Keir Starmer landed an important diplomatic victory when Donald Trump finally confirmed the implementation of the UK/US trade deal.
After “shaking hands” on the deal in a virtual meeting broadcast to the world last month, there had been concerns that Sir Keir still had not got the deal with the US in place.
Mr Trump confirmed the deal was “done” at a brief press conference at the G7 summit in Canada after the two met.
The president said: “The UK is very well protected. You know why? Because I like them. The Prime Minister has done a really good job. He has done what other people have been talking about for six years and he has done it.”
He joked that Starmer was “slightly more liberal than I” but again confirmed their warm regard for each other.
The president actually dropped the document but it was swiftly picked up again by the prime minister.
But the lack of a deal had been particularly problematic for British Steel with Trump imposing 50 per cent tariffs on the rest of the world. While the UK was temporarily kept at 25 per cent the clocking was ticking with the higher tariffs coming in on Wednesday.
Once implemented the deal will reduce those tariffs down to 10 per cent or possibly remove them altogether. Additionally car exporters such as Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) have been stuck with 25 per cent tariffs on vehicles into the US market which are also supposed to fall to 10 per cent.
But after a number of weeks of worrying delay, President Trump was ready to sign the proclamation putting the deal into force.
Last month Mr Trump described it as “a big and beautiful deal” and Sir Keir has been boasting about the UK being the first to get a post tariffs deal with the president.
The issue of global free trade and tariffs is also due to be discussed formally at the G7 on Tuesday in a full session with President Trump looking to be on the other side of the other six members as well as Ursula von der Leyen from the EU.
However, Trump is also expected to be on the other side in debates on Russia and the Middle East as well.
On the flight over to the summit in Canada, Sir Keir had raised hopes that he could get the deal finalised.
He said: “We’ve shaken on the deal and we’re at the implementing stage now, which doesn’t actually require another shake of the hand, although I am sure there will be many shakes of the hand. I mean, we have reached the agreement and are now implementing it and that is going on.
Asked if it was “job done”, he added: “Well, we are at the final stages. We had to do various things, they had to do various things, but I am very confident we’re implementing it.”
The UK government will now put down a written statement in Parliament to put the deal into force.
The agreement leaves the UK as the only country to have finalised a trade deal to deal with the “liberation day” tariffs imposed by Trump totalling at least 10 per cent around the world.
