Donald Trump has hailed the trade deal with the UK as “full and comprehensive” as he promised it would cement the relationship between the two countries for “years to come”.
The US president said it was a “great honour” to strike an agreement with the UK and said deals with other countries would soon follow.
Posting on the Truth Social website, Mr Trump said: “The agreement with the United Kingdom is a full and comprehensive one that will cement the relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom for many years to come.
“Because of our long time history and allegiance together, it is a great honour to have the United Kingdom as our FIRST announcement. Many other deals, which are in serious stages of negotiation, to follow!”
Reports that the two countries had struck an agreement first emerged in the New York Times – and Sky News has since been told that terms had now been agreed.
Deputy political editor Sam Coates says he understands a “heads of terms” agreement, essentially a preliminary arrangement, has been agreed, which is a “substantive” step towards a full deal.
While the details are yet to emerge, Sky News business correspondent Paul Kelso understands the UK has agreed to give some concessions on food and agriculture imports from the United States to secure an easing of export tariffs for the car industry.
Kelso said the “heads of terms” deal appears to be coming down to what the UK can secure by way of concessions on tariffs.
Shortly after the New York Times report emerged, the value of the British pound rose by 0.4% against the US dollar.
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‘Renewal for our country’
Mr Trump said “this should be a very big and exciting day” for the US and UK, in a post on Truth Social on Thursday, adding there would be an announcement in the Oval Office at 10am local time (3pm UK time).
Meanwhile, Sir Keir Starmer vowed to “deliver security and renewal for our country” ahead of the expected announcement.
Speaking to the London defence conference, Sir Keir said: “Talks with the US have been ongoing and you’ll hear more from me about that later today.
“But make no mistake, I will always act in our national interest, for workers, businesses and families, to deliver security and renewal for our country.”
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Senior Trump officials have been engaging in a flurry of meetings with trading partners since the US president announced his “liberation day” tariffs on both the US’ geopolitical rivals and allies on 2 April.
Mr Trump imposed a 10% tariff on most countries including the UK during the announcement, along with higher “reciprocal” tariff rates for many trading partners.
However, those reciprocal tariffs were later suspended for 90 days.
Britain was not among the countries hit with the higher reciprocal tariffs because it imports more from the US than it exports there.
However, the UK was still impacted by a 25% tariff on all cars and all steel and aluminium imports to the US.
A UK official said on Tuesday that the two countries had made good progress on a trade deal that would likely include lower tariff quotas on steel and cars.
Read more:
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Mr Trump said the same day that he and top administration officials would review potential trade deals with other countries over the next two weeks to decide which ones to accept.
Last week, he said that he has “potential” trade deals with India, South Korea and Japan.
Asked on Sky News’ Breakfast programme about the UK-EU summit on 19 May and how Sir Keir would balance relationships with the US and EU, Coates said: “I think it is politically helpful for Keir Starmer to have got the heads of terms, the kind of main points of a US-UK trade deal, nailed down before we see what we have negotiated with the EU — or, more importantly, Donald Trump sees what we have negotiated with the EU.”
Coates said there was “always a danger” that if it happened the other way around, Mr Trump would “take umbrage” at negotiations with the EU and “downgrade, alter or put us further back in the queue” when it came to a UK-US trade deal.
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US and Chinese officials to discuss trade war
It comes as the US and China have been engaged in an escalating trade war since Mr Trump took office in January.
The Trump administration has raised tariffs on Chinese goods to 145% while Beijing has responded with levies of 125% in recent weeks.
US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent and US trade representative Jamieson Greer are set to meet their Chinese counterparts in Switzerland this week to discuss the trade war.
China has made the de-escalation of the tariffs a requirement for trade negotiations, which the meetings are supposed to help establish.
