrat MP for Edinburgh West