Sir Keir Starmer’s ambassador in Washington has said he is “looking forward” to negotiating with the US to “bring down further tariffs”.
Lord Peter Mandelson told the BBC that Thursday’s deal represents a “platform for going further and opening up more trade opportunities”, as the Prime Minister declined to rule out the possibility of changes to tech taxes in a future trade deal.
On Friday, Donald Trump’s press secretary insisted that the president will stand firm on the blanket 10% tariff on most UK imports into the US, telling reporters that he is “committed” to the levy.
The deal announced on Thursday cut taxes on car imports of 100,000 a year from 27.5% to 10%, and also reduced tariffs on steel and aluminium through quotas. The baseline 10% rate for other goods remains in place but officials are still trying to negotiate on it.
Lord Mandelson told Newsnight: “I’m very pleased with what we’ve achieved. It’s taken many months of very tough negotiation, and it’s also a platform going further and opening up more trade opportunities.”
He added: “We’re going to negotiate further and bring down further tariffs and remove further barriers to trade between us, that’s what we’re committed to, and I’m looking forward to doing that.”
Karoline Leavitt told a White House press briefing that the US president is “committed to the 10% baseline tariff” imposed in April “not just for the United Kingdom, but for his trade negotiations with all other countries as well”.
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds told reporters on Thursday that the UK’s conversations with the US about “those wider tariff lines and the 10% reciprocal tariff” were continuing.
It comes as Sir Keir Starmer did not rule out the possibility of changes to the digital services tax as part of any future trade agreement and said that discussions on other aspects are “ongoing”.
It imposes a 2% levy on the revenues of several major US tech firms. Previous speculation suggested that the UK could revise the measure as part of a deal.
Speaking to broadcasters on board HMS St Albans during a visit to Norway, Sir Keir said: “The deal that we signed off yesterday doesn’t cover that.
“That’s predominantly focused on steel and aluminium, and reducing those tariffs on car manufacturing and reducing the tariffs there, and then future-proofing for pharmaceuticals, three really important sectors, and that, as I say, will be measured in thousands and thousands of jobs that will be protected, saved and will thrive as a result of this.
“On digital services, there are ongoing discussions, obviously, on other aspects of the deal, but the important thing to focus on yesterday is the sectors that are now protected that the day before yesterday were very exposed.”
Lord Mandelson said that digital services were brought up during the negotiations for this week’s agreement, and told the BBC that “what they suggested wasn’t acceptable to us, so it’s not in the deal”.
The deal on Thursday is the first struck by the US since the new tariffs were unveiled last month, and comes after weeks of transatlantic talks.
Sir Keir told the Independent that he has “struck up a good relationship” with the president.
“I am the sort of person that tries to have constructive and positive relations with people,” he said.
Kemi Badenoch has said she is “concerned” about the prospects of the UK going on to strike a full free trade agreement in the wake of Thursday’s agreement.
Speaking to reporters during a visit in Essex on Friday, the Conservative leader was asked whether she thought Thursday’s deal was a success.
“It’s not a huge success at all,” she said. “It’s not even a trade deal, it’s a tariff deal, and we are in a worse position now than we were six weeks ago.
“It’s better than where we were last week, so it’s better than nothing, but it’s not much.
“One of the things that concerns me is that we will probably now not get a comprehensive free trade agreement.”
