صفقة ستارمر التجارية الأمريكية "تغطي ربع صادرات المملكة المتحدة فقط" حيث ترك قطاع الأدوية الضخم في طي النسيان
كما سيتم تخفيض الرسوم على صادرات الصلب من 25 في المائة إلى الصفر ، مقابل تنازلات مثل خفض التعريفات الجمركية على السيارات الأمريكية وحصول المزارعين على مزيد من الوصول إلى الأسواق البريطانية. في جولة من المقابلات هذا الصباح ، أصر وزير الخزانة دارين جونز على أن 150.000 عامل سيشعرون "بالارتياح" لأن وظائفهم لم تعد في خطر.
ومع ذلك ، لا يزال الاتفاق يترك التعريفات الجمركية أعلى مما كان عليه قبل أن يبدأ السيد ترامب حربه التجارية غير العادية.
يشير تحليل أجرته سكاي نيوز إلى أنه من بين 273 مليار جنيه إسترليني من الصادرات إلى الولايات على مدى السنوات الخمس الماضية ، بالكاد سيتأثر ربعها بالاتفاقية - بينما يواجه الباقي رسوما "أساسية" بنسبة 10 في المائة.
يفترض ذلك أيضا أن قطاع الأدوية الحيوي ، الذي يمثل 25.2 مليار جنيه إسترليني من الإجمالي خلال هذه الفترة ، يؤمن إعفاء من الموجة التالية من التعريفات الجمركية للسيد ترامب - والتي تبدو بعيدة كل البعد عن اليقين.
ولم يتضمن الاتفاق أي بند لصناعة السينما البريطانية بعد أن هدد الرئيس بفرض رسوم بنسبة 100 في المئة على الأفلام الأجنبية.
ولا يبدو أن الولايات المتحدة قد تخلت عن الدفع لمساعدة عمالقة التكنولوجيا من خلال تخفيف ضريبة الخدمات الرقمية.
قال السيد جونز لبي بي سي حول عدم وجود شروط بشأن الأدوية والأفلام: "لا شيء هو خبر سار ... هذه التعريفات لم تتقدم.
في تطورات أخرى اليوم:
- أعلنت الشركة الأم للخطوط الجوية البريطانية أنها ستشتري 32 طائرة بوينج جديدة من الولايات المتحدة ، في خطوة أشار إليها وزير التجارة الأمريكي الليلة الماضية.
- أصر محافظ بنك إنجلترا أندرو بيلي على أنه يجب على المملكة المتحدة الآن "إعادة بناء" العلاقات التجارية مع الاتحاد الأوروبي ، وسط تحذيرات حزب المحافظين بشأن "إعادة ضبط" خروج بريطانيا من الاتحاد الأوروبي.
- نفى الوزراء أن يكون السيد ترامب قد تم تسليمه "حق النقض" على الاستثمار الصيني في المملكة المتحدة.
The deal was the first struck by the US since Mr Trump's so-called 'Liberation Day' tariffs stunned the world.
Ministers had feared that leading car makers were preparing to cut thousands of jobs unless the tariffs were reduced.
Sources said Jaguar Land Rover had been poised to announce 'hundreds' of job losses as early as next week.
Challenged that the UK was in a worse place than before Mr Trump imposed sweeping tariffs, the Mr Jones told Times Radio: 'The counterfactual is the world that we live in, not the world that we would like it to be. In relation to the world that we live in, this is a really good deal for Britain.
'We are the first country in the world to be able to negotiate an agreement with the President of the United States to move away from those increased tariffs on global trade.
'And that's something to be celebrated for the UK economy and for workers that work in those sectors.'
Mr Jones told the BBC: 'If I could rather be in a world where there were no tariffs, of course I would. But that's just not the world that exists. So it's not really an option on the table. The option on the table is to have not signed a trade deal with the United States and had higher tariffs, or to have signed a trade deal with the United States and had lower tariffs.
'We've signed that trade deal. We've got lower tariffs in critical manufacturing sectors in the UK. 150,000 people's livelihoods that we've protected as a consequence of that trade deal. That is, by definition, factually better off as a consequence of the action that this Government is taking to stand up for working people across the UK.'
Mr Trump said the speed of the deal with the UK was only possible because of Britain's status outside the EU.
And he hinted that rival car manufacturers in EU countries such as Germany are very unlikely to get a similar deal.
Boris Johnson last night hailed the importance of Brexit in sealing the deal – and highlighted the irony that Sir Keir was 'reaping the dividends of that policy, which he, of course, singularly failed to support at the time'.
Ministers failed to make any progress on reducing the 10 per cent 'baseline' tariff on all exports to the US.
Britain also seemingly agreed to prevent cheap Chinese steel and pharmaceuticals being routed through the UK to America as a 'security of supply' measure.
The White House said that, compared to the position before Liberation Day, overall US tariffs on British goods had still risen from 3.4 per cent to 10 per cent, while Sir Keir had agreed to cut tariffs on US goods from 5.1 per cent to 1.8.
Kemi Badenoch said Britain had been 'shafted' by the deal. ''We cut our tariffs – America tripled theirs,' she said.
Other Tories criticised the agreement for not going far enough.
Shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'There's some good elements to yesterday's deal – I think car industry and steel industry will welcome at least the reduction. But overall, it's quite disappointing.
'It's still very unclear what happens to pharmaceuticals, a really big UK industry, there's nothing on film and TV, and yet (at) the start of the week, the Government was talking about 100 per cent tariffs on that.
'It's not a trade agreement in the classic sense.'
Mr Griffith said the deal did not offer any mutual recognition between the US and UK and urged the Government to get back round the table with its counterparts to negotiate 'a comprehensive agreement'.
But the PM said: 'The question we should be asking is, is it a better position than we were in yesterday?'
He claimed the breakthrough vindicated his emollient approach to Mr Trump, adding: 'My government has put Britain at the front of the queue because we want to work constructively with allies.'
Government sources acknowledged the deal falls short of a hoped-for agreement on lifting all US tariffs, but said ministers decided to press ahead with a partial deal now to prevent redundancies in the car industry.
Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds said the 'significance of the US market' to high-end exporters such as JLR, Aston Martin and Bentley meant the UK was facing the 'imminent announcement' of job losses if the 25 per cent tariff had remained.