The UK has struck a preliminary deal with the US to ease some tariffs on cars and boost trade in beef – while avoiding concessions on food standards that could have scuppered its reset of relations with the EU.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the UK will be exempted from US President Donald Trump’s 25% tariffs on steel and alumnium, and will receive some relief from the 25% duties on cars.

A quota of 100,000 British cars per year will be subject only to the 10% blanket tariff on all US imports, which remains in force against the UK.

The announcement follows Trump’s post on Truth Social late on Wednesday that a “MAJOR TRADE DEAL” would be unveiled with a “BIG, AND HIGHLY RESPECTED, COUNTRY” on Thursday.

The partial economic deal is the first struck by Trump’s fiercely protectionist second administration. But it is not the full-fledged free trade agreement long sought by Starmer’s predecessors.

The deal “will bring the United Kingdom into the economic security alignment with the United States,” said Trump in the Oval Office on Thursday, flanked by his deputy JD Vance and the British ambassador to Washington, Peter Mandelson.

The final details would be “written up in the coming weeks,” Trump added.

It was not immediately clear what other concessions the US had been granted in return. A rumoured exemption from the UK’s digital services tax, levied against US big tech firms operating in Britain, was not announced.

Trump’s recently floated measures against foreign films, which have confused trade and film experts, were also not mentioned.

UK-EU vet deal still on
The US will be able to export highly-quality beef to the UK, and vice versa. But the agreement does not lower the UK’s stringent food standards.

Starmer said a commitment to current standards was to be “written into the agreement,” but that British farmers would still benefit from “unprecedented” US market access.

The UK is close to a deal with the EU that would more closely align food and drink standards to drastically reduce border checks. Any relaxing of UK standards to accommodate US imports of goods like chlorinated chicken would jeopardise such a deal.

British farmers, who fear being undercut by lower-quality American imports, had warned that food standards must not be weakened in any US deal.

UK carmakers praise “relief”
Speaking from a Jaguar Land Rover factory near Birmingham, Starmer said the reduced tariffs for cars would enter into force “as soon as possible”, hailing a deal that would “not only protect jobs, but create jobs.”

The head of the Institute of the Motor Industry, representing UK auto workers, told BBC Radio 4 earlier on Thursday that “any relief” from tariffs through the deal would be “fantastic” for Britain’s ailing car manufacturers.

Starmer added that Britain had secured “significantly preferential treatment” when Trump eventually imposes tariffs on pharmaceuticals, a decision on which is expected within weeks.

The prime minister has sought to simultaneously deepen ties with Washington and Brussels. His punctilious courting of Trump has included an invitation for a second state visit to the UK, and his government has reportedly lobbied for a major golf championship to be hosted at a Trump-owned course in Scotland. 

His rapprochement with the EU is set to accelerate following a landmark summit in London later this month. A preparatory draft statement for the summit seen by Euractiv contains language critical of the US’s retreat under Trump from the international stage. 

Britain and India signed a more comprehensive trade deal on Tuesday. 

The Bank of England, which cut interest rates prior to Thursday’s announcement, said that Trump’s tariffs had negatively hit the UK’s medium-term growth prospects.

(de)