US May Opt for Signing Trade Agreement With EU Before UK Deal

The United States may prefer to sign a trade agreement with the European Union before reaching the deal with the United Kingdom, media reported on Saturday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel managed to persuade US president Donald Trump during the conversation held last month that the talks on EU-US trade deal would be easier than the US leader had thought, The Times reported, citing its source close to the White House.

"Ten times Trump asked her if he could negotiate a trade deal with Germany. Every time she [Merkel] replied, ‘You can’t do a trade deal with Germany, only the EU…’ On the eleventh refusal, Trump finally got the message, ‘Oh, we’ll do a deal with Europe then,’" the source said, as quoted by the media outlet.

As a result of the talks with Merkel, Trump reportedly came to the conclusion that the deal with the European Union was more important for the United States than the deal with the post-Brexit United Kingdom.

During his election campaign Trump criticized multilateral trade agreements such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), saying he would prefer to have bilateral trade relations with other countries.