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London and Washington have tentatively restarted work on their multibillion-pound “tech prosperity deal”, which was paused last year after President Donald Trump piled pressure on the UK to cede ground in wider trade talks.
Senior US and UK officials have initiated discussions about collaboration on civil nuclear technologies and on hosting a joint summit on fusion technologies, according to multiple people briefed on the talks. They described the deal as “unsticking”.
The US-UK “tech prosperity deal”, which was announced in September last year during Trump’s state visit, aimed to spur co-operation between the two countries in areas including AI, quantum computing and nuclear energy.
UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said at the time that the two nations were embarking upon a “golden age of nuclear” energy, with more transatlantic co-operation and speedier regulatory approvals for atomic projects. The deal was touted by the UK as including £31bn worth of investment from America’s top technology companies.
However, the US suspended the deal in early December, with UK officials claiming the Trump administration was pushing for wider trade concessions outside the tech partnership.
Varun Chandra, the prime minister’s special envoy to the US on trade and investment, met his counterpart Jamieson Greer at the World Economic Forum in Davos last month, and the pair agreed to reopen work on the nuclear part of the tech deal, according to people briefed on the discussions.
UK officials have also had constructive discussions with Trump’s science adviser Michael Kratsios on tech collaboration, they added. However, other parts of the prosperity deal, including AI and quantum computing, have not advanced.
In September, Starmer said that the UK-US tech agreement would make it easier for companies to build new power stations in both countries, speeding up the time it takes for a project to get a technology licence from roughly three or four years to about two.
One of the projects announced was an agreement between UK energy company Centrica and US nuclear group X-energy to build advanced high-temperature, gas-cooled reactors in Hartlepool. Aerospace and engineering company Rolls-Royce also said it had entered the US regulatory process for its small modular reactors, signalling its intent to roll them out in the US.
The tech deal was paused late last year after US officials became increasingly frustrated with the UK’s lack of willingness to address so-called non-tariff barriers in its wider trade negotiations, including regulations governing food and industrial goods.
Although the UK agreed to allow 13,000 tonnes of US beef to enter the country free of tariffs each year, the trade deal said the two sides would continue to work together to improve market access for more US agricultural products.
The US has long wanted the UK to recognise American standards on food and agricultural products, but there were no specific commitments outlined in the trade deal.
The people briefed on the latest talks added that ministers believed Trump’s shock decision to impose a new 10 per cent global levy this week would not frustrate the reopening of work on the tech deal.
The UK and US governments did not immediately respond to a request for comment.