President Trump announced a trade agreement framework with the U.K., featuring increased market access for American exports, particularly in agriculture. The U.K. will reduce non-tariff barriers, while the U.S. will implement a tiered tariff system for imported cars.
Specifics will be finalized in the coming weeks. The deal aims to lower barriers for both countries, with the U.S. aiming to lower its tariffs in exchange for reduced non-tariff barriers imposed by the U.K.. The agreement includes an alternative arrangement to address Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum.
The agreement marks the first substantive negotiation under Trump's '90 deals in 90 days' initiative, which is falling behind schedule. Initial Liberation Day tariffs were partially rolled back after market concerns.
Other countries, like Japan, have expressed concerns regarding the tariffs and urged alternative approaches to enhance cooperation. The U.S. is seeking further concessions from China, but faces reciprocal tariffs.
President Trump plans to start working out specifics with the United Kingdom on his first trade deal since his “Liberation Day” tariffs took effect in early April. The administration will leave in place the 10 percent minimum tariff imposed last month, even as it is quickly falling behind on its “90 deals in 90 days” benchmark that it previously declared.
Mr. Trump announced the framework of a trade agreement from the Oval Office on Thursday morning, with Vice President Vance and the U.K. ambassador to Washington, Peter Mandelson, standing behind him. Prime Minister Starmer was placed on speakerphone before the president began talking.
“The deal includes billions of dollars of increased market access for American exports, especially in agriculture, dramatically increasing access for American beef, ethanol, and virtually all of the products produced by our great farmers,” Mr. Trump said. “The U.K. will reduce or eliminate numerous non-tariff barriers that unfairly discriminated against American products.”
“There won’t be any red tape. Things are gonna move very quickly both ways,” the president said.
Mr. Trump says the specifics of the deal will be hammered out in the coming weeks.
In exchange for the U.K. lowering its “non-tariff” barriers, Mr. Trump says he will lower barriers to their goods coming into the United States. The first 100,000 cars imported to America from the U.K., for example, will face only a 10 percent tariff, with each additional automobile being subjected to a 25 percent import tax.
A fact sheet provided by the White House says that both countries “will negotiate an alternative arrangement to the Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum.”
Mr. Starmer, talking to reporters through the phone on Mr. Trump’s desk, called the deal framework “really fantastic” for both countries. The prime minister singled out Secretary Lutnick and the U.S. trade representative, Jamieson Greer, for their hard work.
“This is gonna boost trade between and across our countries, it’s gonna not only protect jobs but create jobs, opening market access,” Mr. Starmer said.
Administration officials previously predicted that the use of Mr. Trump’s tariffs were nothing more than a negotiating tactic in order to lower trade barriers in other countries that prevent the exporting of some American products. Other, more hardline White House officials — like trade advisor Peter Navarro — have said that the tariffs are permanent in order to reshore certain American industries.
Mr. Trump backed off his original Liberation Day tariffs just one week after they were originally announced. On April 9, he said that for 90 days there would be a decrease in tariffs to 10 percent for all countries — except Communist China — as the administration began to work through negotiations with individual countries. Mr. Trump said bond market fears drove him to back down from his initial tariff threat.
“I saw last night where people were getting a little queasy,” Mr. Trump said of the bond markets the day he announced the pause. “[Investors] were getting yippy, a little bit afraid.”
After the announcement of the 90-day pause, “90 deals in 90 days” then became the mantra, though the administration is so far falling well behind that benchmark, considering the U.K. trade framework is only the first substantive negotiation that has been acknowledged, even though there are several specifics yet to be finalized.
Secretary Bessent has had calls with officials in East Asia, including the Vietnamese and the Japanese. On April 7 — the night before he announced the 90-day pause — Mr. Trump spoke with Prime Minister Ishiba of Japan, who did not seem eager to enter a complex negotiation on trade barriers at the time.
“Prime Minister Ishiba stated that Japan has been the world’s largest investor in the U.S. for five consecutive years, expressed strong concerns that the tariff measures by the U.S. could weaken investment capacity among Japanese companies, and conveyed his view that the two countries should pursue ways to promote broader cooperation that benefits both Japan and the United States in a mutual manner, including enhancement of investment, rather than imposing tariffs, and urged a reconsideration of the measures,” the Japanese government said in a readout of Mr. Ishiba’s call with the president.
The greatest hope for Mr. Trump now would be to win some kind of concessions from China in the coming days, though Beijing has dug in with its own reciprocal tariffs since Mr. Trump’s Liberation Day announcement. Messrs. Bessent and Greer are due to meet with Chinese officials in Switzerland this weekend.
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