He was optimistic that he was the Minister of Business and Trade of the United Kingdom Jonathan Reynolds on the prospects of an agreement with the US to reduce duties in British cars following his meeting with US Minister of Commerce Howard Lutin.
Asked if this week a duty reduction agreement in the British automaker could be made during a meeting with reporters on Thursday (12.6.2025), Reynolds replied: “I am very optimistic. It was a specific area of ​​discussion on Tuesday at this bilateral meeting. We are ready to move on from our side. “
Comments show that some progress has been made in the United Kingdom’s attempt to finalize the terms of a trade agreement with the US, which have threatened to impose punitive duties on imports from around the world. While the United Kingdom became the first to announce the outline of an agreement with the US, the details remained for future negotiations.
Earlier on Thursday, Lutnik said he was similarly optimistic that some parts of a trade agreement with the United Kingdom would become active “in the coming days”.
“We have agreed to implement our historic trade agreement as soon as possible, starting with agreed quotas for British cars and American beef and ethanol,” he wrote on the social networking site X.
The temporary agreement initially compiled between President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Kir Starmer included a duty reduction of 27.5% of the US in cars imported by the United Kingdom to 10% for the first 100,000 vehicles, causing the leading Raver Raver.
However, the promising abolition of duties in the United Kingdom steel, which currently amounts to 25%, is more difficult to negotiate. While the contribution is currently half of the 50% imposed by the United States on all other nations, UK manufacturers have already complained that their US orders have deprived and Trump has warned that it could increase the UK duties if no agreement is reached by the time.
The May agreement reached between the United Kingdom and the US said the Trump government should be satisfied around the ownership of the British steel sector. Currently, the Chinese body Jingye Group still holds one of the largest producers in the United Kingdom, British Steel, although the British government has undertaken the operational control of the troubled company earlier this year.
Reynolds said the United States raised the issue of posting the British Steel control by Jingye from the United Kingdom in a “strong and positive way”. He added that the obstacles to agree on a steel agreement “no longer concern who holds it – are the rules of melting and exhaustion”.
In the context of previous trade agreements, the US insisted that steel should melt and pour it into the United Kingdom. This requirement is becoming more and more difficult to fulfill because the British Steel is the only producer who still has a high -end, as Tata Steel UK closed her own last year. The Tata’s electric arc furnace will not be usable by the end of 2027.
These melting and exhaustion rules are still “part of the discussion we have with them,” Reynolds said, adding that he wants to ensure that the reduction in zero duties “is something that applies to every part of British steel.”