Source: POLITICO'S MORNING AGRICULTURE, 6/26/20

U.S. and U.K. negotiators could announce today that they’ve reached agreement on some of the 30 or more chapters expected to be in a bilateral free trade deal. If not, that would be a bad sign for U.K. hopes of completing and signing the agreement before the U.S. presidential election.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer told members of Congress last week that the two sides have begun exchanging text for the proposed deal and that he hoped “at least a couple of chapters” could be closed out this week. (Worth noting: Lighthizer has since threatened more tariffs on British exports in a long-running dispute over European subsidies for Airbus.)

The meat of the matter: To get a deal before November, the two sides have to resolve contentious agricultural issues, including the U.K.’s food safety and animal welfare regulations that keep out imports of U.S. beef, poultry and pork because of the veterinary drugs used by American farmers and ranchers or how the animals are processed at slaughter facilities.

By the numbers: The U.S. exported more than $13 billion worth of beef and pork products to countries around the world in 2019, but only $3.9 million to the U.K., according to USDA data. The figures are similarly dismal for poultry. The U.S. exported nearly $4.3 billion of poultry meat to the rest of the world last year, but only $420,000 to the U.K.