Donald Trump and Keir Starmer have announced a “breakthrough” trade deal that is expected to slash US tariffs on cars, aluminium and steel.
Speaking from the White House, with Keir Starmer on speakerphone, the US president said the bond between the US and UK would be “stronger than ever before”.
Starmer said it was a “fantastic, historic day” for the two countries and that the agreement was “hugely important for sectors like car manufacturing, and for steel and aluminium and so many others.
“Yes, we can finish ironing out some of the details but there’s a fantastic platform here,” the prime minister said.
The announcement makes the UK the first country to agree a deal with the US since Trump unveiled sweeping tariffs in April billed by the US president as “liberation day”, which sent global stock markets plunging for days until Trump announced a 90-day pause, which will expire on 9 July.
The US president said Thursday’s deal would lead to the creation of an aluminium and steel trading zone and a secure pharmaceutical supply chain.
UK and US negotiators have been in talks for weeks over a carve-out. The UK has been focused on agreeing deal that will lower US tariffs on British steel, aluminium and cars. The US is the number one export market for British cars, worth more than £6bn last year, and is also an important market for British steel.
Ministers are expected to update MPs on the talks with the US with a statement in the Commons later.
The deal with the UK will be seen as a vindication of the conciliatory approach Starmer has taken towards Trump, which has faced criticism from some Labour MPs and the Liberal Democrats.
Despite their considerable political differences the prime minister has sought to build a rapport with the US president and has declined to criticise him directly over tariffs or his statements on Russia or Gaza.
UK government officials were blind-sided by the timing of the announcement, however. Industry figures were only informed of it in the early hours of Thursday.
The US has been under pressure to strike tariff agreements to shore up the US economy. In a sign of how quickly UK and US officials raced to announce an agreement, Trump said on Thursday “final details” were still being written up.
For months, as economists warned his controversial trade strategy risked triggering a recession, Trump and his closest officials insisted it would set the stage for the White House to hammer out dozens of trade deals.
But earlier this week, the US president pushed back against “everyone” asking when such agreements would be struck. “We don’t have to sign deals,” he said in the Oval Office on Tuesday. “They have to sign deals with us. They want our market. We don’t want a piece of their market. We don’t care about their market.”
US deals with other leading economies including India and Japan, while repeatedly mooted by administration officials, have yet to come to fruition. Scott Bessent, the Treasury secretary, claimed this week that talks were under way with 17 trading partners.
By Thursday morning in the Oval Office, Trump took a different tack. US officials had “many meetings planned”, the president said, noting that Bessent would be meeting Chinese counterparts in Switzerland on Saturday. “Every country wants to be making deals.”
The content of the deal will be closely scrutinised after reports that the UK was preparing controversial concessions, including cutting tax on US tech companies and reviewing the enforcement of new online safety laws, to secure it.
British ministers have ruled out watering down food standards as part of the negotiations. Food campaigners and farmers are staunchly against any move that could allow chlorine-dipped chicken and hormone-treated beef to be sold in British supermarkets.
UK government officials said the deal was a starting point from which the two sides would keep negotiating. Ministers are hopeful of further concessions on the British pharmaceutical and film industries, which face a severe hit.
In a post on Truth Social earlier on Thursday, Trump said it was a great honour to reach the first agreement with the UK “because of our long time history and allegiance together”.
The UK government is in talks to host Trump for a state visit later this year, after Starmer personally handed him an invitation from the king during their first White House meeting in February. The US president suggested last month that Buckingham Palace was “setting a date September”. It would make Trump the first world leader in recent history to be invited for a second full state visit to the UK.
