Starmer, Trump Agree to Implement Tariff-Cutting Deal
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Prime Minister Keir Starmer reached an agreement with US President Donald Trump to implement trading terms disclosed last month to slash U.S. tariffs on key British exports and raise U.K. quotas on certain American agricultural products.
Trump and Starmer on June 16 presented a document signed at the Group of Seven meeting in Kananaskis, Alberta, agreeing to move forward on measures easing trade of cars, agricultural and aerospace products — but falling short of an immediate cut to steel tariffs, a key British ask.
“The U.K. is very well protected,” Trump told reporters. “Because I like them, that’s why, that’s their ultimate protection.”
Trump signed an executive order June 16 that also exempts the U.K.’s civil aerospace aircraft sector from Trump’s baseline 10% country-by-country tariffs, a significant tariff relief measure for a sector closely intertwined with the U.S. industry. U.K. auto exports will see U.S. tariffs slashed to 10% from 27.5% later in June on an annual quota of 100,000 vehicles.
On steel, the U.S. agreed to exempt the U.K. up to a certain quota that has not yet been set. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick will determine that quota of products that can enter the U.S. without being subject to the 25% tariffs, a White House official said.
RELATED: UK Gets Reprieve on Steel Tariff
The U.K. in turn committed to “working to meet American requirements on the security of the supply chains of steel and aluminum” including on the “nature of ownership” of relevant steel plants, according to the document. That confirms reports of U.S. concerns about the foreign ownership of British Steel, which runs Britain’s last remaining blast furnaces that make steel from raw materials. While the U.K. government has taken effective control of the manufacturer, its legal owner remains China’s Jingye Group.
In an awkward moment, the U.S. president dropped part of the document as he opened a folder to show it to reporters. Starmer retrieved the pages from the ground, before Trump went on to erroneously describe it as a “trade agreement with the European Union,” the bloc which the U.K. left five years ago.
The deal is the first sealed by Trump following his decision to ratchet up tariffs against countries worldwide. While the U.S. president has also secured a trade framework with China that lowered escalating tariffs, agreements with other trading partners have proved more elusive.
His administration will tout the U.K. agreement as a signal that his tariff war is bearing fruit, after winning U.K. concessions on agriculture. The pair agreed reciprocal access to 13,000 metric tons of beef for both U.S. and British farmers, though the U.K. says any U.S. imports will need to meet its food safety standards.
For Starmer, sheltering key industries from more aggressive tariffs before other countries strike their own deals with the U.S. is a vindication of his diplomatic approach of refusing to overtly criticize Trump. But the absence of steel for now is a major blow, with a U.K. official saying tariffs remained at 25%, despite last month’sframeworkdocument laying out plans to drop them to zero.
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