Washington (AFP) – US President Donald Trump unveiled a “breakthrough” trade agreement with Britain on Thursday, the first deal with any country since he launched his global tariffs blitz. The deal reduces tariffs on British cars and lifts them on steel and aluminum, while in return Britain will open up markets to US beef and other farm products. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer also hailed it as a “historic day,” although the agreement is thin on details and both sides said there would be more negotiations.
A 10 percent baseline tariff on Britain imposed by Trump as part of the sweeping worldwide “Liberation Day” levies he announced in April also remains in place. Trump said the British deal would be the first of many and that he hoped difficult talks with China and the European Union could soon produce results too. “I’m thrilled to announce that we have reached a breakthrough trade deal with the United Kingdom,” Trump said as he spoke with Starmer by phone from the Oval Office. “The deal includes billions of dollars of increased market access for American exports, especially in agriculture.”
– ‘Historic day’ –
The deal came through at the last minute, with Starmer saying he learned that Trump had given it his approval when he called him on Wednesday night as he watched a football match. “This is a really fantastic, historic day,” Starmer said during the call with Trump. He noted that it coincided with the 80th anniversary of “Victory Day” for allied forces — including Britain and the United States — over Nazi Germany in World War II. The trade deal slashes export tariffs for British cars from 27.5 percent to 10 percent, Britain said. The move will apply to 100,000 vehicles from luxury makers like Rolls Royce and Jaguar, billionaire Trump added. “That is a huge and important reduction,” PM Starmer said during a visit to a Jaguar Land Rover factory in the central Midlands area of England.
The British government also insisted that the deal to allow in more US agricultural products would not dilute British food standards, amid concerns over chlorinated US chicken and hormones in US beef. Both sides said there would be further negotiations on a fuller deal, but Trump denied overselling the agreement. “This is a maxed-out deal — not like you said it really incorrectly,” he added, answering a reporter’s question on whether he was overstating the breadth of the deal.
The British ambassador to Washington, Peter Mandelson, jokingly thanked Trump in the Oval Office for a “very typical 11th hour intervention… demanding even more out of this deal than many of us expected.”
– Charm offensive –
The deal follows a charm offensive by Starmer, who came to the White House in February armed with an invitation from King Charles III for a historic second state visit for Trump. It is also a fresh win for the Labour leader after Britain this week struck a free-trade agreement with India, its biggest such deal since it voted to leave the European Union in 2016.
Torturous negotiations between London and Washington in the years since the Brexit vote failed to produce a deal until now. London had also been keen for some kind of deal ahead of an EU-UK summit on May 19 due to reset ties with the 27-nation bloc. Trump described the British leader, who like the US president won power last year, as a tough negotiator following the latter’s visit to Washington in February.
The president slapped 10 percent tariffs on imports from around the world in April, including Britain, but he temporarily froze higher duties on dozens of nations to allow for negotiations. But Trump has also been in need of a win after weeks of insisting that countries were lining up to make deals with the United States. Trump told reporters at the White House he was “working on three of them” and that the British deal could act as a template.
Top US and Chinese officials are due to meet in Switzerland over the weekend to kickstart trade officials, the first official meeting since Trump’s tariffs plunged the world’s two largest economies into a trade war.
© 2024 AFP
