Trump, UK Prime Minister meet after US, EU trade deal

President Trump is meeting UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer in Scotland today to talk about trade and other topics.

The leaders discussed Israel’s war with Hamas, as a starvation crisis in Gaza has drawn outrage. Trump said “you have a lot of starving people” in Gaza, later adding that the US will set up “food centers.”

Starmer said the British public is “revolted” by the scenes of starvation there. Separately, Trump said he would reduce his previous 50-day deadline for Russian President Vladimir Putin to come to a deal with Ukraine to “10 to 12 days.”

Over the weekend, Trump reached a deal on tariffs with the EU, after making a similar agreement with the UK in May. But how do the two deals compare?

At first glance, the headline tariff rates on goods suggest the UK has a better deal. The UK’s agreed rate with Washington is 10%, compared to the EU’s 15%. That difference could give UK-based companies an edge when competing with firms in the EU for US sales.

But the details in the agreements make a direct comparison difficult.

Take car exports, for example. Under the UK-US deal, cars shipped from the UK to the US will face a 10% tariff. That’s lower than the 15% rate EU manufacturers are expected to face when selling to the US.

However, the UK’s 10% rate only applies to the first 100,000 vehicles sold each year — which is about the current level of UK exports to the US.

Any cars sold beyond that number would be subject to the US’s standard 25% global tariff on imports, which is higher than the 15% rate that appears to apply to all EU car exports.

So far, the full text of the EU-US agreement hasn’t been made public.

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