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The United Kingdom and the United States are about to accept a commercial pact that would absorb the impact of Donald Trump's “Liberation Day” prices by granting lower price quotas for British steel and cars, according to London and Washington officials.
The agreement, which should be signed this week, should include quotas that save certain exports to the United Kingdom of all additional 25% tariffs that Trump allowed steel and cars in February and March.
British commercial negotiators returned to Washington this week for the last stages of negotiations, which, according to a senior British official, continued “at speed”, warning that disagreements remain on pharmaceutical products.
In addition to providing quotas for British exports, the United Kingdom also hopes to guarantee reductions in prices specific to the 25% sector that Trump has taken from steel and cars.
The “offers” of the United Kingdom include concessions In Washington on digital services tax has been levied on international technological companies, cut Prices imposed on American automobile exports and reduction of prices on American agricultural products.
However, the British government said that it would not accept American food production standards, such as chicken washed with chlorine and beef treated with hormone, which would make it impossible to conclude a so-called “veterinary agreement” with the EU, a key board of its imminent “reset” with Brussels.
The British agreement is one of the 17 agreements according to which the Trump administration was aimed at signing with its main trade partners when it returns to the radical rates imposed on the countries of the world on April 2.
US Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent, told a convention hearing on Tuesday that some of these transactions could be announced “perhaps this week”, adding that several countries had made “good offers”, without providing details.
In case of success, the US-UK agreement would follow the agreement a complete free trade agreement between India and the United Kingdom which was announced on Tuesday.
British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is increasing to grant an agreement after the British and automotive industries warned potentially “devastating” effects on their sectors.
Mike Hawes, director general of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, warned that the new American prices had a “severe, significant and immediate” impact at the upper end of the sector. Luxury brands such as Bentley, Jaguar Land Rover and Aston Martin greatly depend on exports to the United States.
The United States is the second largest export market in the United Kingdom after the EU, with more than 100,000 cars sent last year, worth more than 7.5 billion pounds Sterling, according to The SMMT.
A higher executive in the automotive industry praised the news of potential quotas of lower price for exports of British cars, but warned that the key objective should be to reduce the rate rate by 25%.
“The quotas are complex to operate and intrinsically limited to trade,” added the executive. “The most important thing is to reduce the price by 25%, because more than 10%, it is simply not durable.”
UK Steel, The Trade Association, warned That Trump prices will stifle exports for an industry that is already under pressure from world metal overabundance.
The United States has represented around 165,000 tonnes of British steel exports in 2023 – worth almost 400 million pounds sterling, or about 8% of the total per value. British exports to the United States have almost halved since 2017, when Trump imposed prices in his first administration.
Two people knowing negotiations said the agreement was contrary to disagreements in the pharmaceutical sector.
Last month, the Trump administration launched national security probes on pharmaceutical products and microputs that could open the way at medication prices-export to the United Kingdom to the United States value 6.6 billion sterling pounds in 2024.
Great Britain seeks to avoid the worst of future pricing impacts, according to British officials, who have described the quotas proposed by the United States as “generous”. A second British official was more prudent, describing the agreement as “limited”.
