US President Donald Trump released details of a pending trade deal with the UK from the White House today (8 May) which has only slightly softened the blow of tariffs.
The BBC reported that the US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik, standing next to Trump in the Oval Office, stipulated that Rolls-Royce engines will be exempt from the baseline 10% tariff that remains in force on imports from Britain.
Other notable exemptions include British aluminium and steel, which will also prove significant to the two allies’ defence cooperation, as the prospective deal puts to rest fears of a 25% universal tariff on both metals in March.
According to the White House, this bilateral trade deal, which has yet to be signed at the time of publishing, “maximises the competitiveness and secures the supply chain of US aerospace manufacturers through preferential access to high-quality UK aerospace components.”
Rolls-Royce powers numerous US defence platforms, particularly in the aerospace sector: the C-130J, MQ-25 Stingray, B-52 bombers, the Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA), the V-22 Osprey, and even US Navy Zumwalt-class destroyers.
No doubt the exemption will allay concerns voiced by Rolls-Royce’s chief executive, Tufan Erginbilgic, last week ahead of an annual general meeting in which the CEO had begun to consider unspecified “mitigating actions” to navigate the “uncertainty”.
Neverthless, protectionism has still seeped into global diplomacy and the phenomenon threatens the alliances and partnerships between nations in a fragmented security climate.
“Although a trade war may not directly affect military capabilities, particularly in the near term, the fact that the United States and its allies are having bitter economic confrontations helps both Russia and China,” asserted Mark Cancian, senior fellow at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, speaking in March.
The UK-US trade deal will see UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer strike a balance between US interests on the one hand, and Europe on the other. European countries are beginning to cultivate their strategic autonomy in the face of US repudiation and to fill the gaps left by their erstwhile ally after 80-years of American defence security.
This reality will doubtless enter the discussion as the UK now looks to settle a new security relationship with Europe, whose defence companies are looking to cut America out of their defence market.
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