Catenaa, Thursday, May 08, 2025- US announced its first trade deal since the announcement of reciprocal tariffs in April with the UK on Thursday, which looks to cut down on tariffs on cars, steel and aluminum.
It’s a “tremendous trade deal for both countries,” Trump said Thursday in the Oval Office. “This is a fantastic, historic day,” added UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer who joined the event over the phone.
“The final details are being written up” and will be concluded in the coming weeks, Trump added.
However, according to a release by the UK the trade deal will cut US tariffs on UK cars from 25% to 10% and eliminate tariffs on steel and aluminum.
Trump and his aides also summarized the pact as allowing the UK to send 100,000 cars to the US with only a 10% tariff.
In return, UK Prime Minister Starmer is offering concessions to open the UK markets more to things like US autos, ethanol, machinery, and agricultural products, as well as so-far unspecified concessions on so-called digital service taxes that hit US tech companies.
Trump also looked ahead to this weekend’s China talks predicting “I think we will have a very good weekend” and offered optimism that progress would be possible there in the days ahead and of tariffs if those talks go well “you can’t get any higher so you know it’s coming down.”
Meanwhile US stocks climbed on Thursday after the UK deal with the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rising roughly 1.7%. The S&P 500 climbed around 1.2%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.2%.
