Statement on US-UK trade deal

Today’s “trade deal” between the UK and US is not about trade – it is about appeasing Trump over tariffs.

There is nothing “comprehensive” about the deal. The only supposed gain for the UK is the removal of tariffs that Trump invented out of whole cloth and imposed on the world.

This deal is not a “win” for Keir Starmer. Caving in to Trump’s bullying is not something to be celebrated. Paying a protection racket is not “smart politics”.

Starmer has only received partial, temporary and unreliable relief on some tariffs such as steel and cars. 

The deal does not come near to removing all the existing tariffs, with the ‘baseline’ 10% tariff staying in place. This is still a much worse trade position than before Trump imposed his tariffs in April. Trump also retains the ability to impose new tariffs on the UK at any time, or tear up the deal.

Just this week, Trump made up a new category of tariffs on filmmaking – a 100% tariff that will devastate the UK filmmaking industry. Removing these tariffs is not included in today’s announcement.

While this thin deal does not yet contain the worst US demands such as chlorine chicken, it paves the way for major increases in US beef exports that will concern British farmers, as well as “other agricultural products”.

This one-sided agreement is just a precursor to a bigger, worse deal – it fires the starting gun on more rounds of negotiations. Trump will come back for more, and expect Starmer to say “thank you”.

The next round of negotiations could reportedly include proposals to cut the digital services tax, a UK tax on billionaire-owned big tech corporations such as Amazon and Meta. 

This would cost hundreds of millions of pounds at the same time as the government is cutting welfare spending. At a time of growing public demands for taxation of extreme wealth, this move would be both unwise and unpopular.

Starmer has made the UK the first country in the world to capitulate to Trump. This is a moment of deep shame.

Instead of caving in to Trump’s blackmail, the British government should stand up to Trump as we are seeing in Canada and Australia.

The deal has been negotiated in secrecy and looks set to be pushed through without a vote in Parliament. It should be subject to democratic scrutiny and a full vote.

The campaign continues against the threat of a real trade deal with the US in the future, to preserve our food standards, defend our NHS, keep the tax on big tech and refuse a “Trump takeover”.