Trump praises U.K. trade deal that opens British market to farm products, other goods

President Trump announced Thursday that the U.S. had struck a trade deal that will open the British market to plenty of American farm products, chemicals and machinery, a major development in the White House’s attempt to rebalance global trade, even if bigger challenges lie ahead.

Mr. Trump said beef, ethanol and other agricultural products will flood into Britain. In exchange, Britain agreed to drop certain nontariff trade barriers.

“It opens up a tremendous market for us,” Mr. Trump said in the Oval Office.

In return, Britain will gain business partnerships with major American companies and get relief on sector-specific tariffs. British officials said automobile tariffs will be reduced from 25% to 10% for a quota of 100,000 British autos and steel and aluminum tariffs will be slashed to zero.

“This is now turning out, really, to be a great deal for both countries,” Mr. Trump said.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said a baseline 10% tariff on British products would remain. Still, the deal will create $5 billion worth of opportunities for U.S. exporters and bring in $6 billion in tariff revenue.

Both sides said negotiators were ironing out some details. Still, Mr. Trump was eager to tout the deal, given pressure on him to flex his dealmaking skills and reduce trade tensions with global partners.

The pact could be the first of dozens of promised deals tied to Mr. Trump’s “Liberation Day” plan, threatening hefty tariffs on countries that don’t reduce trade barriers.

Wall Street reacted positively to the news. Investors were seeking White House progress in turning tariff threats into better trade terms around the globe. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 254 points, or 0.6%, and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq rose by about 0.6% and 1.0%, respectively.

Mr. Trump imposed a 10% tariff on all imports in April. He threatened heftier levies on countries selling products to American consumers but not buying nearly as much from U.S. producers.

Mr. Trump paused the bigger tariffs for 90 days to allow time for negotiations. India, Japan and South Korea were at the forefront of the talks, but Britain closed the first deal.

“We have a great relationship,” Mr. Trump said of the British representatives. “It’s been an honor doing business with all of them.”

Britain left the European Union in 2020, forcing it to trade alone with the rest of the world. Earlier this week, Britain struck a trade deal with India.

The U.S. and Britain have been trying to reach a bilateral agreement since the British exit from the European Union. The pact could be seen as the result of long-term talks rather than weeks of negotiation.

“The U.S. and U.K. have been working for years to try and make a deal, and it never quite got there; it did with this prime minister,” said Mr. Trump, referring to Keir Starmer.

The deal received mixed reviews.

Ryan Young, a trade expert at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, said both sides will benefit from Britain’s reduced tariff barriers on items such as beef and fuel because special interests fight hard to keep those barriers.

He said the continuing 10% tariff on British goods was unfortunate.

“A trade agreement worthy of the name should at least get tariffs back to where they were when negotiations started,” Mr. Young said.

The American Farm Bureau Federation hailed the administration for opening the British market.

“We’re encouraged by progress to create market opportunities for farmers. We urge the administration to build on this success to pursue more trade agreements and resolve current disputes so farmers can continue to feed families here at home and overseas,” federation President Zippy Duvall said.

Mr. Trump’s trade team has bigger challenges on the horizon.

The U.S. and China are locked in a trade war, with tariffs exceeding 100% on either side.

Other Asian trading partners are negotiating but face domestic pressure because they don’t want to disadvantage their export-heavy industries. Some nations face other factors, such as elections. India has agreed to a road map for a U.S. trade deal but is distracted by tit-for-tat military strikes with Pakistan.

Nevertheless, the breakthrough with Britain will be seen as a win for both sides.

Mr. Starmer underscored the close British-U.S. relationship and noted that the deal coincided with the 80th anniversary of the Allied victory in Europe in World War II.

Like Mr. Trump, Mr. Starmer said some details must be worked out, but “there’s a fantastic platform here.”

Mr. Trump’s tariff plans have been driven by trade deficits, in which the U.S. imports far more than it sells to other countries.

However, the U.S. had a trade surplus of nearly $12 billion with Britain in 2024. America exported nearly $80 billion worth of goods and imported about $68 billion from Britain, the U.S. trade representative said.

“Based on Mr. Trump’s logic, the U.S. has been ripping off the U.K. and — facetiously speaking — perhaps the U.K. should have been raising tariffs on the U.S. to stop us from ripping them off,” said Wayne Winegarden, a senior fellow in business and economics at the Pacific Research Institute. “Of course, they shouldn’t, because they are not ripping us off, just as other countries are not ripping us off.”

Because trade is relatively balanced between the nations, Mr. Trump imposed a baseline 10% tariff on Britain.

Countries with large trade imbalances vis-a-vis the U.S. face much larger tariffs.

Mr. Lutnick said Britain found ways to favor U.S. products instead of products from other countries while protecting jobs for British workers. In a notable benefit for Britain, Mr. Lutnick said companies can send key parts to the Boeing aerospace company in the U.S.

The deal also should make it easier for the British to send drugs, cars, food and other goods to America.

Mr. Trump said the 10% baseline level should not be considered a template for other deals. He characterized it as too low for some other countries.

The president has toggled between hailing his team’s dealmaking abilities and saying the U.S. will set whatever tariff level it likes.

“We don’t have to sign deals,” he said this week. “They have to sign deals with us. They want a piece of our market; we don’t want a piece of their market. We don’t care about their market.”

On Thursday, Mr. Trump pivoted again, saying the British pact was the first of many deals.

“We have numerous deals,” he said, noting that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent would meet with the Chinese in Switzerland over the weekend.

“They very much want to make a deal,” Mr. Trump said of Beijing. “They look forward to doing it with us in a very elegant way.”

The president said his patience is limited, and if countries don’t act, the U.S. will eventually set a permanent tariff level.

European leaders say they are open to negotiation but won’t back down from a trade fight.

On Thursday, the EU outlined a list of U.S. products that could be targeted with higher tariffs if the bloc and the U.S. don’t reach a trade agreement.

The products, worth $107 billion, are designed to prod the U.S. into serious negotiations before Mr. Trump’s reciprocal tariffs are unfrozen. The list includes farm products and car and airplane parts.

The tension between the EU and Mr. Trump may partly explain why Britain, which left the bloc, was the first to strike a deal with the White House.

“There seems to be good rapport between President Trump and Prime Minister Starmer, despite coming from different political persuasions,” said Clark Packard, a research fellow on trade at the libertarian Cato Institute. “I also think the Trump administration has a certain amount of antipathy toward the European Union and views the post-Brexit U.K. as a symbol and somewhat of a bulwark against Brussels.”