Latest news with #USUKRelations
The Independent
16 hours ago
- Business
- The Independent
UK ‘ready to go' on implementing US trade deal, says Business Secretary
The UK is 'ready to go' on implementing its trade deal with the US, the Business Secretary has said. The deal, announced last month by Sir Keir Starmer and Donald Trump, will see British tariffs on steel and automotive exports to the US slashed in exchange for greater access to the UK for some American goods. But the deal has still not been implemented, with both Washington and London yet to take the necessary steps to reduce tariffs. Speaking at a lunch for Westminster journalists on Thursday, Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said the UK was ready to implement the deal, suggesting the White House was responsible for the hold-up. He said: 'We are ready to go on our side. 'In terms of the steps I need to take, I will inform the House with a written ministerial statement and lay the statutory instruments for the reciprocal part of that deal, which is obviously about beef and ethanol for us on this side. 'So we're ready to go, and as soon as the president and the White House on their side are able to, we will implement that part of the deal.' The Business Secretary added he was 'very hopeful' that the agreement would come into effect 'very soon', but acknowledged negotiations had not 'always been easy'. Mr Reynolds's comments follow his meeting with US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick on Tuesday to discuss implementing the deal. The meeting, which the Prime Minister also dropped in on, was the latest in a series of engagements aimed at securing a reduction in the tariffs Mr Trump imposed on the UK and the rest of the world on April 2. Along with 10% tariffs on all British goods, the president imposed 25% levies on cars and steel. He later increased the tariff on steel to 50%, but gave the UK a reprieve, keeping Britain's rate at 25% until at least July 9. Under the broad terms of last month's agreement, the US will implement quotas that will effectively eliminate the tariff on British steel and reduce the tariff on UK vehicles to 10%.
Times
23-05-2025
- Business
- Times
How much will the Chagos Islands deal cost?
Politicians usually like big numbers. But when Sir Keir Starmer announced his deal to cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, he chose to use a different approach. The prime minister said that the cost of the deal to lease back Diego Garcia, the home of a US-UK naval base, was £3.4 billion. But the Tories had a very different figure, and put the cost at closer to £30 billion. Who is right? The answer is that both are correct. Given the political furore surrounding the deal, the prime minister had a clear vested interest in putting out a smaller figure. The optics of Chagos are difficult. Britain is essentially paying to lease back something it previously owned. It is paying money while
Telegraph
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
America is looking at Britain with a mixture of bewilderment and dismay
Keir Starmer, like most socialists, wants to have his cake and eat it too. He believes that Britain can be a vassal state to the European Union while also playing the role of America's closest friend and ally. It can't. Starmer is both delusional and incredibly short-sighted. He thinks he is Machiavelli and Metternich rolled into one. In truth he looks more like a circus clown, way out of his depth representing Britain on the world stage. The Prime Minister's emphatic surrender to Brussels will cause immense damage to the US/UK Special Relationship. It will be viewed in Washington as a stunning act of self-harm by the British Government, and a move that could very well forestall a trade deal with the United States. US officials will undoubtedly be shaking their heads this week, wondering why a nation that once held sway over a quarter of the world's surface is taking a knee before a sinking European Union that treats it with sneering contempt. Labour's move to bring the UK back into 'dynamic alignment' with Brussels on food safety and animal welfare will mean that once again EU directives and legislation will trump British rules, with the European Court of Justice having the final say. This is just the tip of the iceberg, and will undoubtedly lead to the encroachment of EU law into many other areas of British sovereignty as well. That alone will make the completion of a trade deal incredibly difficult. The US is proposing a trade agreement with the British people, not with faceless bureaucrats sitting in the increasingly irrelevant capital of Belgium. Starmer's announcement also moves Britain into closer realignment with the EU on defence and security issues, with British troops potentially taking part in EU military missions. The end result of this sheer folly will be the side-lining of the United States, the weakening of Nato unity, and the strengthening of Moscow, which would dearly love to see the British military submerged into a useless paper tiger EU army. Starmer's EU deal should and will be strongly condemned on both sides of the Atlantic by all who believe in the principles of sovereignty and self-determination. I am in no doubt that president Trump will view Starmer's kowtowing to the EU as an inexplicable humiliation for the British people, but also as a slap in the face for the United States at a time when the new US administration has championed the partnership with the United Kingdom. As I have noted before, Donald Trump is America's first Eurosceptic president. He views the European Union and the European Project which birthed it as a menace to the United States and a monument to virulent anti-Americanism as well as big government. The US President has already declared his view that the EU was 'formed in order to screw the United States,' and regards it is a mafia-style protectionist racket that operates unfairly against US exporters. In sharp contrast, Trump has just gone out of his way to place Britain at the very head of the queue for a trade agreement with the world's largest economy, and Starmer has just knifed him in the back with a reckless act designed to curry favour with the European Commission. President Trump has already been incredibly generous in his treatment of Keir Starmer, whom many American conservatives rightly view with deep suspicion. This is despite the fact that, ideologically, the Trump administration and the Starmer Government are worlds apart. The alarms have already been ringing in Washington over Starmer's disastrous proposed handover of the Chagos Islands to Chinese ally Mauritius, threatening the long-term future of the vital Anglo-American military base of Diego Garcia. I have not spoken to a single US official who thinks the Chagos deal is good for America. And back in February vice-president JD Vance launched the verbal equivalent of a cruise missile strike against the Labour Government at the Munich Security Conference over the serious assault on freedom of speech in the UK. In addition it has not been forgotten in the White House that nearly 100 Labour officials actively campaigned for Kamala Harris in key swing states in 2024, in an act of direct interference in a US presidential race. Above all, in the context of US transatlantic policy, Brexit remains hugely popular with the Trump administration and the American Right. President Trump is the biggest supporter of Brexit on the world stage today, and views the British referendum victory in 2016 as a forerunner to his own against all odds presidential win that year. Starmer and his Left-wing Government, however, look hell-bent on trashing the hard-won freedoms backed by 17.4 million Britons who voted to leave the EU nearly a decade ago. Starmer's shameful actions will go down in history as an emphatic betrayal of the democratic will of the British people, as well as an incredibly dangerous snub to the powerful alliance between the United States and Great Britain, who have for the last 85 years acted as the beating heart of the free world.
Bloomberg
12-05-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Cynics About Trump Tariffs Should Focus on Markets
To get John Authers' newsletter delivered directly to your inbox, sign up here. Before Thursday's news that an American would lead the Catholic church, the Oval Office staged its own drama as the US and the UK announced the long-awaited first trade deal since President Donald Trump opened hostilities earlier this year. By Sunday, the excitement had moved to Geneva, as US officials hailed 'substantial progress' after hours of talks with Chinese counterparts.
Daily Mail
11-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Minister says it's ‘nonsense' that US trade deal includes ‘China veto'
Donald Trump will not be able to 'veto' Chinese investment in the UK under the terms of a new US trade deal, a senior minister said today. Darren Jones (pictured) said reports that the White House would be able to block sources of foreign cash were 'nonsense', the day after Sir Keir Starmer and the president announced a tariff-reduction agreement. Government officials told the Telegraph that the US would be allowed to flag concerns about Beijing-linked firms buying infrastructure and prompt ministers to take a closer look. The Conservatives claimed that this amounted to handing power to the US, with shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel (pictured) saying: 'It looks like he's effectively handed America a veto over investment decisions in the UK.' But Treasury minister Mr Jones this morning said: 'We've not even published all of the documents yet, so I'm not quite sure how they were able to come up with that. I can be completely categorical with you there is no such thing as a veto on Chinese investment in this trade deal, this is not what this trade deal is about. It is a sectoral trade deal in relation to tariffs in key sectors, in the way that we've just been talking about. So I'd suggest the Conservative Party reads the documents and they maybe come back for a second go.' Brits are digesting the impact of Keir Starmer's trade deal with the US today as figures show it only covers around a quarter of UK exports. The pact theatrically announced by the PM and US president last night will cut tariffs from 25 per cent to 10 per cent for the first 100,000 cars sent to America. Levies on steel exports will also be slashed from 25 per cent to zero, in return for concessions such as cutting tariffs on US cars and farmers getting more access to British markets. In a round of interviews this morning, Mr Jones insisted 150,000 workers would be 'relieved' that their jobs were no longer at risk. However, the pact still leaves tariffs higher than before Mr Trump kicked off his extraordinary trade war. Analysis by Sky News suggests that of the £273billion of exports to the States over the past five years, barely a quarter would be affected by the agreement - with the rest facing the 10 per cent 'baseline' charge. That also assumes the critical pharma sector, accounting for £25.2billion of the total over the period, secures an exemption from Mr Trump's next wave of tariffs - which appears far from certain. The agreement did not include any provision for the UK film industry, after the president threatened 100 per cent levies on foreign-made movies. And the US does not appear to have given up on a push to help tech giants by watering down the Digital Service Tax. Mr Jones told the BBC on the absence of terms on pharma and films: 'The nothing is good news... those tariffs have not come forward.'
