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On Thursday, President Donald Trump got to finally have an announcement on trade for the first time since he began his global trade war, as he announced an agreement with the United Kingdom.
The agreement will slash Trump’s tariffs that he announced on “Liberation Day,” specifically seeing tolls on British cars down from 27.5 percent to 10 percent and eliminating tariffs on steel and aluminum. In exchange, UK tariffs on ethanol would be eliminated and US beef imports will increase, if all goes to plan.
Trump got to have his big moment in the Oval Office flanked by Lord Peter Mandelson, the UK ambassador to the United States, as well his Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, his Vice President JD Vance and his Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins. Mandelson even flattered Trump by suggesting that he buy a Rolls Royce the way the president had purchased a Tesla from Elon Musk at the White House.
But looking under the hood, Trump’s trade deal is not as expansive as he would like to portray it and it certainly is not the major breakthrough he promised either on the campaign trail or on his “Liberation Day” announcements.
For one, the baseline reciprocal tariffs at 10 percent will remain for the United Kingdom. In addition, the reduction of the tariff on British cars will only be for the first 100,000 automobiles shipped to the United States. Every additional car will be subjected to the 25 percent rate.
Britain does not even have that big of a trade deficit with the United States. and trade between the two nations is about equal. The United Kingdom has also yet to accept America’s desire to have chlorinated chicken and beef fed with hormones – a highly controversial proposal in the U.K.
Even Mandelson, for all his charm offensive toward Trump, cautioned that “For us it's not the end, it's just the end of the beginning.”
To borrow from Trump, this trade agreement is a “concept of a plan,” for trade.
But so far, it does not seem clear Trump has an off-ramp for de-escalating trade tensions with other countries, namely China, Japan, Canada, Mexico or South Korea. When Trump announced his initial pause on the tariffs, he pledged there would be 90 deals in 90 days. That number has come down to 75 deals and the White House said last month it had only been speaking to 34 countries.
During his press conference in the Oval Office, Trump said he would like to lower the whopping 145 percent tariffs placed on China. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent plans to meet with his counterparts in China to come to some sort of agreement. Trade officials from the world’s two biggest economies will begin talks in Switzerland this weekend.
“Right now you can’t get any higher. It’s at 145% so we know it’s coming down,” Trump said. But there are few signs of progress.
Trump needed to show some signs of progress on trade. Polling shows voters are dissatisfied with his performance on the economy. Voters increasingly say Trump bears responsibility for the economy and his numbers on the economy have nosedived.
And Americans still fear that they will wind up bearing the brunt of the tariffs. Last week, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas surveyed Texas business leaders and found that a majority of them thought they would need to pass their costs onto consumers.
“Oftentimes the country picks them up,” he said. “Oftentimes the company, picks it up. The people don't pick it up.”
He also seemed to downplay the issue of ports in the US seeing less traffic and dockworkers and truck drivers fearing they will lose work and perhaps even their jobs.
“That means we lose less money,” he said. “When you say it slowed down, that's a good thing, not a bad thing.”
On top of that, Trump reignited his feud with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, who on Wednesday said the central bank would keep interest rates where they are. On Wednesday, Powell said he only took meetings with presidents when they requested, but Trump said he would not because doing so would be like “talking to a wall.”
“He's not in love with me,” he said. “I think that's, it's sort of crazy reason, but that's the way life is.”
So it is indeed. Trump’s agreement is very much the same. The agreement with the United Kingdom is a way for him to save face, but it is not the liberation and glorious return to manufacturing. It’s a fig leaf and an off-ramp for Trump to de-escalate.
English (US) ·