President Donald Trump’s UK ambassador, Warren Stephens, holds shares worth hundreds of millions in the key sectors that stand to benefit from last week’s UK-US trade agreement.
Stephens played a key role in pushing through the deal, according to the United Kingdom’s ambassador to the United States, Peter Mandelson, and campaigners have raised concerns that he will personally benefit.
According to financial records viewed by DeSmog and the Lever, Warren Stephens’s family-owned investment company, Stephens Inc., owns stocks worth at least $250 million in agriculture and food firms — the principal beneficiaries of the deal announced by the United States and the UK on May 8.
The trade agreement, which allows the US agriculture sector to trade more easily in the UK, “will create a $5 billion opportunity for new exports for U.S. farmers, ranchers, and producers,” according to the Trump administration.
The deal also pledges that the two nations will negotiate a “transformative technology partnership” and a deal on pharmaceuticals.
According to Stephens Inc’s latest filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), on March 31 the firm had at least $800 million invested in tech companies and at least $220 million in pharmaceutical firms.
Stephens Inc. also had $8 million invested in the aviation firm Boeing, which sold thirty-two planes to British Airways after the trade agreement was announced. As part of the deal, the United States agreed to drop tariffs on Rolls-Royce engines and other plane parts from the UK.
“For anyone still questioning who’s likely to benefit most from this trade deal, look no further,” said Harmit Kambo, a campaign manager at the Good Law Project, a UK-based legal advocacy group.
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Auteur: Sam Bright
