特朗普宣布与英国达成贸易协定，这是自关税以来的首份协议

【中美创新时报2024年5月9日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）特朗普总统周四宣布与英国达成一项新的贸易协定，他称这可能是美国政府与世界各国达成的众多协议中的第一份，因为美国政府正在努力减轻全球贸易战造成的损害。《华盛顿邮报》记者杰夫·斯坦娜塔莉·艾莉森迈克尔·伯恩鲍姆和阿卜哈·巴特拉伊对此作了下述报道。

特朗普与他的几位高级顾问以及新任英国驻华盛顿大使一起在椭圆形办公室对该协议表示赞赏，并表示该协议将降低美国出口商的贸易限制，同时使两国的经济更加紧密地协调一致。

美国商务部长霍华德·卢特尼克（Howard Lutnick）和其他政府官员表示，该协议将为美国出口创造50亿美元的经济机会，并表示英国已同意加大对美国乙醇、牛肉、飞机和其他产品的采购力度，同时降低关税和其他国内限制。特朗普表示，他对所有国家实施的10%最低关税将继续对英国有效，但某些英国出口产品（例如汽车）将免于提高关税。喷气发动机和飞机零部件的关税也将降低，两国还将同意降低钢铁和铝的关税，以应对中国廉价进口产品。

特朗普政府面临巨大压力，需要向投资者保证，投资者对美国贸易政策不确定性引发的股市波动感到不安。4月初，特朗普宣布在原有10%的统一关税基础上，对全球70多个国家加征关税，但随后他宣布暂停加征关税90天（中国除外），以便在关税生效前进行磋商。这一暂停令投资者松了一口气，市场也因有望达成降低进口关税的协议而受到提振。受与英国达成协议消息的影响，三大股指均上涨。

但专家表示，重大阻力依然存在。美国目前对其最大贸易伙伴之一中国征收超过145%的关税，而且迅速达成解决方案的前景似乎渺茫。美国财政部长斯科特·贝森特预计将于本周末前往瑞士与中国财政部长举行会谈。专家表示，全球贸易冲击带来的震荡仍在持续波及美国经济。

批评人士也对白宫试图在极短时间内谈判的这些“协议”的意义表示怀疑。农业部长布鲁克·罗林斯周四上午在福克斯商业频道称该协议“尚处于概念阶段”，并表示她将很快前往英国敲定进一步细节。

白宫分发了一份长达三页的情况说明书，其中涵盖了一些高层协议领域，但几乎没有提及这些协议在实际运作方面的具体细节。自由贸易协定的篇幅可能长达数千页，通常是技术专家们经过数月甚至数年的艰苦谈判才达成的，他们就汽车刹车灯的具体位置等问题展开了激烈的争论。

经济学家表示，该协议对美国经济影响不大，许多人继续预测今年晚些时候美国经济将陷入衰退。牛津经济研究院副首席经济学家迈克尔·皮尔斯表示，尽管降低与英国的汽车、钢铁和铝贸易关税可能为美国经济带来“有限的缓解”，但只要美国仍然维持10%的统一关税，这些措施就不太可能产生太大影响。

美国和英国之间的贸易总额每年不到1500亿美元。

皮尔斯在一封电子邮件中写道：“美国平均关税仍将保持在两位数，这将对美国实际收入造成重大打击，并导致下半年经济增长急剧放缓。因此，我们不打算根据这项协议或未来可能达成的协议改变我们的预测。”

尽管如此，这项协议对英国首相基尔·斯塔默来说仍是一个重大突破，尽管特朗普的新关税和向俄罗斯倾斜的行为激怒了欧洲盟友，但斯塔默仍试图与特朗普保持良好关系。

今年2月，斯塔默魅力十足地访问了白宫，并携带了一封签署的邀请函，邀请他觐见查理三世国王。在特朗普宣布脱欧后，斯塔默致电白宫，并多次对特朗普及其高级官员大加赞赏。英国领导人长期以来一直寻求加强与美国的经济联系，以弥补2020年脱欧造成的贸易损失。作为自由派工党领袖，斯塔默甚至不惜跨越政治界限，与特朗普建立伙伴关系。（特朗普称英国是美国“最老”的盟友，法国可能会对此表示反对。）

“你已经做到了你说过要做的事，”英国驻美国大使彼得·曼德尔森站在特朗普身旁说道。“你信守了诺言。”

特朗普还表示，他亲自介入了降低劳斯莱斯和宾利等英国汽车公司关税的谈判，他称这些汽车是“非常特别的汽车”。“我说，好吧，让我们在这方面帮助他们，”特朗普说。他表示，对更多美国人购买的汽车征收更高的关税。

最近几周，其他美国贸易伙伴难以与特朗普团队取得联系，并指出不同官员对关税目的持有不同观点。一位高级外交官指出，提出一个让贝森特满意的方案，对贸易顾问彼得·纳瓦罗来说可能根本行不通。另一位外交官表示，大约两周前，基调发生了变化，美国贸易代表杰米森·格里尔的团队在谈判中占据了更明显的主导地位，政府似乎也更加认真地致力于达成协议。

题图：2月，特朗普总统与英国首相基尔·斯塔默（特朗普左侧）在椭圆形办公室合影。Jabin Botsford/《华盛顿邮报》

Trump announces trade pact with Britain, in first deal since tariffs

By Jeff Stein, Natalie Allison, Michael Birnbaum and Abha Bhattarai The Washington Post,Updated May 8, 2025, 6:12 p.m.

President Trump with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer (left of Trump) in the Oval Office in February.Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post

President Trump on Thursday announced a new trade pact with Britain that he touted as likely to be just the first of many agreements with countries around the world, as the administration races to mitigate the damage from its global trade war.

Joined in the Oval Office by several of his top advisers and the new British ambassador to Washington, Trump praised the deal and said it would lower trade restrictions for US exporters while bringing the two countries into closer economic alignment.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and other administration officials said the deal would create $5 billion in economic opportunities for US exports, saying Britain had agreed to step up purchases of ethanol, beef, planes, and other products while lowering tariffs and other domestic restrictions. Trump said the 10 percent minimum tariff he applied to all countries would remain in effect on Britain, but that certain British exports — such as automobiles — would be spared higher tariffs on those products. Jet engines and plane parts will also be subject to reduced tariffs, and the countries will agree to lower tariffs on steel and aluminum as they work to parry cheap Chinese imports.

The announcement came as Trump officials face intense pressure to assure investors unnerved by fluctuations in the stock market, driven by uncertainty about US trade policy. In early April, Trump announced tariffs on more than 70 countries worldwide on top of the blanket 10 percent levies, but he then implemented a 90-day pause on the higher rates, except on China, to allow for negotiations before they went into effect. That pause provided some relief to investors, and markets have been buoyed by the prospect of deals to lower the import duties. All three stock indexes climbed on the news of the deal with Britain.

But experts say major headwinds remain. The U.S. currently has more than 145 percent tariffs on China, one of its biggest trading partners, and prospects for a quick resolution appear remote. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is expected to travel to Switzerland this weekend for talks with his Chinese counterparts, and experts have said the convulsions from the global trade shock are continuing to ripple through the economy.

Critics have also expressed skepticism of the significance of the “deals” the White House is attempting to negotiate in strikingly little time. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, on Fox Business on Thursday morning, referred to the deal as one “in concept” and said she would be traveling to Britain soon to hammer out further details.

The White House distributed a three-page fact sheet that included some high-level areas of agreement but few details of how the agreements would work in practice. Free trade agreements can run into the thousands of pages and are usually the product of months or even years of painstaking negotiations among technical experts who fight over regulations around issues such as the precise placement of the brake lights on cars.

Economists say the deal will make little difference to the US economy, with many continuing to forecast a recession later this year. Although lower auto, steel, and aluminum tariffs on trade with the United Kingdom may offer “limited relief” for Americans, those measures are unlikely to make much of a dent as long as the United States’ 10 percent blanket tariff remains in place, said Michael Pearce, deputy chief economist at Oxford Economics.

Total trade between the United States and Britain amounts to less than $150 billion per year.

“The average US tariff is still set to remain in double digits, which will deliver a big hit to real incomes in the US which will cause growth to slow sharply in the second half of the year,” Pearce wrote in an email. “As a result, we are not minded to change our forecasts based on this deal, or likely future deals.”

Still, the agreement marked a major breakthrough for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who has tried to stay on Trump’s good side even as the president has infuriated European allies with new tariffs and a tilt toward Russia.

Starmer visited the White House in February armed with charm and a signed invitation to a royal audience with King Charles III, and repeatedly lavished praise on Trump and his top officials in a call he made to the White House during Trump’s announcement. British leaders have long sought to bolster economic ties to the U.S. to make up for the trade losses of their 2020 departure from the European Union. Starmer, the leader of the liberal Labour Party, made the bet he could cross political lines to build a partnership with Trump. (Trump referred to Britain as the United States’ “oldest” ally, a claim France might object to.)

“You‘ve done what you said you would do,” Peter Mandelson, the British ambassador to the United States, said while standing beside Trump. “You have been true to your word.”

Trump also said he personally intervened in talks to lower tariffs on British automobile firms such as Rolls-Royce and Bentley, which he called “very special cars.” “I said yeah, let’s help them out with that one,” Trump said. He said tariffs should be higher on cars that a larger number of Americans purchase.

Other US trade partners have struggled to gain traction with Trump’s team in recent weeks, noting the disparate views about the purpose of the tariffs among different officials. Come up with an offer that would satisfy Bessent, one senior diplomat noted, and it was likely to be a nonstarter for trade adviser Peter Navarro, for instance. A different diplomat said the tone changed about two weeks ago, with the team of US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer taking a clearer lead in the talks and the administration seeming to become more serious about hammering out agreements.