To be clear, it's not a deal but rather a framework for an agreement. In other words, US and UK negotiators still have a lot of work to do in coming weeks (perhaps months or even years like these things usually take?) to hammer out the details. For now, the idea is to have the UK fast-track American goods through customs and reduce barriers on "billions of dollars" of agricultural, chemical, energy and industrial exports, including beef and ethanol.
More importantly, what was announced fails to accomplish any of the three objectives Trump originally put forward leading up to April 2's "Liberation Day" for levying tariffs on America's trading partners. As a refresher, the first was using tariffs (which Americans pay for) to raise tax revenue to help close the federal budget deficit and pay for an extension of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 that is due to expire this year. The second was to bring manufacturing that migrated overseas back to the US, igniting a new "Golden Age" of America. The third was to achieve foreign policy goals.
Sure, US stocks surged as much as 1.6% on Thursday, but that's more likely a reflection of the market realizing how little countries will have to give up to soften Trump's threatened tariffs. Indeed, as Bloomberg News noted, Thursday's developments are a sign that Trump is seeking an off-ramp from his plan to raise US tariffs to their highest level in a century.
Trump sees it differently. When asked today about his trade war causing cargo ships to stop coming into West Coast ports, potentially costing dockworkers and truckers their jobs, Trump replied "good," saying it means the US wouldn't be losing money. That sound like the perfect script for a Seinfeld reboot.
Trump Announces a UK Trade 'Deal' About Nothing - Bloomberg
The real win here could be that this agreement on tariffs will keep the US sweet whilst leaving the door open to a substantive deal with the European Union.
By maintaining UK food standards and not, for example, accepting hormone treated beef or chlorinated chicken, a "full fat" food and farm export deal with the EU, similar to Switzerland's, is now clearly on the cards in the next fortnight. This could slash post Brexit red tape for key exporters both ways.
Then you have an overall picture of a growing economy, with good trade relations with the US, EU, India and soon the Gulf too, with rates being cut.
US Agreement Leaves UK Open To Do a Much More Significant EU Deal - BBC News
It is the second major trade announcement this week – following the India Free Trade Agreement on Tuesday, this historic agreement with the US to slash tariffs delivers for UK carmakers, steelworks and farmers – protecting jobs and providing stability for exporters.
British manufacturers have welcomed some tariff relief in the new US-UK trade deal, with the share prices of the sportscar brand Aston Martin Lagonda and jet engine maker Rolls-Royce rising.
"Under this deal, it will now be cheaper to import a UK vehicle with very little U.S. content than a USMCA compliant vehicle from Mexico or Canada that is half American parts," said the American Automotive Policy Council, which represents the Detroit Three automakers. "This hurts American automakers, suppliers, and auto workers."
Detroit Three (General Motors, Stellantis, Ford) Automakers Blast Trump UK Trade Deal | Reuters
Heh. I've not fully read into this but it does seem to me like the UK got the better end of the deal; The fact that there's still a 10% tariff across board (with a few exceptions) is bullshit still, but looking into some other things...The USA giving the UK a reduction of auto tariffs from 25% to 10% for the first 100k cars per year is funny considering our exports to America in 2024 were 102k so that's essentially a tariff reduction on the entire market. Reducing tariffs on UK steel and aluminium to 0 is a big plus to the UK and British jobs. The UK still keeps the 2% digital service tax on American corporations and this tariff deal doesn't interfere with any deal with the EU.
So what did America get? Seemingly the UK will reduce tariffs on American beef to zero (so will the USA on British beef) and the UK will also reduce tariffs on American beer to zero. Alongside that, American imports will be fast tracked. Well that's all well and good but British people need to actually buy American beef and I doubt they do in large numbers, we also have a lot of very popular non-American beer brands but I don't drink so I'm not sure how popular American beer is in the UK. Alongside all of this, the UK didn't compromise on its standards and still enforces strict rules on American beef in terms of hormone treatment, etc. So as long as the American beef meets our standards, I don't care if it comes in.
But like Bloomberg said, it's a framework of a deal, nothing has been signed, it could take weeks-months before it actually gets signed, Lol.
Any Brits have any thoughts on this deal?
Last edited by Ryuu96 - on 09 May 2025
