Trump Backs US-UK Trade Talks After Meeting With Starmer

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(Bloomberg) — President Donald Trump said he would restart long-stalled negotiations on trade with the UK, as British Prime Minister Keir Starmer heralded a “new economic deal” between the two countries.

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Trump said during a joint press conference with Starmer on Thursday in Washington that a deal could happen “very quickly” to help the UK avoid being swept up in in his oft-threatened tariffs. While neither leader explained what sort of accord they had in mind, Trump said administration officials including Vice President JD Vance had already begun work on it.

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“We’re going to have a great trade agreement one way or the other,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “We’re going to end up with a very good trade agreement for both countries, and we’re working on that as we speak.”

The resumption of trade talks between the US and UK came as Trump heaped praise on Starmer during his first visit to the White House, calling him a “tough negotiator” following a conversation that also covered a potential peace deal in Ukraine. “I’m not sure I like that, but that’s OK,” Trump added to laughs from Starmer. 

The reception will come as a relief to the British leader, who had been bracing for potential US tariffs on UK goods which would further hamstring the country’s lackluster economic growth.

That’s a worry now facing the European Union, after Trump seemed to suggest slapping tariffs of 25% on the bloc following a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron earlier this week. Relations with Canada have been similarly prickly, with Trump insisting that delayed tariffs of 25% on goods arriving from the US’s northern neighbor would go ahead on March 4.

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Successive British governments have sought a trade deal with the US since the country’s 2016 decision to leave the EU. Reaching an agreement with the world’s largest economy was touted as a key benefit of Brexit in the run-up to the referendum.

Trump promised then-Prime Minister Theresa May a “phenomenal” trade deal during his first term  and successive Conservative governments held several rounds of talks. Negotiations stalled over the UK’s unwillingness to lower its agricultural standards and were later suspended by Trump’s Democratic successor, President Joe Biden, as part of a general pull back from free-trade talks.

While Starmer has advocated closer ties with the EU, some Brexit supporters may see a US deal as a way to cement the split from Brussels. And the role of Vance, who briefly sparred with Starmer in the Oval Office over UK restrictions on free speech, may give pause to British officials who have worried that the US might seek to bring social media regulations into the discussion. 

Trump was clear that nothing had yet been agreed, adding: “I think we’ll have something maybe even in terms of possibilities agreed to very shortly.” But he joked that Starmer was “working hard” to convince him not to tax imports from the UK.

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“I think we could very well end up with a real trade deal where the tariffs wouldn’t be necessary,” Trump said. 

Starmer has been toeing a fine line as he tries to keep both the US and the EU, the UK’s two largest trading partners, on side. Trump’s branding of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as a dictator last week caused tensions to rise, but Trump appeared to have forgotten the incident during Thursday’s conference. 

Starmer vowed to put “boots on the ground and planes in the air” as part of a peacekeeping deal in Ukraine, and is hoping that the US will act as a “backstop” to that deal. Trump is due to meet with Zelenskiy on Friday to discuss a critical minerals deal that would act as repayment for the US’s continued support to the war-torn country.

Starmer is hoping that the UK’s own negotiations will help ensure that cooperation on defense, while keeping the UK out of Trump’s protectionist sights. “We’ve decided today to go further to begin work on a new economic deal with advanced technology at its core,” the premier said. “We’ll also work together to deliver some bug economic wins that can benefit us both.”

(Updates with Starmer quote, in first sentence.)

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