British Ambassador to the US, Sir Nigel Sheinwald, last night praised the UK-US trade relationship for its importance in driving economic recovery, and warned that moves towards protectionist measures would threaten the global economy.

British companies remain the largest foreign investors in the US, and the US is the leading investor in the UK, amounting for 36% of total inward investment to Britain in the last fiscal year, he said.

He was speaking at the BritishAmerican Business’s annual Transatlantic Business Awards Dinner in New York, where he presented this year’s American award to Tom Glocer, CEO of ThomsonReuters. In presenting the award, he hailed Mr Glocer as “the epitome of the New York/London brand of BritishAmerican business leadership.” The annual awards ceremony recongnizes leaders of two major multinational companies for their leadership in transatlantic business. The UK award went to Peter Sands of Standard Chartered plc and was presented by US Ambassador to the UK, Louis Susman.

In remarks ahead of the presentation, Ambassador Sheinwald said EU-US economic relationship remained the most important in the word:

“In the news these days, much of the focus is on the rise of China, India and Brazil, and their growing clout is important.  But so is Europe. The economic relationship between the United States and the European Union remains by far the largest, most complex and most important in the world.  EU investment in the United States is a key driver of economic growth, together totaling 54% of the world’s GDP.  In 2008, EU Foreign Direct Investment stock in the US amounted to $1.43 trillion. By comparison, Indian FDI stock in the US was just $4.5 billion, and Chinese FDI stock was only $1.2 billion.”

He went on to warn that trade-restricting measures applied in G20 countries risk slowing economic recovery: “We need to face down the protectionists in our society and have the courage to complete the Doha Round of international trade negotiations.”

• Read Ambassador Sheinwald's entire speech
• Read Ambassador Sheinwald’s latest blog on transatlantic business

This morning, Ambassador Sheinwald and Ambassador Susman also participated in BritishAmerican Business's annual  “Ambassadorial Briefing”. In a discussion moderated by the Financial Times’ Chrystia Freeland, the two discussed the most pressing issues of the day including the economy, climate change, Afghanistan/Pakistan and Iran. Ambassador Sheinwald also congratulated the entire BritishAmerican Business team on the tremendous success of the annual dinner, a unique event in the New York business calendar, and one unmatched by any other country, which this year drew a record crowd of senior executives from both sides of the Atlantic.

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