With more drama than some critics feel is appropriate, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and US President Donald Trump announced a deal that brings the 27% tariff on British cars imported into the US virtually back to 10% like before and slashes the 25% tariff on steel. The price: 13.000 tons of tax-free US beef and 1.4 billion liters of ethanol to the UK, among other things.
After Trump made a ‘surprise call’ to seal the deal, Prime Minister Starmer rushed to the Jaguar Land Rover factory in the West Midlands to have the news broadcast on television in front of the JLR employees. He had to leave, so head over heels, the press office of Downing Street sent the journalists to the wrong JLR factory, as Politico remarked subtly.
“Protecting thousands of jobs”
“This historic deal delivers for British business and British workers, protecting thousands of British jobs in key sectors including car manufacturing and steel,” he said, adding that “the UK has no greater ally than the United States”.
From his side, Trump told reporters, “It opens up a tremendous market for us,” noting that he had not fully understood the restrictions facing American firms doing business in Britain, Reuters comments. That refers, among others, to the UK saying there would be no weakening in import food standards.
Most UK analysts say the devil will be in the details, as only a few details were provided on Thursday. For the British car industry, tariffs for UK cars imported into the US will be cut from 27.5% to 10%, up to a maximum of 100,000 cars annually. That’s roughly the total of cars imported from the UK to the US last year.
Under the deal, US 25% tariffs on steel and aluminium have been reduced to zero, representing only £700 million (€837 million) a year. On the other hand, the UK has agreed to lower tariffs on US goods to 1.8 percent from 5.1 percent, keeping a 10% tariff on British goods to the US in place, and providing greater access to UK markets for US goods.
“We’ve been shafted”
US beef (up to 13,000 tons) and ethanol (1.4 billion liters) will be exempted from tariffs in the UK, but Trump came away empty-handed on pork meat. Despite repeated attempts by the US side to get their hormone-treated beef in, UK food standards on imports will not be weakened.
According to Reuters, it will remain to be seen if the British consumer is to be seduced by US beef and if it will be able to compete, as currently, 100% of the fresh beef sold by Britain’s two biggest supermarket chains, Tesco and Sainsbury’s, is British and Irish.
The deal is welcomed with mixed feelings in the UK. While Labour touts a victory for the car industry, Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch criticised it, saying it amounted to the UK lowering tariffs while the US hikes them. “This is not a historic deal with the US,” she said. We’ve been shafted,” the BBC quotes.
