[LONDON/WASHINGTON] US President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday (May 8) announced a “breakthrough deal” on trade that leaves in place a 10 per cent tariff on goods imported from the UK while Britain agreed to lower its tariffs to 1.8 per cent from 5.1 per cent and provide greater access to US goods.
The agreement announced by Trump from the Oval Office marked the first since he triggered a global trade war with a barrage of levies on trading partners, following his return to the White House in January.
“It opens up a tremendous market for us,” Trump said. “This is a really fantastic, historic day,” Starmer said by teleconference.
The US has been under pressure from investors to strike deals to de-escalate its tariff war after Trump’s often chaotic policymaking upended global trade with friends and foes alike, threatening to stoke inflation and start a recession.
Top US officials have engaged in a flurry of meetings with trading partners since the president on Apr 2 imposed a 10 per cent tariff on most countries, along with higher rates for many trading partners that were then suspended for 90 days.
The US has also imposed 25 per cent tariffs on autos, steel and aluminium; 25 per cent tariffs on Canada and Mexico; and 145 per cent tariffs on China. US and Chinese officials are due to hold talks in Switzerland on Saturday.
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Warm relationship
With the British economy struggling to grow, the tariffs had added to the pressure on Starmer’s government.
Jaguar Land Rover paused its shipments to the US for a month, and the government was forced to seize control of British Steel to keep it operating.
While seeking a deal with the US, Britain had refused to lower its food standards, which are closely aligned with the European Union. However, Britain’s farming trade union has said that some US producers who do not use growth hormones or antimicrobial washes could be given greater market access.
The status of the 10 per cent “baseline” tariff was unclear, as was a threatened tariff on the pharmaceutical industry which could damage AstraZeneca and GSK.
Initial news of an announcement sent shares in luxury carmaker Aston Martin up 10 per cent, while British retailers with operations in the US including JD Sports and Primark owner AB Foods also rose.
Trade tightrope
Starmer’s government has been seeking to build new trading relationships post-Brexit with the US, China and the EU without moving so far towards one bloc that it angers the others.
Economists and one FTSE 100 chief executive said the immediate economic impact of a tariff deal was likely to be limited, but that trade agreements in general would help long-term growth. Britain struck a free trade agreement with India this week.
There are also domestic political risks.
Polling shows the government remains deeply unpopular, making any move to cut taxes on multinational tech companies a big risk.
Britain’s digital service tax, levied at 2 per cent of UK revenue for online marketplaces, search engines and social media platforms, was introduced in 2020 in response to an outcry about tax avoidance by Big Tech.
It was expected to raise about £800 million (S$1.4 billion) this year, but companies such as Google and Amazon have passed the cost on to customers through ad surcharges and higher selling fees, respectively.
“The American, Indian and other deals we can do will be really important to the long-term economic health of the UK, but don’t expect them to result in overnight euphoria,” the CEO said, speaking on condition of anonymity. REUTERS
