Blitz Bureau
The UK and the US have reached a deal over tariffs on some goods traded between the countries, reported BBC. President Donald Trump’s blanket 10 per cent tariffs on imports from countries around the world still applies to most UK goods entering the US.
Under the deal agreed on May 8, the United States will continue to impose a new 10 per cent tariff on imports of most British goods but will reduce higher tariffs on imports of British cars, steel and aluminium. The deal has come as a relief to the car and steel industries, which had been worried about job losses.
Officials on both sides said Britain had been able to strike the first deal with Trump to lower tariffs because the two countries had relatively balanced trade and because Britain had not retaliated like others with its own tariffs, reported Reuters. Starmer dialled into the Oval Office announcement to thank Trump, saying it was appropriate the deal was clinched on the 80th anniversary of the end of World War Two in Europe.
“We’ve been absolutely the closest of allies for so many years, keeping the peace through that close alliance, that friendship, and now we add to that this deal on trade and the economy,” Starmer told Trump. “It’s good news. I have to say, it’s ‘good news’ in a world where it will leave the effective tariff rate higher than it was before all of this started. I do think we need to bear that in mind,” Bank of England Governor Bailey said at an economics conference in Reykjavik. Bailey said the trade deal concluded between the United States and Britain was a good thing but still left tariffs on most British goods exports to the U.S. higher than they were before last month.
