US Vice President JD Vance has said he is optimistic about a US-UK trade deal and that the US is “working very hard” negotiating an agreement.
Speaking to the website UnHerd on Tuesday, the vice president said: “We’re certainly working very hard with Keir Starmer’s government.
“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.”
US President Donald Trump has made trade tariffs a key part of his administration’s economic policy. Last month, he imposed sweeping tariffs on imports from a range of countries, including 10% on the UK.
Since then, Trump has rowed back on tariffs, reducing the rate paid on imports from most countries to the same 10% the UK now pays. On Saturday, he went further and exempted electronics such as smartphones and laptops from the levy – including the 145% charge on imports from China.
This reprieve could be short-lived however as the Trump administration began the process of reinstating these tariffs as well as levies on pharmaceutical products late on Monday.
This follows comments by US Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick that both electrical products and pharmaceutical items would be moving to their own sector-specific tariffs in “probably a month or two.”
Speaking to US media, Lutnick emphasised that these were “not available for negotiation” as he added: “They are just going to be part of making sure we reshore the core national security items that need to be made in this country. We need to make medicine in this country. We need to make semiconductors.”
Asked about his plans for more tariffs on pharmaceuticals, President Trump said on Monday, “Yeah, we’re going to be doing that,” adding: “We’re doing it because we want to make our own drugs.”
The US is a major producer of semiconductors, but only in some areas. It relies heavily on imports from Taiwan and South Korea for certain kinds of advanced chips. In particular, Taiwan dominates advanced logic chip production at 92% of all fabrication capacity, according to the International Trade Administration, with South Korea making 8%.
The UK has been hopeful a trade deal would exempt or mitigate the country from these tariffs, improving the economic outlook in an already squeezed forecast.
Vance said the “reciprocal relationship” between the US and the UK gave Britain a more advantageous position than other European countries, adding: “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.”
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.
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