UK exports to U.S. drop 25%

Britain’s trade problem with the U.S. is no longer a one-month wobble. The new data says the drop that hit right after Donald Trump’s April 2, 2025 “Liberation Day” tariffs has stuck around. UK goods exports to the U.S., excluding precious metals, fell by £1.5 billion in April 2025 — a 24.7% hit — and they have stayed relatively low since. That matters because the U.S. is still Britain’s biggest goods export market, so this is not some niche statistical quirk. (ons.gov.uk) ### What actually fell? The cleanest measure here is UK goods exports to the U.S. excluding precious metals. The Office for National Statistics uses that cut because precious metals can swing wildly and distort the picture. On that basis, exports dropped by nearly a quarter right after the tariffs landed. The weakness then carried through the following months instead of snapping back. (ons.gov.uk) ### Why exclude precious metals? Because gold and similar flows can make trade data look dramatic for reasons that have nothing to do with the real economy. If you want to know whether factories, supply chains, and exporters are being hit, you strip that noise out. Turns out the underlying story is still bad even after doing that. (ons.gov.uk) ### Which products took the hit? Cars stand out. The ONS says UK car exports to the U.S. fell after the tariffs were introduced and stayed below pre-tariff levels throughout the 12 months since April 2025. That makes sense. Autos were not just caught in the general 10% tariff net — they were hit by a separate 25% tariff announced earlier, along with steel, aluminum, and car parts. (ons.gov.uk) ### Didn’t the UK get a deal? Yes — but the catch is that the deal was damage control, not a return to normal. The UK and U.S. announced the Economic Prosperity Deal on May 8, 2025. It reduced the U.S. tariff on the first 100,000 UK car export(ons.gov.uk)ly took effect on June 30, 2025. (ons.gov.uk) ### So why is Britain now in deficit? Because exports stayed weak while imports from the U.S. picked up. The ONS says goods imports from the United States, excluding precious metals, exceeded UK goods exports for three straight months from December 2025 through February 2026. In plain English — Britain is now buying more goods from America than it is selling back, which is a sharp reversal in the bilateral relationship. (ons.gov.uk) ### Is this just a UK story? Not really. It looks more like a case study in what tariffs do even when the political relationship is relatively friendly. Britain was the first country to strike a post–Liberation Day arrangement with Washington, (ons.gov.uk) clean wins than promised. (cnbc.com) ### Why does this matter now? Because the longer a trade shock lasts, the less it looks like a temporary disruption and the more it looks like a new map. Exporters adjust. Buyers switch suppliers. Logistics chains get rebuilt around the tariff wall. Once that happens, even a later tariff rollback does not automatically bring the old flows back. (ons.gov.uk) ### Bottom line This story is not just “UK exports fell.” It is that a close U.S. ally got a trade deal, got partial tariff relief, and still ended up with a lasting export slump and a goods deficit. Basically, the tariffs did what tariffs do — they changed behavior, not just headlines. (ons.gov.uk)