US President Donald Trump will on Thursday announce a trade agreement between Britain and the United States, the New York Times reported on Wednesday, citing three individuals familiar with the plans.
Trump wrote on Truth Social previously that he would be having an Oval Office press conference at 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT) on Thursday regarding a “major trade deal with representatives of a big, and highly respected, country,” in all capital letters.
A British official stated on Tuesday that the two nations had made solid progress on a trade agreement that would most likely involve lower tariff quotas on steel and autos.
Trump’s highest-ranking officials have been in a flurry of meetings with trading partners since the president on April 2 imposed a 10% tariff on all but a handful of countries, plus higher “reciprocal” tariff rates on many trading partners, though those rates were suspended for 90 days.
Britain was spared being among the countries targeted for higher tariffs since it buys more from the US than it sells there. Trump has also levied 25% tariffs on cars, steel and aluminium, 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada, and 145% tariffs on China.
On Tuesday, Trump announced that he and senior administration officials would go through possible trade agreements in the next two weeks to determine which ones to accept. Last week, he announced that he has “potential” trade agreements with India, South Korea and Japan.
Some Asian airlines such as Taiwan’s China Airlines and Korean Air reported yesterday they were cancelling or re-routing flights to and from Europe, and around a dozen Indian airports closed following clashes between India and Pakistan.
India bombed Pakistan and Pakistani Kashmir and Pakistan claimed it had downed five Indian fighter aircraft in an escalation of tensions over a raid by Islamist militants that killed 26 individuals in Indian Kashmir in November.
