Britain had hoped for a sweeping bilateral trade deal with the United States after splitting from the European Union, but with President Joe Biden putting all talks on free trade agreements on hold, the British government has pursued state-level agreements instead. The British trade ministry said aerospace would be a priority sector under the Washington MoU, with Boeing (BA.N) being based in the state. The MoU with Washington is the sixth such agreement with a U.S. state. Washington state is also the home of Amazon (AMZN.O), Starbucks (SBUX.O) and Microsoft (MSFT.O), and is the state with the 11th highest gross domestic product (GDP). The six U.S. states covered by MoUs with Britain have a combined GDP of over 2 trillion pounds ($2.4 trillion), Britain said.

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Persons: Nusrat Ghani, Kirsty Wigglesworth, Britain, Joe Biden, Ghani, Alistair Smout, William James Our Organizations: Britain's, State Department for Business, Conference, U.S, European Union, Boeing, Starbucks, Microsoft, Thomson Locations: Ukraine, London, Britain, U.S ., Washington, Florida , Texas, California, United States, British, U.S