UK trade with the United States

15th May 2025

President Trump formally announced a range of tariffs on imports of goods to the United States on 2 April 2025, with imports from the UK subject to a blanket 10% tariff and imports of steel and aluminium, and cars and car parts subject to a higher 25% tariff.

On 8 May 2025 the UK government announced the signing of a trade deal between the United States and the UK. The deal includes lowering the 27.5% tariff on UK car exports to the United States. The first 100,000 UK car exports to the United States now face a reduced tariff of 10% and tariffs on UK aluminium and steel exports were removed. All other commodities remain subject to the 10% blanket tariff on exports. There was also removal of tariffs on the first 1.4 billion litres of ethanol and 13,000 metric tonnes of beef imports from the United States.

Exports of goods to the United States, including precious metals, rose by £0.1 billion in March 2025 and increased by £2.4 billion in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2025. Imports of goods, including precious metals, decreased by £0.2 billion in March 2025, but rose by £1.3 billion in Quarter 1 2025. Goods exports to the United States increased for the fourth consecutive month and are at the highest level since Quarter 4 (Oct to Dec) 2022 (Figure 3).

As this release covers trade up to March 2025, there will be no direct impact of tariffs on this data. However, this pattern of increasing exports could be a sign of changing trader behaviour ahead of tariff introduction. We will continue to monitor UK trade with the United States in future releases.

Read the full ONS report HERE