UK-US trade deal will save jobs, says JLR

A major car manufacturer has welcomed a trade deal struck between the UK and US, saying it will help protect jobs.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer revealed a new agreement will see tariffs on most UK car exports cut to 10%, after US President Donald Trump had previously raised them to 27.5%.

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), based in Coventry and with sites in Solihull and Wolverhampton, paused exports to the US in response - although restarted them last week.

JLR's chief executive officer Adrian Mardell, said: "We warmly welcome this deal which secures greater certainty for our sector and the communities it supports."

He added the car industry sustained 250,000 jobs and was "vital to the UK's economic prosperity".

The reduced levy will apply to 100,000 cars each year. Last year, 101,000 vehicles were exported to the US.

On a visit to JLR's Solihull site, Sir Keir described it as a historic deal.

"We are the first country to secure such a deal with the United States," he said. "In an era of global insecurity and instability, that is so important."

Steve Rigby, chief executive officer of the Rigby Group, a technology investment company based in the West Midlands, has also welcomed the news.

Mr Rigby recently prepared a report on the longer-term impact of the higher tariffs, which revealed they would pose a "structural risk to the regional and national economy".

"This deal moves us out of the red zone," he said, in response to the latest announcement. "It comes just in time for the West Midlands economy and the UK's car industry.

"This just takes some pressure out of the system at a time when we need to let our manufacturers transition to electric vehicles."

As well as JLR, the West Midlands is home to car manufacturers that include Morgan in Malvern, Bentley in Crewe, and Aston Martin in the village of Gaydon in Warwickshire.

Prof David Bailey, an economist and expert on the automotive industry at Birmingham Business School, said cars were the UK's number one export to the US, and had previously warned the West Midlands would be the region worst hit by the tariffs.

"The US is JLR's number one export market," he said. "Trump's tariff on car imports was a big blow for it and other auto exporters like Aston Martin and Morgan.

"This [deal] is potentially huge for JLR, UK auto and the West Midlands."

The UK government also announced it had struck a deal for "reciprocal market access on beef", which will see UK farmers given a quota for 13,000 metric tonnes of beef to be exported to the US, with the US granted the same.

Hours before the announcement, the question of food standards had been raised in parliament.

Mark Pritchard, Conservative MP for The Wrekin, Shropshire, had asked about the potential impact of a deal on food standards, expressing concern about "chlorinated chicken, hormone-fed beef and, of course, antibiotics in pig farming".

The government later confirmed there would be "no weakening of UK food standards on imports".

The tariff on cars was one of a number announced by Trump in February, affecting goods imported to the US from most countries across the world.

The 25% levy imposed on UK steel and aluminium imported by the US has been scrapped, while a tariff on US ethanol entering the UK has also been removed.

However, Trump's so-called "baseline tariff" of 10%, applied to all imported goods globally, remains in place for the UK.