POLITICO — 2025-04-23
Automotive Industry
The British government is open to lowering tariffs on U.S. imports as part of a trade deal with Donald Trump’s administration, Chancellor Rachel Reeves said Wednesday.
The U.S. government is consulting on the terms of a potential trade deal with the U.K., including pushing for British tariffs on U.S. vehicles to be lowered from 10 percent to 2.5 percent, according to a Wall Street Journal report on Tuesday night.
The publication said Washington is also pushing the U.K. to relax rules on agricultural imports from the U.S., including beef, and to revise rules of origin for goods from each nation.
Speaking in Washington on Wednesday, Reeves said she would support efforts to reduce tariff and non-tariff barriers in the U.K. and U.S.
“I think that can be a bilateral process between our two countries to remove those remaining trade barriers that do exist, and if we work on that basis there is a deal to be done that will benefit industry both in the UK and the US and jobs in our countries as well,” she said.
A spokesperson for the U.K. prime minister was tight-lipped when questioned about the reports, but refused to rule out lowering tariffs on U.S. automotive imports as part of a trade deal.
“We’re having trade talks with the U.S. to seek to reduce barriers to trade between the U.K. and the U.S. so I’m not going to get ahead of those talks,” they told reporters. “But obviously we’re having constructive discussions with the U.S.”
However, the spokesperson stressed that animal food standards were a “red line” for U.K. negotiators, suggesting the U.K. would not back down on a ban on imports of hormone-treated beef.
Meeting Bessent
Reeves is on a three-day visit to Washington D.C. for the International Monetary Fund’s Spring talks.
She is expected to meet U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, now U.S. President Donald Trump’s go-to trade negotiator, on Friday to push forward talks.
British officials are prioritizing efforts to negotiate down the 25 percent tariffs on cars, steel and aluminum, and looming duties on pharmaceuticals, imposed by the Trump administration.
Asked about negotiations in the House of Commons on Wednesday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the U.K. would negotiate “in the national interest and uphold the highest animal welfare standards.”
Shadow Trade Secretary Andrew Griffith told POLITICO a deal with the U.S. would be “welcome as British businesses like automotive badly need tariffs reduced.”
“Let’s hope there is an all singing, all dancing deal coming to delight British business,” he added.