Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey has said he hopes the UK can “rebuild” trade relationships with the EU after striking a trade deal with the US.
In an interview, he said it would be “beneficial” to reverse the post-Brexit reduction in UK-EU trade and that the US deal could set an example around the world.
Meanwhile, the shadow trade secretary warned that Sir Keir Starmer’s trade agreement with the US is “disappointing” and a more “comprehensive” deal is needed.
Conservative MP Andrew Griffith said the historic deal was not a “classic trade agreement” and there were still questions to be answered about industries like film and pharmaceuticals.
However, Labour’s Jonathan Reynolds stressed the urgency of the situation, stating that "we were at risk of thousands of people losing their jobs" without an agreement.
Despite the Tories attempts to criticise the deal, with Kemi Badenoch claiming the UK had been “shafted”, Donald Trump claimed the US had been attempting to reach a deal with the UK since his first term, but those in power “weren’t getting it done”.
He added that it had been made possible “because of Brexit” and that the EU had treated them “extremely unfairly”.
The deal will see US tariffs on cars immediately slashed from 27.5 to 10 per cent, up to 100,000 vehicles, while levies on steel and aluminium will be reduced to zero. A general 10 per cent tariff for other goods will remain.
Key Points
- Tories hit back at ‘disappointing’ Trump agreement
- More clarity on deal needed, Sheffield steel company warns
- Britons would like chlorinated chicken, says Trump advisor
- UK-US trade deal urgently needed to protect working people
Lib Dems call for 'deepening cooperation' with EU for vital business boost
09:32
,
Holly Evans
Responding to the Governor of the Bank of England’s comments that the UK now needs to "rebuild" Britain's trade relationship with the EU, Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader and Treasury Spokesperson Daisy Cooper said: “Andrew Bailey has today added his voice to what Liberal Democrats have been saying for years: that we urgently need to rebuild our trading relationship with our closest and most significant economic partners in Europe.”
“This isn't about revisiting the past, it's about boosting our economy and deepening cooperation for the future.
“Despite the Government’s US deal, Trump’s trade tariffs are still hitting key British industries and threatening the livelihoods of people across the UK.”
“The Government must embrace a pragmatic and ambitious approach to our relationship with the EU - cutting red tape and providing a vital boost for our businesses.”
UK must do ‘everything we can’ to rebuild trade ties with EU, says Bank of England governor
09:29
,
Holly Evans
The governor of the Bank of England has said the UK must do “everything we can” to improve long-term trade by rebuilding ties with the EU.
Andrew Bailey told the BBC the deal would be “beneficial” to “rebuild” trade relationships with the EU, amid government talks with the EU to reset its trade and security relationship.
“It is important we do everything we can to ensure that whatever decisions are taken on the Brexit front do not damage the long-term trade position. So I hope that we can use this to start to rebuild that relationship,” he said.
Asked what impact a closer relationship between the UK and the EU would have on the economy and inflation, Mr Bailey said: "It would be beneficial. Having a more open economy to trade with the European Union. Because there has been a fall-off in goods trade with the EU over recent years."
Read the full article here:
UK steel director says industry remains unclear on the details of US deal
09:13
,
Holly Evans
The director general of UK Steel said the exact details of the UK-US trade agreement for the industry had not yet been revealed.
Gareth Stace told Times Radio: “The headline here is that we’re really pleased with Government’s negotiations ability to scrap that 25% tariff burden that we have suffered since March. But yes, we don’t know the details.
“We don’t know when this deal comes into force for steel, we don’t know what conditions we need to meet in order to remove the 25% tariff, and we don’t know, crucially also, if all steel producers that export to the US market will be included or excluded.
“There may be issues around ownership, around where the steel is made, and until we see those details, we don’t know whether this heavy burden will be lifted from us.”
Mr Stace said reports that British Steel was more likely to be nationalised after the deal “would be a good thing” on a temporary basis to drive investment across the sector.
US having veto over Chinese veto reports are 'complete nonsense', says minister
09:00
,
Holly Evans
Reports that the US will have a veto over Chinese investment in Britain as a result of the UK-US trade deal are “complete nonsense”, Darren Jones said.
The Telegraph reported that such a veto is part the deal, but Treasury minister Mr Jones told Times Radio: “This story on the front page of the Telegraph is complete nonsense. I mean, I’m at a bit of a loss as to know where it’s come from. I think it was a Conservative Party criticism.
“But as you said, we’ve not even published all of the documents yet, so I’m not quite sure how they were able to come up with that.
“I can be completely categorical with you there is no such thing as a veto on Chinese investment in this trade deal, this is not what this trade deal is about.
“It is a sectoral trade deal in relation to tariffs in key sectors, in the way that we’ve just been talking about. So I’d suggest the Conservative Party reads the documents and they maybe come back for a second go.”
David Lammy: Trade deal proves UK does not need to choose between the US and EU
08:50
,
Holly Evans
The connections between the UK and the US are deeply personal for so many Brits. As a teenager, I spent long summers in New York with family. I went to study at Harvard as a young man. After graduating I practised as a lawyer in San Francisco.
The world has changed a lot since then. The 2008 global financial crisis marked the end of the era of hyper-globalisation. The coronavirus pandemic exposed the danger of unreliable supply chains.
Putin's illegal invasion of Ukraine was not only an attack on the Ukrainian people, but also the international order established in the wake of the Second World War, which imposed an energy price shock on every home in Britain.
Read the full analysis from foreign secretary David Lammy here:
Beef industry remains 'very nervous' despite UK-US trade deal providing greater market access
08:40
,
Holly Evans
The UK-US trade agreement will provide greater market access for the beef industry, a leading food industry executive said.
Neil Shand, chief executive of the National Beef Association, said 13,000 tonnes of US and British beef would be eligible to export to either country as part of the agreement but added the industry “remains very nervous” about the current Government’s policies.
Asked what the UK would gain from the deal, he told Times Radio: “We have access to the US market. We had limited access – there’s a carryover of a WTO (World Trade Organisation) deal that the US had, that existed from pre-Brexit times, and we were allowed to send small amounts of beef to the US, but this will allow our market to grow as well.
“In volume terms, there is an argument that they have a bigger access or a larger quantity into our market. But in the overall scheme of things, 13,000 tonnes is not a huge amount of beef, if you consider last year we imported 241,000 tonnes.
“We’re not self-sufficient, and it is important that we are able to provide beef eating consumers with a product.”
Mr Shand said it was likely the US-imported beef would be used in the services industry instead of being sold on supermarket shelves, as leading retailers “are not going to break rank” on British beef agreements.
Treasury minister says UK-US trade deal urgently needed to protect working people
08:31
,
Holly Evans
The UK-US trade deal needed to be urgently agreed to avoid job losses, Darren Jones has suggested.
Asked if agreeing the deal was urgent by BBC Breakfast, the Treasury minister said: “Yes, yes, it was.”
Pressed if this was because of the threat of job losses, Mr Jones added: “Of course, which is why it was so important that we’ve got the deal over the line.”
The minister was also resolute about the need to sign the deal, after being questioned about whether it left the UK better off than before Donald Trump’s tariffs were first introduced.
He told the BBC: “If I could rather be in a world where there were no tariffs, of course I would. But that’s just not the world that exists. So it’s not really an option on the table. The option on the table is to have not signed a trade deal with the United States and had higher tariffs, or to have signed a trade deal with the United States and had lower tariffs.
“We’ve signed that trade deal. We’ve got lower tariffs in critical manufacturing sectors in the UK. 150,000 people’s livelihoods that we’ve protected as a consequence of that trade deal. That is, by definition, factually better off as a consequence of the action that this Government is taking to stand up for working people across the UK.”
Thousands of UK workers feared ‘days’ away from job losses without new US-UK trade deal
08:22
,
Holly Evans
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UK workers were just "days" away from job losses if a new trade deal hadn’t been struck between the UK and US, the Trade Secretary has warned.
Speaking on BBC’s Newsnight, Jonathan Reynolds stressed the urgency of the situation, stating that "we were at risk of thousands of people losing their jobs" without an agreement.
The deal, hailed as "historic" by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, offers a lifeline to British industries, particularly high-end car manufacturers and steel producers.
The agreement sees US import taxes on British cars slashed from a crippling 27.5 per cent to 10 per cent, while the 25 per cent tariff on steel has been completely eliminated.
Read the full article here:
British Airways owner IAG buys 32 new Boeing planes from US amid trade deal
08:10
,
Holly Evans
British Airways’ parent company has bought 32 new Boeing planes from the US, following the country’s trade agreement with the UK on Thursday.
International Airlines Group (IAG) confirmed the order of the Boeing 787-10 aircraft for its BA fleet, alongside 21 Airbus planes for its other airlines on Friday morning.
US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick had said the previous day that plane engines and other aeroplane parts would be excluded from trade tariffs as part of the trade deal.
“We’ve agreed to let Rolls Royce engines and those kind of plane parts come over tariff-free,” he said.
IAG boss Luis Gallego said the order was a “milestone” for the conglomerate and would “strengthen our core markets” over the next decade.
More clarity needed, Sheffield steel company warns
07:59
,
Alexander Butler
Sheffield steel manufacturer Marcegaglia’s president Liam Bates urged “more clarity” on the deal. “It would be good to get more clarity on when this removal is effective from,” he said.
Levies on steel and aluminium will be reduced to zero, however, a general 10 per cent tariff for other goods will remain.
Tories hit back at ‘disappointing’ Trump agreement
07:58
,
Alexander Butler
Sir Keir Starmer’s trade agreement with the US is “disappointing”and a more “comprehensive” deal is needed, the shadow trade secretary warned.
Conservative MP Andrew Griffith said the historic deal was not a “classic trade agreement” and there were still questions to be answered about industries like film and pharmaceuticals.
“There’s nothing on film and TV, and yet at the start of the week the government was talking about 100 per cent tariffs on that. It’s not a trade agreement in the classic sense.”
Mr Griffith added that it was unclear whether tariffs will be negotiated down on pharmaceutical exports as part of the deal.
The deal will see US tariffs on cars immediately slashed from 27.5 to 10 per cent, up to 100,000 vehicles – almost the total number exported last year.
Levies on steel and aluminium will be reduced to zero, however, a general 10 per cent tariff for other goods will remain.
Editorial: This historic US trade deal is a personal victory for Keir Starmer
07:47
,
Alexander Butler
By any standard, going from “Two-Tier Keir” to “Two-Deal Keir” in the space of two days counts as a considerable achievement.
Britain’s new multibillion-dollar trade deal with the United States, coming as it does so soon after the equally consequential, far-reaching partnership agreement with India, has bestowed a much-needed sense of momentum and purpose on Sir Keir Starmer's beleaguered administration.
So also, presumably, will the “Brexit reset” that may well be revealed at the EU-UK summit later this month.
Britain has thus concluded – or shortly will – closer economic partnerships with the largest population on earth (India), the largest and still the most dynamic economy (America), and the UK’s most crucial single market (Europe). Last week may have been a miserable one for the prime minister, but he has every reason to feel confident now.
Sir Keir should feel vindicated, too. Even as equable a man as the prime minister will have felt sorely tried since President Donald Trump launched his tariff schedules, not to mention the doubts some of his most prominent colleagues, notably the vice-president, JD Vance, have cast on support for Ukraine, Nato and the transatlantic alliance.
Read the full editorial here:
No concessions for film and TV industry
07:41
,
Alexander Butler
There have been no concessions secured for the film and TV industry, after Mr Trump threatened to apply a 100 per cent levy on films made outside America, which the PM has been warned would devastate film and TV production in the UK.
Marcus Ryder, chief executive of the The Film and TV charity told The Independent: “Trump’s tariffs could wipe out the UK industry because we are so dependent on foreign direct investment for films being made here.”
Mr Ryder said dozens of people had contacted him since Mr Trump’s announcement with “existential dread” about the future of the industry.
“People are worried and their anxiety levels are off the scale,” he said. “The tariffs are already having an impact before they have even been introduced.”
“It would cut off production houses and strangle the entire ecosystem, including the TV industry. But nobody has any idea what the tariffs could mean. There is a lot of uncertainty.”
Are there any trade-offs for the UK?
07:38
,
Millie Cooke
There are concerns that the new reciprocal market access on beef could lead to a decline in food standards. However, the UK government insisted that there will be “no weakening of UK food standards on imports”, amid concerns a deal could pave the way for the import of hormone-treated beef from the US.
Donald Trump also played down concerns that it could open up UK markets to chlorine washed chicken, saying the UK will “take what they want” when it comes to US beef and chicken imports, rather than being forced to accept lower standards.
US agriculture secretary Brooke Rollins added: “Specific to the beef, this is going to exponentially increase our beef exports. And to be very clear, American beef is the safest, the best quality, and the crown jewel of American agriculture for the world.”
Alongside this, there were also concerns that the US was trying to win concessions on Britain’s digital services tax, paid by overseas search engines and social media sites on revenues from the UK. But today’s deal saw the tax left unchanged.
A change to the tax would have been a boost to major American firms such as Amazon, Facebook owner Meta and Google owner Alphabet.
Instead the two nations have agreed to work on a digital trade deal that will strip back paperwork for British firms trying to export to the US - something the government said would open the UK up to a “huge market that will put rocket boosters on the UK economy”.
What carve-outs has the UK secured?
07:35
,
Archie Mitchell
The deal, which the UK government has said will save “thousands of jobs”, will see car export tariffs slashed from 27.5 per cent to 10 per cent, for a quota of 100,000 UK cars. This, the government said, is almost the total the UK exported last year.
Mr Trump’s 25 per cent tariffs on steel will be axed entirely, while a levy on ethanol – which is used to produce beer – coming into the UK from the US has been removed entirely.
In addition to this, the two governments have negotiated new reciprocal market access on beef, giving UK farmers a tariff free quota of 13,000 metric tonnes of meat.
Downing Street has also said that the US has agreed to give the UK “preferential treatment” in any further tariffs imposed as part of Section 232 investigations - a process where the US government determines if certain imports threaten US national security.
Britons would like chlorinated chicken, says Trump advisor
07:26
,
Alexander Butler
Donald Trump's top trade adviser has suggested British consumers would like US-produced chlorinated chicken and hormone-fed beef if it were made available in UK supermarkets.
Peter Navarro said concerns over food hygiene standards were a “phony tool that's used to suppress what is very fine American agricultural product”.
He added: “We don’t believe that once they taste American beef and chicken that they would prefer not to have it.”
