How Brexit Became a Game of Chicken With the U.S.

The future of trade between the United States and the U.K. is in flux because the British think U.S. chicken is gross

Illustration: Dan Woodger

The fate of the United Kingdom’s future trading relationship with the United States may rest on whether the British government is so desperate for a trade deal with a major power that it will accept chicken with small amounts of chlorine on its national menu.

For decades, a dispute over how chicken is treated before being sold has been a barrier preventing a comprehensive trade agreement between the United States and the European Union, and now it could be a sticking point with the United Kingdom as it looks to make its own trade deals once it manages to leave the European Union. The United States and the U.K. do $262 billion worth of trade a year, and the United States has a slight surplus. Besides agriculture, many U.S. industries could stand to benefit from such a deal, but so far, the focus has been squarely on chicken. “We’re not too keen on that chlorinated chicken,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson told Vice President Mike Pence at a press conference in London earlier this month, before transitioning into an awkward joke about his Labour opponent Jermey Corbyn: “We have a gigantic chlorinated chicken of our own here on the opposition…