UK-US trade deal – the start, not the end
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer
A trade deal has been struck between President Donald Trump of the United States and Prime Minister Keir Starmer of the United Kingdom that the president refers to as “full and comprehensive.”
There are grounds for optimism going forward with the car industry and metals sector seeing favourable outcomes for tariff reductions on exports from the UK. However, the 10% baseline tariff on UK products remains and the agricultural sector still needs answers to reworked offerings, for instance, the US will have access to the UK beef market through a tariff rate quota of 13,000t (shipped weight) hormone-free beef. In return, the UK will gain 13,000t of ring-fenced access to the US beef market. The US will have access to 1.4 billion litres duty free ethanol.
Granted US Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins is in the UK this week to thrash out the details on beef and other agricultural products, but why not do this before the announcement?
Since these tariffs affect all UK exports to the United States, which were worth $68 billion last year, the hit to UK exports is likely to be greater than any gains from the new arrangement as currently announced.
the agreement is narrow and selective, less a final agreement than the first step in continuing talks, with many aspects still ambiguous and numerous problems need to be resolved.
Both sides announced this as a limited trade agreement, which has effectively rolled back a small number of the tariffs imposed by President Trump in March and April 2025. Both sides referred to this agreement as an “Economic Prosperity Deal”, and negotiations on the long-awaited post-Brexit free trade agreement are expected to continue. There remains a risk of a legal challenge to the compatibility of this agreement with WTO law, but such questions may only become clear when the details are published.
The NFU wrote that one of its biggest concerns is that “two agricultural sectors have been singled out to shoulder the heavy burden of the removal of tariffs” for other industries in the economy.
While we understand this, we also know that today is the start, not the end, of a process and UK agriculture cannot continue to shoulder such imbalances in future negotiations.”
Karen Betts, chief executive, The Food and Drink Federation (FDF), described the announcement as “very positive” yet more discussion is required. The UK government has a key role here in providing “greater practical guidance” as Karen Betts highlights. It can also stick to its word, keep negotiating and get more British products onto shelves around the globe.
- Rodney Jack, editor, Food & Drink Technology.
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