In response to a question from POLITICO on when the deal would be enforced at a joint press conference with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in Scotland, Trump said it would happen \u201cpretty soon.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cYou have no idea. These people are tough negotiators. But we\u2019re a big buyer of steel. We\u2019re going to make our own steel; we\u2019re going to make our own aluminum, for the most part. But we buy a lot of aluminum from here and a lot of steel, too.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Starmer confirmed that the tariff cut was \u201calready covered in the deal that we\u2019ve agreed,\u201d adding \u201cwe\u2019re just doing the implementation of that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
When the U.S. raised tariffs on the metal imports to 50 percent at the start of June, the U.K.\u2019s tariff rate remained at 25 percent thanks to the May deal.\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to UK Steel, which represents the British steel industry, the U.K. currently exports around 200,000 tonnes of steel per year to the U.S., worth over \u00a3400 million. It described the imposition of U.S. tariffs on British steelmakers as a \u201cdevastating blow\u201d that would stifle exports.<\/p>\n