Officials have described it as a framework document, setting out the key elements of the deal which will be subject to further negotiations. It is a very small agreement compared to a full trade deal, you can read it here. The key objective was to agree an approach on tariffs to mitigate the US tariff increases last month. It is clear this is the start of further discussions over the coming years on enhancing trade between the UK and US.
Tariffs
The deal made the following changes
- Removed the increased tariff on UK exports of aluminium and iron
- Reduced to 10% the tariff on the first 100,000 cars from the UK
- Allowed reciprocal tariff free on 13,000T of beef imports
However, the standard 10% tariff remains on all other exports from UK to US
Non Tariff Trade Barriers
Both countries committed to reduce trade barriers on standards and conformity where possible, including aligning where possible production standards and increasing mutual recognition of each others’ standards.
On agriculture, the UK has ensured it can maintain current SPS standards on US importeo ed food. This was important both to UK farmers and to a reset of the EU deal. However, it has also committed to work with the US to increase market access, where, of course, those standards have a key impact.
Other Issues
There is a commitment to further work to enhance digital trade, both in financial services and to facilitate trade more generally.
There will also be a commitment on future discussions of environmental and labour standards. This could be of future importance to us to ensure alignment on measures which impact supply chains and possibly to increase our own standards in key areas such as controls to prevent modern slavery where US legislation is more progressive than ours.
Next Steps
Officials have been clear this agreement only tackles the immediate tariff issue. There will be future and ongoing discussions to issues important to us including non tariff trade barriers such as increased market access for agricultural products and production standards, including environmental and labour controls. We will continue to liaise with Government as it develops these alongside similar themes which emerge from the UK/EU summit on the 19th of May.
