United Kingdom becomes the first country to ink trade deal with Trump

United States President Donald Trump is expected to announce that the country has reached a trade agreement with the United Kingdom, according to The New York Times. The deal is set to be confirmed during a press event inside the Oval, and would be the first confirmed agreement since Trump hit dozens of US trading partners with broad tariffs.While the president did not name any country in this Wednesday night post, the announcement confirms that Britain might be the first. “Big News Conference tomorrow morning at 10:00 A.M., The Oval Office, concerning a MAJOR TRADE DEAL WITH REPRESENTATIVES OF A BIG, AND HIGHLY RESPECTED, COUNTRY. THE FIRST OF MANY!!!,” Trump said on Truth Social.Trump reboots trade strategy with the United Kingdom at the frontPresently, no other country has landed a deal yet. Britain has now become the first, and the stakes are high. It remains unclear if the deal is completely finalized or if Thursday’s announcement is just the start of formal talks. Either way, this is the first public outcome of Trump’s economic pressure tactics. The UK has been on this for years. After Brexit, it lost easy access to European markets and needed new trade routes. A deal with the US became a top priority, but nothing came from the talks under Joe Biden.Things were moving well this year when Prime Minister Keir Starmer met Trump in February at the White House, bringing a formal invite from King Charles III for Trump to make another state visit to Britain. Trump’s interest isn’t new, as his team tried to negotiate with the UK in his first term, but never closed the deal. Since getting back in office, Trump’s trade officials have been chasing agreements with other countries like India, Israel, Japan, South Korea, and Vietnam.None of those have gone public yet. But on Tuesday, Trump made clear he isn’t in a rush. “We don’t have to sign deals,” he said. “We could sign 25 deals right now, Howard, if we wanted to. They have to sign deals with us.” He was talking to Howard Lutnick, the Commerce Secretary. This trade move is different from the long, full-scope agreements that go through Congress. Those take more than a year and cover nearly every industry. Trump’s approach leans toward smaller, quick-to-announce agreements.With the United Kingdom closing this new deal with the US, it also signed a trade pact with India on Tuesday. That agreement lowers tariffs between the two and gives British companies better access to India’s insurance and banking sectors. It followed nearly three years of talks. British officials are also still negotiating with the European Union, meaning the country is moving on multiple fronts to build stronger trade ties after Brexit left it exposed. But the deal with Trump might be the most high-profile one yet, not because of the details, but because of what it says politically.The post United Kingdom becomes the first country to ink trade deal with Trump first appeared on Coinfea.