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The US and the UK have announced a trade deal, the first agreement secured with the Trump administration after it announced a raft of tariffs on foreign goods in early April.

“The final details are being written up,” US President Donald Trump told reporters. “In the coming weeks, we’ll have it all very conclusive.”

The rapidly-negotiated deal is not a wide ranging trade pact but it instead focuses on specific sectors, easing trade barriers on agricultural, automobile, aluminium and steel products.

Although Trump is referring to the breakthrough as a “full and comprehensive” deal, experts stress that this exaggerates the scope of the agreement. For a full-trade deal to be brokered, Congress must first give its approval.

Both President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Keir Starmer emphasised the strong relationship between their two countries, bonded by shared values, culture and a common language.

“It’s a real tribute to the history that we have of working so closely together,” Starmer said in a call with the US President on Thursday.

Trump referred to the UK as “truly one of our great allies”.

Aluminium and steel

Thursday’s deal is based on olive branches from both sides. 

One concession from the US is the removal of a 25% levy on steel and aluminium from the UK, which Trump imposed on all foreign imports of these metals on 12 March.

The UK doesn’t send a huge amount of steel and aluminium to the US, although it does send many products that contain them, which are also affected by the levy.

The US market buys 9% of UK steel exports by value and 7% by volume, according to UK Steel.

In 2024, the UK exported 180 thousand tonnes of semi-finished and finished steel to the US, worth £370 million (€436.5mn).

Beef and ethanol

President Trump also said on Thursday that the US would be increasing its beef and ethanol exports to the UK, which will be fast-tracked through customs.

These imports have historically been limited due concerns over added growth hormones.

“The deal includes billions of dollars of increased market access for American exports, especially in agriculture, dramatically increasing access for American beef, ethanol, and virtually all of the products produced by our great farmers,” Trump said.

Cars

A levy on UK cars coming into the US will also be lowered for UK manufacturers, from 27.5% to 10%. That’s applied to a quota of 100,000 UK cars.

“To get that decrease was hugely important to me,” Starmer said speaking at a Jaguar Land Rover plant.

According to the Official for National Statistics, British car exports to the US were worth about £9 billion (€10.6bn) last year, making up 27.4% of total UK car exports. Carmakers such as Jaguar and Aston Martin are consequently feeling the pinch of Trump’s tariffs, and will be relieved by Thursday’s news.

The deal, he said, will save thousands of “really important, skilled, well-paid jobs” in Britain.

“This deal means that the US tariffs will now be cut from 27.5%, down to 10% for 100,000 vehicles every year,” Starmer added.

Trade relationship

A fixation on trade deficits is driving Trump’s tariff war — specifically the fact that the US imports more foreign goods that it sells abroad. While this is partly linked to the strength of the US economy and the dollar, Trump has concluded that international partners are exploiting the US, often not mentioning that the US holds a services surplus.

The balance of trade between the UK and the US isn’t easy to interpret as there are irregularities in figures on both sides of the Atlantic.

American data suggests that the US enjoys a goods trade surplus with the UK, meaning the Brits are buying more from the US than they are exporting.

According to the US government, US goods exports to the United Kingdom came to $79.9bn (€70.7bn) in 2024. It notes that US goods imports from the United Kingdom totalled $68.1bn (€60.3bn) in the same period.

Data from the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) paints a different picture, suggesting that the UK is sending more to the US than it is importing from there.

In 2024, the UK imported £57.1bn (€67.4bn) of goods from the United States in value terms, said the ONS. In contrast, there were £59.3bn (€70bn) of goods sent from the UK to the US in value terms.

In a post on Truth Social on Thursday, Trump promised that “many other deals, which are in serious stages of negotiation” are to follow.