© Win McNamee/Getty Images/KJN
Speaking at an event in London, Pompeo said that Britain's exit from the EU on January 31 would reduce barriers to trade between the two countries.
"What I'm optimistic about is that there were things that the United Kingdom was required to do as part of being a member of the EU and they will be able to do them differently now," Pompeo told an event alongside UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab.
"I think that's fantastic. I think that's fantastic for the United States. I think that's fantastic for the United Kingdom. We will be able to reduce transaction costs and share [goods and services] in ways we could not do when the United Kingdom was part of that and I look forward to working through that."
Pompeo said that the UK would be at "the front of a line" for a new trade deal after Brexit.
"The last [US] administration had a policy of putting the UK at the back of the line [after Brexit]," he said. "We have a policy of putting the UK at the front of the line."
The planned US-UK trade deal is highly controversial in the UK.
During the recent election campaign, opposition Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn accused Prime Minister Boris Johnson of planning to sign away UK food and trade standards as part of a Brexit trade deal with Trump.
Leaked UK government documents also revealed that officials had met with US pharmaceutical companies and discussed drug-pricing in the UK.
Johnson repeatedly denied during the campaign that either food standards or the National Health Service would be under threat in any deal with the US.
Reader Comments
For the EU to survive in its current format, it must subjugate the UK under its bureaucrats and regulations, or make the UK economy scream, if possible.
Whether Brexit will be in name only or not, is still open at this point I think.