{"id":1289,"date":"2025-05-12T03:13:35","date_gmt":"2025-05-12T03:13:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.insuracarelife.com\/blog\/u-s-u-k-trade-deal-to-build-on-close-ties-but-leave-some-tariffs-in-place\/"},"modified":"2025-05-12T03:13:35","modified_gmt":"2025-05-12T03:13:35","slug":"u-s-u-k-trade-deal-to-build-on-close-ties-but-leave-some-tariffs-in-place","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.insuracarelife.com\/blog\/u-s-u-k-trade-deal-to-build-on-close-ties-but-leave-some-tariffs-in-place\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S.-U.K. Trade Deal to Build on Close Ties but Leave Some Tariffs in Place"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">President Trump announced on Thursday that the United States intended to sign a trade deal with Britain that would bring the two nations closer and roll back some of the punishing tariffs he issued on that country\u2019s products.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Both sides consider a trade pact deeply beneficial, and a deal has been under discussion since Mr. Trump\u2019s first term. But the announcement on Thursday was scant on details, reflecting the haste of the Trump administration\u2019s efforts to negotiate with more than a dozen nations and rework the global trading system in a matter of months.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The agreement, which Mr. Trump said would be the first of many, would include Britain\u2019s dropping its tariffs on U.S. beef, ethanol, sports equipment and other products, and buying $10 billion of Boeing airplanes. The United States in return said it would pare back tariffs that Mr. Trump has put on cars and steel, though it will leave a 10 percent levy in place for all British exports.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Neither government has said when they expect the agreement to be finalized. <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/briefings-statements\/2025\/05\/11929\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">A document<\/a> released by the Trump administration on Thursday evening listed half a dozen general priorities, and said the countries would immediately begin negotiations \u201cto develop and formalize\u201d them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The British government said it was still pushing to bring down the 10 percent tariff on most other goods.<span class=\"css-8l6xbc evw5hdy0\">  <\/span>American officials said they would push Britain to reconsider a tax on technology companies. Officials from both governments will need to meet in the coming months to hammer out more specific language, leaving open the potential for disagreements.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Nevertheless, the leaders of both nations hailed their cooperation in joint announcements on Thursday that invoked the deep relationship between their countries. Speaking from the Oval Office, with Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain on speakerphone, Mr. Trump called it a \u201cgreat deal for both countries.\u201d Mr. Starmer noted that it was the 80th anniversary of the Allies\u2019 victory in Europe in World War II.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThere are no two countries that are closer than our two countries,\u201d Mr. Starmer said. \u201cAnd now we take this into new and important territory by adding trade and the economy to the closeness of our relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Both British and American businesses, including U.S. cattle ranchers and dairy farmers, also praised the arrangement, though some lamented that tariffs between the two countries would remain higher than they were when Mr. Trump came into office.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The announcement comes as the United States races to finalize agreements with more than a dozen other countries eager to avoid Mr. Trump\u2019s high tariffs. U.S. officials have been negotiating with India, Israel, Japan, South Korea and Vietnam, among other trading partners, for agreements that would drop tariffs between the countries.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Trump officials are also headed to Geneva this weekend to discuss trade issues with Chinese officials, amid an intense standoff that has shut off U.S. trade with China and is threatening to put many companies out of business.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Amid the festering disputes with many countries, closer ties with Britain appeared to be low-hanging fruit for the Trump administration. British officials have eyed an agreement with the United States since leaving the European Union in 2020 as a way to offset reduced trade with Europe, and Mr. Trump has pushed for a deal with Britain since his first term.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Trump, who is fixated on trade deficits, has also praised the country for having relatively balanced trade with the United States. Last month, the president imposed the same 10 percent global tariff on Britain that he put on other countries, but not the higher \u201creciprocal\u201d tariffs that<em class=\"css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0\"> <\/em>were applied to many countries that ship the United States more products.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Officials said Thursday that their plans would leave the 10 percent tariff on British exports in place but roll back others that Mr. Trump has put on cars and steel. In return, Britain would offer billions of dollars of market access for American beef and other exports.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-4\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">One of the most contentious issues for Britain in recent months has been the hefty tariffs Mr. Trump applied to automotive imports, which threatened British companies like Jaguar Land Rover and Aston Martin.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-5\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Under the terms of the new arrangement, Britain will be allowed to send 100,000 vehicles to the United States under a tariff of 10 percent. The British government said that any cars shipped beyond that level would face a 27.5 percent tariff, and that U.S. tariffs on British steel would fall to zero. Britain sent 92,000 vehicles to the United States in 2024, according to data from Oxford Economics.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">U.S. firms in turn will gain more ability to sell to the British government, and streamlined customs procedures when selling into Britain, according to a White House fact sheet. In addition, the governments said they will cooperate on issues of economic security, like enacting global technology controls and setting up a secure supply chain for important products like steel and pharmaceuticals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">U.S. officials hope the announcement will send a message to other American trading<em class=\"css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0\"> <\/em>partners that if they agree to open up their markets, they too could see some of the tariffs Mr. Trump has applied rolled back.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-6\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Trump\u2019s defenders have praised his deal-making ability and said that the global tariffs he has issued have given him extraordinary leverage over other countries. Critics have painted the president as increasingly desperate to solve a crisis of his own making, as tariffs begin to push up U.S. prices and dampen the economy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Wall Street welcomed the news on Thursday, seeing it as a sign that the Trump administration might move to mend ties with other trade partners. The S&amp;P 500 ended the day 0.6 percent higher after paring back some gains from earlier on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Rob Haworth, a senior investment strategy director at U.S. Bank Asset Management, said the market was \u201ccheering progress on this deal.\u201d But he added, \u201cthis is clearly a market on edge, and I think we\u2019re not out of the woods yet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The National Cattlemen\u2019s Beef Association, which represents ranchers, praised the Trump administration for expanding U.S. access to the British market.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-7\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWith this trade deal, President Trump has delivered a tremendous win for American family farmers and ranchers,\u201d said Buck Wehrbein, a Nebraska cattleman who heads the group.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-8\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Other analysts were less impressed. Paul Ashworth, the chief North America economist for Capital Economics, wrote in a note that \u201cthe \u2018full and comprehensive\u2019 trade deal between the U.S. and the U.K. announced in a rush today by President Donald Trump and PM Keir Starmer is no such thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThis rush to demonstrate progress on \u2018deals\u2019 reveals a rising desperation within the administration to roll back tariffs before they hit G.D.P. growth and inflation,\u201d Mr. Ashworth added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Britain is the United States\u2019 11th-largest trading partner in goods, representing 2.9 percent of total U.S. trade in the first quarter of the year. The United States sent $80 billion of machinery, airplanes, natural gas, crude oil and other products to Britain in 2024, while it bought $68 billion of cars, pharmaceuticals and other goods in return.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The United States is Britain\u2019s largest single trading partner, though most of that trade relationship is in services, which are not affected by tariffs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-9\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Trump administration notified Congress of its intent to negotiate a trade deal with Britain back in 2018. But the talks never got much traction in Mr. Trump\u2019s first term because of British resistance to America\u2019s chemically treated beef and chicken, as well as fears that the United States would push for American companies to gain deeper access to Britain\u2019s National Health Service.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">During the Biden administration, British officials continued to advocate a trade deal but did not make much progress because of Democrats\u2019 skepticism.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In late February, at a party at the British ambassador\u2019s residence in Washington, Mr. Starmer, who was visiting, told Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick of Britain\u2019s interest in focusing on trade, according to a person with knowledge of the conversation. Mr. Lutnick, who oversees a portfolio that includes U.S. trade policy, connected with his counterpart in the U.K. government, Jonathan Reynolds. British officials made clear to the Trump team they wanted to be the first country to make a deal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Trump\u2019s special envoy to Britain, the former producer of his show \u201cThe Apprentice,\u201d Mark Burnett, was involved in the early discussions and was a proponent of trying to secure an early deal with the country.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">With Mr. Lutnick focusing on the big picture and Jamieson Greer, the U.S. trade representative, working through the details and execution, the governments hammered out a framework. Mr. Trump also engaged directly with Mr. Starmer, including putting in an 11th hour call to push for more in the agreement, the British prime minister said Thursday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-10\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Trump liked the idea of Britain being his first partner, given the country\u2019s special relationship with the United States, and he thought the agreement would send a good signal to the world, according to a person with knowledge of his thinking. Britain is also not a major source of automobiles or steel for the United States, which helped persuade American officials to drop the tariffs on those products.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The announcement also provides Mr. Starmer a much-needed political victory, appearing to vindicate his strategy of cultivating a relationship with Mr. Trump.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But some analysts have noted that the agreement left many tariffs in place and skipped over more contentious issues, like opening Britain\u2019s health care market to U.S. companies, or the digital service tax that Britain has imposed on American tech firms. They suggested that trade talks with other governments that are less closely allied with the United States could be tougher to finalize.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIf we\u2019re 40 days out from Liberation Day, and the first deal and the only deal is with a country where we run a bilateral trade surplus that was not seen as a problem coming into Liberation Day, I take it as a kind of bearish signal about how difficult the next deals are going to be,\u201d said Josh Lipsky, the chairman of international economics at the Atlantic Council, a think tank. He referred to Mr. Trump\u2019s term for April 2, when the president rolled out his tariff plan. He later paused most of the tariffs for 90 days.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Other industry executives expressed nervousness about the precedent that rolling back tariffs on foreign steel, aluminum and cars might set for other negotiations, or complained about the concessions being unfair for U.S. industry.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-11\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Matt Blunt, the president of the American Automotive Policy Council, which represents Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, said his group was \u201cvery disappointed\u201d that the administration had prioritized Britain over Canada and Mexico, which remain subject to 25 percent automotive tariffs and buy far more from U.S. factories.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">It would now be cheaper, Mr. Blunt said, to import a car from Britain than one from Mexico or Canada that might source half its parts from the United States.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-798hid etfikam0\">Mark Landler<!-- -->, <!-- -->Eshe Nelson<!-- --> and <!-- -->Danielle Kaye<!-- --> contributed reporting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President Trump announced on Thursday that the United States intended to sign a trade deal with Britain that would bring the two nations closer and roll back some of the punishing tariffs he issued on that country\u2019s products. Both sides consider a trade pact deeply beneficial, and a deal has been under discussion since Mr. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1290,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[987,988,247,966,990,199,989,246,986],"class_list":["post-1289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-build","tag-close","tag-deal","tag-leave","tag-place","tag-tariffs","tag-ties","tag-trade","tag-u-s-u-k"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insuracarelife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insuracarelife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insuracarelife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insuracarelife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insuracarelife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.insuracarelife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1289\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insuracarelife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insuracarelife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insuracarelife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insuracarelife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}