By Justin Choi

On May 8, 2025, President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced a preliminary trade agreement. This trade agreement was the first major trade deal finalized by the second Trump administration and it comes after Trump’s sweeping tariffs on “Liberation Day” on April 2.

This trade deal between the United States and the United Kingdom will eliminate the 25% duties that were previously imposed on the U.K. and will reduce tariffs from 25% to 10% on up to 100,000 U.K. manufactured cars. 

On the other hand, the U.K. announced that they will lift duties on American beef and ethanol, which will help American exporters by an estimated $5 billion. Prime Minister Starmer also announced that the U.K. will buy $10 billion worth of Boeing airplanes.

President Trump announced the trade deal in the Oval Office alongside Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, and the British Ambassador to the U.S. Peter Mendelson. Prime Minister Starmer joined in from a car factory in England. 

During the announcement, both leaders were satisfied with the trade agreement, but expressed a commitment to further negotiations. The president said Starmer had tried to persuade him to drop tariffs and said, “We could very well end up with a real trade deal where the tariffs wouldn’t be necessary.” 

Following this deal, the Trump administration will be looking to finalize many more agreements with other countries such as India, South Korea, Vietnam and even China.