'Special relationship' under pressure over UK-US trade deal

The ski resort of Davos sits at 1,500 metres above sea level, it feels cut off from the rest of the world and yet Theresa May has come here to reach out.

During the World's Economic Forum this town fills with the chief executives of global companies and heads of state.

The Prime Minister has her eye on foreign investment and trade deals, post-Brexit, and this is a very good place to make her pitch.

Theresa May's speech later on Thursday - in which she'll repeat her demand that the likes of Google and Facebook clean-up their platforms - will undoubtedly attract an audience but Theresa May is the not the star-attraction In Davos this year.

President Trump has top-billing, of course, his entourage already sweep through this place like a snowplough.

But the European leader that's caught the imagination here this year is French.

President Macron is straight out of Davos central-casting. He's a former banker who champions the benefits of open markets, immigration and the European Union.

His election victory last May is seen in Davos as having halted populism in its tracks. Macron is globalisation's greatest hope.

"France is back!" Macron declared (in English) in his speech to the World Economic Forum on Wednesday. And everyone here believes him. Including, it would appear, President Trump.

Politically, personally, President Macron and President Trump have very little obviously in common. And yet they seem to have established a surprisingly strong rapport.

Last July, Trump was given the red carpet treatment in Paris. And this week Trump has decided to host Emmanuel Macron in his first official state visit.

France told the forum that 'France is back'. Credit: AP

By contrast, a year ago Theresa May rushed to the White House to congratulate Trump on his election victory. They held hands and May immediately invited him to attend a state visit in Britain. But that visit appears to be on hold and, earlier this month, Trump cancelled a visit to open the US embassy in London.

Suddenly the "special relationship" with the United States that the United Kingdom obsesses about is looking far less exclusive.

This morning, Team Trump was full of bonhomie. At a press conference, Wilbur Ross, the US Secretary of Commerce and the US Secretary of the Treasury spoke of a "very special economic relationship" with the UK which they expect to continue.

Mnuchin told journalists "we've been very supportive of the UK on the Brexit issues" and added "as soon as UK is ready we are prepared to negotiate an attractive trade deal".

He repeated President Trump's view that the UK is at "the front of the line" when it comes to some form of bi-lateral agreement.

Encouraging stuff, of course, but the hardest miles lie ahead. The UK cannot beginning thrashing out the detail of an agreement with the US until negotiations with European Union about our terms of departure are at a far more advanced stage.

The US's idea of an "attractive" trade deal may not be the UK's.