United States, United Kingdom Reach Trade Deal With No Agreement On Metals Tariffs
While at the Group of Seven (G7) summit in Canada, U.S. President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced they had signed a trade deal that will reduce U.S. tariffs on auto and aerospace industry imports from the United Kingdom.
Specifically, the agreement calls for the United States to create an annual quota of 100,000 vehicles for U.K. automotive imports at a 10 percent tariff rate. According to Supply Chain Dive, U.K. automobiles would be subject to a 25 percent tariff after reaching the quota. The order also lowers tariffs on U.K. auto parts used in cars from the country from 25 percent to 10 percent. With respect to U.K. products that fall under the World Trade Organization Agreement on Trade in Civil Aircraft, the tariffs that President Trump had put into place will no longer apply.
Read the White House proclamation outlining the deal at this link. Read the White House fact sheet at this link.
The two countries still have work to do, however, since the deal does not fully address aluminum and steel imports from the United Kingdom. Indeed, according to The Guardian, President Trump reportedly is considering keeping the 25 percent tariffs on some or all of U.S. steel imports from the United Kingdom unless U.K. officials give “specific guarantees over the Indian-owned steelmaking plant at Port Talbot in south Wales.”
Last week’s proclamation did state that the United Kingdom is committed to meeting U.S. requirements for the security of the supply chains for steel and aluminum products exported to the United States and regarding the nature of ownership of relevant production facilities. The proclamation also said that if the United Kingdom meets these requirements, the United States “intends to promptly construct a quota at most-favored-nation rates for steel and aluminum articles and certain derivative steel and aluminum articles that are products” of the United Kingdom. The proclamation also stated the United States and the United Kingdom are committed to adopting a structured, negotiated approach to addressing United States national security concerns regarding sectors that may be subject to future section 232 investigations. “To that end,” the proclamation said, “the United States and the United Kingdom further committed to strengthen aerospace and aircraft manufacturing supply chains by establishing tariff-free bilateral trade in certain aerospace products.”