This isn’t a trade deal
Congress would need to approve a trade agreement, which would take longer than the 90-day pause in place on some of Trump’s tariffs.
This is an agreement which has reversed or cut some of those tariffs on specific goods.
Trump had placed import taxes of 25% on cars and car parts coming into the US on top of the existing 2.5%.
This has been cut to 10% for a maximum of 100,000 UK cars, which matches the number of cars the UK exported last year. But any cars exported above that 100,000 will be subject to a 27.5% import tax.
He also said the UK was buying $10bn worth of Boeing planes from the US.
No tariffs on steel and aluminium
What will be agreed on pharmaceuticals is still unknown.
There was no change to the UK’s 2% digital services tax on US firms in this deal, despite reports there could be.
The UK has removed tariffs on American beef and other agricultural products, Trump said.
There will be no weakening of UK food standards on imports, the UK government statement said.
Many American farmers use growth hormones as a standard part of their beef production, something that was banned in the UK and the European Union in the 1980s.
I took this image from Trump’s truthsocial page.
Also why would we buy Boeings which aren’t airworthy, when we have involvement in Airbus?
That seems like the only portion of the deal where the UK got the short end. Though, according to Lutnick, the Rolls Royce engines in Boeings (made in the UK) will now be exempt from tariffs so the UK gets some benefit from that too.
Opening the market to agriculture should have minimal impact unless US farmers are going to start meeting UK and European standards which is unlikely. I doubt the overhead would be worth it.
10% tariff on cars is not ideal but only 15% of UK car exports go the US. Sales will be impacted in the US no doubt, but this is far from catastrophic. May even be an oppurunity to expand into other markets.
Overall impression from this is that the US administration doesn’t know what it’s doing.
Having increased access to a market does not guarantee revenue. There needs to be actual demand for US goods (there isn’t in many of these cases) and US goods need to meet local regulatory guidelines (they don’t in the case of beef) for this to be a profitable agreement for the US.
I know Trump thinks America is a luxury store but oversized cars and chlorinated meats, no matter how luxurious, are not practical or desirable in every market.
This is starting to look like peak neoliberal (free and open markets solve all) and neocolonial (coercion via economic force) brain rot coming to fruition.