UK hit by US tariffs on goods

The United States now applies tariffs to most goods the UK ships across the Atlantic, after President Donald Trump imposed a 10% baseline duty in April 2025. (whitehouse.gov) (commonslibrary.parliament.uk) That 10% tariff took effect on April 5, 2025, and it landed on top of existing US duties, fees and taxes on imports from the UK. (business.gov.uk) (gov.uk) The UK was also hit by sector tariffs: 25% on steel and aluminium from March 12, 2025, and 25% on cars from April 3, 2025. (gov.uk) (commonslibrary.parliament.uk) Tariffs are taxes paid by the importing business in the country that charges them, not by the foreign exporter at the border. In practice, that can raise US prices, squeeze supplier margins, or both. (commonslibrary.parliament.uk) The immediate effect showed up in the trade data. The Office for National Statistics said UK goods exports to the United States fell by £2.0 billion in April 2025. (ons.gov.uk) London chose not to retaliate right away. On April 3, 2025, Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds opened a consultation on possible UK countermeasures and asked businesses for evidence by May 1. (gov.uk 1) (gov.uk 2) A partial reprieve came on May 8, 2025, when Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Trump announced a US-UK Economic Prosperity Deal. The UK government said US tariffs on British cars would be cut from 27.5% to 10%, while steel and aluminium tariffs would fall to zero. (gov.uk) (whitehouse.gov) The White House said the lower car tariff would apply to the first 100,000 UK vehicles each year, roughly the number Britain exported to the US in 2024. (whitehouse.gov) But the relief was not clean or immediate. In June 2025, the White House said UK steel and aluminium would stay at 25% pending implementation of the deal, with possible quota changes from July 9. (whitehouse.gov) A later UK government update said the United States had signed an executive order to return tariffs on UK aerospace goods to normal most-favoured-nation rates, and said those changes were expected by the end of that month. (gov.uk) The broad picture has not changed: most UK goods still face the 10% US tariff, while sector carve-outs depend on the terms and timing of the bilateral deal. (commonslibrary.parliament.uk) (business.gov.uk)