Trade Deal with Trump is Not a ‘Win’ – Stop Trump Coalition
9th May 2025
By the Stop Trump Coalition
This week’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”.
- This statement was originally published by the Stop Trump Coalition on 8 May 2025.
- You can follow the Stop Trump Coalition on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X and Bluesky.
By the Stop Trump Coalition
This week’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”.
- This statement was originally published by the Stop Trump Coalition on 8 May 2025.
- You can follow the Stop Trump Coalition on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X and Bluesky.
‘Jobs saved, jobs won, but not job done’: Keir Starmer heralds US-UK trade deal
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has heralded a new trade deal between the UK and the United States, which will see American tariffs reduced in exchange for greater market access to US goods.
The deal sees tariffs removed on UK steel and aluminium and cuts the tariff rate on most car exports to just ten percent. In exchange, the UK has agreed “reciprocal market access on beef” and will remove tariffs on ethanol for American goods.
It is the first deal of its kind struck with the US since ‘Liberation Day’, when the Trump administration imposed tariffs on almost all nations across the world.
In a press conference after the announcement at a Jaguar-Land Rover plant in Solihull, Starmer said: “The great challenge of our age is to secure and to renew Britain, and that is what we’re going to do – acting in the national interest, shaping this new era – not being shaped by it.
“We’re sending a message to the world that Britain is open for business, seeking trade agreements with India on Tuesday, with the US today, and working to boost trade with other partners too. Making deals that benefit working people.
“This is just the start. With the deal we’ve done today, we can say jobs saved, jobs won, not job done – because we’re more ambitious for what the US and the UK can do together.”
However, when taking questions form the press, the Prime Minister avoided a question about whether the UK will still be worse off due to the Trump administration’s tariffs.
In a separate press conference in the Oval Office, President Trump said some “final details” of the deal are still being written up and praised the agreement as a “maxed-out deal”.
Trump said: “Both countries have agreed that the economic security is national security, and we’ll be working together as allies to ensure that we have a strong industrial base, appropriate export controls and protections for key technologies and industries like steel.”
Alasdair McDiarmid, assistant general secretary at Community, a union that represents workers in the steel industry, said that the deal would protect jobs in the UK and provided “much-needed certainty”.
“The UK government deserves enormous credit for negotiating this deal to reduce US tariffs which would have had a hugely damaging impact on our steel sector.
“Following on from the decisive action taken at British Steel last month, today’s news again demonstrates the Labour government’s firm commitment to delivering for our steel industry.
“We will continue to work with the government to deliver for our members and secure a vibrant UK steel industry for the future.”
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