All news headlines are about a trade deal that has been agreed between the UK and USA. There does not seem to be any details on exactly what this deal entails. We do not know what the UK government has had to give away (meat imports, access to NHS contracts perhaps) and what it has gained. Here my initial thoughts, in advance of such details.
Is this too soon? This agreement will have been thrashed out in the context of a 10% tariff on all exports to the US, a 25% tariff on cars, a 25% tariff on steel and a 100% tariff of movies. The agreement for greater access to US markets will have been made in possibly reducing these tariffs and giving the US greater market access in return. But it seems possible that China’s hard nosed approach to Trump’s tariffs and the very likely negative hit to the US economy over the coming months might mean Trump backing down on some tariffs anyway. A later date for the UK-US trade agreement might have meant a better deal.
Another impact might be a greater rift with the EU. The EU is not likely to be pleased to have a European country move closer to the US and the EU is still our biggest trading partner.
Perhaps, of course, the details will show that the risks are greatly outweighed by the benefits. We shall see soon enough.
As they say, the devils in the detail…
Hi
It has been given the all clear by Starmer and Reeves.
That is a serious worry for me and I voted for them.
The company is no longer British owned, it employs British Folks, lets see how it pans out.
Good! I was worried that my new Bentley was going to cost more than I had planned on spending. Now, to choose the right color. Hmmm…
I wonder how streaming services will handle the tariffs on imported films. Prime Video already charges for some films, so they should be able to adapt pretty easily, but how will Netflix handle it? Will they charge extra for foreign films? I heard that something like 70% of the movies produced recently were made outside of the U.S. And what about movie theaters? Will there be different prices for foreign produced vs. American made?
Apparently, Trump got the bright idea for the movie tariffs after talking to dumb%$#@! Jon Voight.
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The most worrying thing for me is that both Starmer and Trump are saying it is an amazing deal for both the USA and the UK and both Countries are winners.#
In sporting terms it is a nil nil draw with neither side progressing to the final stages.
A triumph of marketing over reality.
The reality is both are losers.
Trump & USA are only losers in the sense that they gave up or reduced some of the tariffs they’d imposed just weeks ago. That’s not much to lose and they still retain the majority of the tariffs. In return they get greater access to the UK market for US beef and a shiny new order of 32 planes by BA. And no confirmation on the tariff on pharma products sold to the US.
Overall, giving up a little of what you only just put in place is not much of a giving up.
I know nothing about the deal but there was a comment on the news this evening which said if trade was a roast dinner the UK has got a pea.
It was the first news I have watched since I left home so not very up with it.
I doubt it, American films are foreign films to most of the countries Netflix operates in.
Uk came to the US for a deal. The US didn’t go to the UK for a deal.
At least it’s a start and everything has to start somewhere. Big oaks from little acorns grow 