Donald Trump has struck an agreement with the European Union that means the US will not impose the 30% tariffs – taxes – on EU imports that the US president had threatened.
However, the EU will still face a new 15% tariff on the goods it sells into America.
That is higher than the 10% tariffs the UK faces on goods exports to the US as part of an earlier agreement struck between London and Washington.
So how does the EU agreement compare with the UK’s – and are there potential economic benefits now arising for the UK?
Most analysts judge the UK’s agreement with the US will likely prove more advantageous to the UK than the EU’s agreement with the US will be for the EU, given the UK’s lower headline tariff rate.
However, they also stress that the detail of the final US-EU agreement, which has not yet been published, is key – and that there remains uncertainty about how the US will treat imports from the EU of steel and pharmaceuticals.
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