{"id":81326,"date":"2025-05-07T08:02:16","date_gmt":"2025-05-07T08:02:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/81326\/"},"modified":"2025-05-07T08:02:16","modified_gmt":"2025-05-07T08:02:16","slug":"us-trade-deal-set-to-be-signed-this-week-as-starmer-scrambles-to-ease-trumps-tariffs-on-cars-and-steel-before-his-brexit-reset","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/81326\/","title":{"rendered":"US trade deal ‘set to be signed this week’ as Starmer scrambles to ease Trump’s tariffs on cars and steel before his Brexit ‘reset’"},"content":{"rendered":"

By JAMES TAPSFIELD, POLITICAL EDITOR FOR MAILONLINE<\/a> <\/p>\n

Published: 03:19 EDT, 7 May 2025 | Updated: 03:46 EDT, 7 May 2025 <\/p>\n

A US trade deal could be signed this week as Keir Starmer<\/a> scrambles to ease the pain of Donald Trump<\/a>‘s tariffs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Negotiators appear to be closing in on a package that could reduce the impact of the president’s eye-watering 25 per cent levies on car and steep imports.<\/p>\n

The UK is also hoping to head off the prospect of an assault on the pharma sector with agreements on quotas.<\/p>\n

The PM has been rushing to seal a pact with America before his big Brexit ‘reset’, due to be unveiled at a summit with the EU on May 19.<\/p>\n

There are concerns that could enrage Mr Trump, who has claimed the bloc was created to ‘screw’ the US<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A recent report by the US Department of Agriculture noted that ‘dynamic’ alignment with Brussels food standards could ‘impact’ trade with the US.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

A US trade deal could be signed this week as Keir Starmer scrambles to ease the pain of Donald Trump’s (pictured) tariffs<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The PM has been rushing to seal a pact with America before his big Brexit ‘reset’, due to be unveiled at a summit with the EU on May 19<\/p>\n

\"Overall <\/p>\n

Overall trade in goods between the US and UK is largely balanced, with \u00a359.3billion exported to the US and \u00a357.1billion imported<\/p>\n

According to the Financial Times, the package on the table includes quotas that could protect UK exports of cars and steel, as well as reductions in the headline rates.<\/p>\n

In return Britain is expected to make concessions on a new ‘digital tax’, as well as lowering tariffs on US cars and farming products.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Touring broadcast studios this morning, Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds did not deny an agreement could happen this week – although he stressed teams were still working.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One Labour MP close to Mr Reynolds told MailOnline that the shape of the deal was clear.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘The terms are broadly there, they have been making good progress. But no-one knows what happens when you put stuff in front of Trump.’<\/p>\n

Sir Keir and Mr Trump raised the prospect of a Transatlantic trade deal when they met at the White House in February – before the president unveiled his ‘Liberation Day’ tariff barrage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hopes have dwindled of getting an exemption from the ‘baseline’ 10 per cent charges on goods entering America.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sir Keir has ruled out several concessions the US was thought to be looking for as the price of a deal.<\/p>\n

These include reductions in food standards rules that limit imports of American agricultural goods and changes to online safety legislation that some US politicians believe limit freedom of speech.<\/p>\n

Economists have warned that Mr Trump’s policies are set to spark a global slowdown and wreak havoc with Rachel Reeves’ attempts to revive growth. The president has rolled back on many of the more punitive levies he originally threatened amid a stock market plunge and rising costs of servicing the US debt mountain.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sir Keir has repeatedly rejected suggestions that the UK will need to choose between partnerships with Europe or America, saying the national interest ‘demands that we work with both’.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration is holding trade talks with countries including Canada, Mexico, Japan, Vietnam and India, as well as the EU.<\/p>\n

There had been reports that the UK would be in the second tranche of agreements being targeted.\u00a0<\/p>\n

US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent told a congressional hearing yesterday that some of those deals could be announced ‘perhaps as early as this week’.<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The importance of an agreement was laid bare this morning with official figures showing 27.4 per cent of British-made cars went to the US last year – worth \u00a39billion<\/p>\n

\"Ministers <\/p>\n

Ministers have been scrambling to finalise terms before a summit with the EU on May 19 – when Keir Starmer will unveil closer relations (pictured with Ursula von der Leyen)<\/p>\n

He suggested that several countries had made ‘good offers’, without providing details. <\/p>\n

One senior car industry executive told the FT that while reducing tariffs on the UK was desirable the wider goal must be reducing the 25 per cent rate globally.<\/p>\n

‘Quotas are complex to operate and inherently limiting to trade,’ they said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘The most important thing is cutting the 25 per cent tariff, because above about 10 per cent, it’s just not sustainable.’<\/p>\n

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\n US trade deal ‘set to be signed this week’ as Starmer scrambles to ease Trump’s tariffs on cars and steel before his Brexit ‘reset’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By JAMES TAPSFIELD, POLITICAL EDITOR FOR MAILONLINE Published: 03:19 EDT, 7 May 2025 | Updated: 03:46 EDT, 7…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81327,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[802,748,92,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,807,12,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-81326","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brexit","8":"tag-brexit","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-dailymail","11":"tag-eu","12":"tag-europe","13":"tag-european","14":"tag-european-union","15":"tag-great-britain","16":"tag-keir-starmer","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114465508252261150","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}