President Donald Trump on Thursday said the United States had reached a trade agreement with the United Kingdom — albeit one that’s not quite finished.
“The final details are being written up in the coming weeks,” Trump said at the Oval Office. “We’ll have it all very conclusive, but the actual deal is a very conclusive one. We think just about everything’s been approved.”
It’s the first agreement announced between the United States and a major trading partner since the U.S. levied “reciprocal” tariffs on dozens of other countries, and one both Trump and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer lauded as a key victory — even tying it to the end of World War II in Europe given its announcement on V-E Day, proclaimed as Victory Day by Trump.
“To be able to announce this great deal on the same day, 80 years forward, almost at the same hour, and as we were 80 years ago, with the U.K. and the U.S. standing side by side, I think is incredibly important and makes this truly historic,” Starmer said.
But both leaders acknowledged the deal isn’t quite finished yet. And there is plenty more work to be done on deals with countries around the globe in the two remaining months before Trump’s 90-day tariff pause runs out. The White House says more than 70 countries have reached out, and that proposals have been received from 17 major trading partners. Given limited capacity at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, some former trade officials told NOTUS that negotiating dozens of deals is unrealistic.
The U.K. is currently subject to Trump’s 10% global tariff. It was also hit by the administration’s 25% tariff on steel, aluminum, and car parts. The United States is the U.K.’s largest export partner, and its largest export to the U.S. is cars.
The 10% tariff will remain in place, the president said. As part of the new agreement, Trump said the United Kingdom would “reduce or eliminate numerous non-tariff barriers” and would fast-track U.S. goods through customs. “This is going to exponentially increase our beef exports,” Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said an airline in the U.K. would buy around $10 billion worth of Boeing planes, but he did not specify which.
“With this deal, the U.K. joins the United States and affirms that reciprocity and fairness is an essential and vital principle of international trade,” Trump said. “So we have a big economic security blanket, and that’s very important, and we feel very, very comfortable with that because it’s been a great ally, truly one of our great allies.”
Before the announcement, Rollins told Fox Business it would be “an agreement in concept,” adding, “There are a lot of details to be worked out.” Rollins said she would be leaving for the U.K. on Sunday and would be there “all next week” as details are hammered out.
Trump, however, maintained that the agreement was essentially a done deal.
“It’s a very big deal right now, but I think it is going to grow just of its own volition,” Trump said. “It’s going to grow, and over time, there’ll be changes made.”
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Mark Alfred and Violet Jira are NOTUS reporters and Allbritton Journalism Institute fellows.