The US is optimistic it can negotiate a “great” trade deal with the UK, JD Vance has said.
Donald Trump imposed sweeping tariffs on imports to the US several weeks ago, sending the global economy into turmoil as stock prices tumbled and fears of a global recession mounted.
Since then, Trump has rowed back on many tariffs, reducing the rate paid on imports from most countries to 10% and exempting electronics such as smartphones and laptops from the levies, including the 145% charge on imports from China.
Britain was spared the most punitive treatment in Trump’s initial tariff announcement, due to the two sides enjoying a largely balanced trade relationship. But British imports in the U.S. still incur a 10% charge while its steel and car sectors incur a rate of 25%.
Officials from both countries have been locked in talks for weeks that initially focused on boosting cooperation on artificial intelligence and tech but could also expand to include food and other goods.
The UK government hopes it can strike a deal that would exempt the UK from Trump’s tariffs.
In an interview on Tuesday with the website UnHerd, Vance, Trump’s vice-president, said he was optimistic both sides could come to a mutually beneficial agreement.
“We’re certainly working very hard with Keir Starmer’s government” on a trade deal, he said. “The president really loves the United Kingdom. He loved the queen. He admires and loves the king. It is a very important relationship. And he’s a businessman and has a number of important business relationships in [Britain]. But I think it’s much deeper than that.
“There’s a real cultural affinity. And, of course, fundamentally, America is an Anglo country. I think there’s a good chance that, yes, we’ll come to a great agreement that’s in the best interest of both countries.”
The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, will aim to continue negotiations for an economic deal with the US later this month when she travels to Washington to attend the International Monetary Fund’s spring meetings with other finance ministers.
Vance said the “reciprocal relationship” between the US and UK gave Britain a more advantageous position than other European countries when it came to negotiating new trade arrangements.
“While we love the Germans, they are heavily dependent on exporting to the United States but are pretty tough on a lot of American businesses that would like to export into Germany,” he said.
He added that he wanted to see European leaders strengthen their immigration and defence policies. “European populations keep on crying out for more sensible economic and migration policies, and the leaders of Europe keep on going through these elections, and keep on offering the European peoples the opposite of what they seem to have voted for.”
He said it was “not in Europe’s interest, and it’s not in America’s interest, for Europe to be a permanent security vassal of the United States,” noting that a strong Europe was “good for the United States” to challenge and rein in its foreign policy mistakes, such as the Suez crisis and the Iraq war.
He added: “I love Europe. I love European people. I’ve said repeatedly that I think that you can’t separate American culture from European culture. We’re very much a product of philosophies, theologies, and of course the migration patterns that came out of Europe that launched the United States of America.”
