Max Colchester
Appearances
WSJ What’s News
U.S., U.K. to Unveil Trade-Deal Framework
This isn't going to be a comprehensive trade deal that covers a lot of sectors. It's likely to be focused on a few key areas, notably the steel tariffs that Trump imposed on the UK and automobile tariffs that the two countries imposed on each other. And there will also be potentially a tweak to the amount of tax the UK levies on big US tech companies here.
WSJ What’s News
U.S., U.K. to Unveil Trade-Deal Framework
The UK and the US are very close transatlantic partners. Trade between the two countries is broadly balanced. So there wasn't a huge trade deficit as there is, for example, between the US and the EU or China. So this is always going to be one of the easier trade negotiations to undertake. And actually, most of the trade between the US and the UK is in services, not in goods.
WSJ What’s News
U.S., U.K. to Unveil Trade-Deal Framework
So it's important, but it's also quite symbolic. And it shows the Trump administration is serious when it says it does want to try to ease some of the trade restrictions it imposed earlier this year. But I think what it shows is that the tariffs are here to stay, that the US will maintain a basic tax on imports into its country. And that isn't up for negotiation at this stage.
WSJ What’s News
U.S., U.K. to Unveil Trade-Deal Framework
The idea that Trump's moves are sort of the death knell for globalization might be slightly overstated. So we've seen, for instance, the U.K. just this week sign quite a comprehensive trade deal with India. So now you've seen the fifth and sixth largest economies in the world signing a deal to ease trade. So it seems like Trump's efforts have actually kind of spurred
WSJ What’s News
U.S., U.K. to Unveil Trade-Deal Framework
countries to get more serious about lowering trade barriers, if anything, to offset the tariff effect of the U.S. That was Journal correspondent Max Colchester.