Donald Trump has warned that “substantial” baseline tariffs will remain on goods imported to the US from all countries, in a blow for Rachel Reeves as she heads to Washington next week for trade talks.
The UK is hoping a deal can help stave off the full brunt of the US president’s sweeping 10% tariffs on all goods imported to the US, and The Telegraph has reported that White House officials believe an agreement could be reached “within three weeks”.
But on Thursday Trump said that he is in "no rush" to reach any trade deals because of the revenues his tariffs are generating.
“Tariffs are making us rich. We were losing a lot of money under Biden – trillions of dollars, trillions on trade and now, that whole tide has turned,” he said while meeting Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni at the White House.
Trump has claimed that as many as 75 countries have contacted his administration hoping to make trade deals after he hiked tariffs on all nearly countries but Russia, later reducing them all to a baseline 10 per cent.
“We’re taking in a lot of money, which we’ve never done before,” he said. “We’re moving along very nicely and going to end up with a baseline of a substantial number – which we never got anything.”
The president included a 10 per cent levy on imports from the UK in his initial round of new tariffs alongside a 25 per cent levy on car imports.
His warning may dampen the hopes of chancellor Rachel Reeves for talks she will have in Washington DC next week, aiming to secure a trade deal.
She said she would be having “conversations with the US administration” that “active negotiations” with the Americans were continuing.
US vice-president JD Vance said this week there was a good chance a trade deal could be reached with the UK.
He said the US was working very hard with Keir Starmer's government, as global stock markets continued to be volatile after Mr Trump’s tariffs sent them plunging.
Asked whether any deal could lead to the 10 per cent levy being lifted, Ms Reeves said: “We are in active negotiations at the moment with our US counterparts on a whole range of issues concerning the tariffs for steel and aluminium, and the cars which of course are at 25 per cent, as well as the headline tariff rate of 10 per cent.”
Pharmaceuticals are said to be a heated part of discussions between British and US negotiators, amid Mr Trump’s plans to begin imposing tariffs on medicines.
Observers will also watch out for whether the UK continues to resist American demands to weaken food standards to allow American farmers to sell chlorinated chicken and hormone-treated beef to British shoppers.
Trump said he was “100 per cent certain” of an eventual trade deal with Europe – but that “we're in no rush”.
The EU faces 25 per cent import tariffs on steel, aluminium and cars, and broader tariffs on almost all other goods.
EU leaders had hoped that Ms Meloni could act as a potential “ambassador” and get the president on side.
He lavished praise on her, saying: "She's doing a great job, certainly one of our great allies. She's a fantastic person and doing a great job."
But although he hailed their “great” relationship, he said Ms Meloni did not change his mind on tariffs.
"Of course there will be a trade deal, very much. They want to make one very much. And we are going to make a trade deal. I fully expect it. And it will be a fair deal," Trump said.
