𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

There are concerns that the new reciprocal market access on beef could lead to a decline in food standards. However, the UK government insisted that there will be “no weakening of UK food standards on imports”, amid concerns a deal could pave the way for the import of hormone-treated beef from the US.

Donald Trump also played down concerns that it could open up UK markets to chlorine washed chicken, saying the UK will “take what they want” when it comes to US beef and chicken imports, rather than being forced to accept lower standards.

US agriculture secretary Brooke Rollins added: “Specific to the beef, this is going to exponentially increase our beef exports. And to be very clear, American beef is the safest, the best quality, and the crown jewel of American agriculture for the world.”

Alongside this, there were also concerns that the US was trying to win concessions on Britain’s digital services tax, paid by overseas search engines and social media sites on revenues from the UK. But today’s deal saw the tax left unchanged.

A change to the tax would have been a boost to major American firms such as Amazon, Facebook owner Meta and Google owner Alphabet.

Instead the two nations have agreed to work on a digital trade deal that will strip back paperwork for British firms trying to export to the US – something the government said would open the UK up to a “huge market that will put rocket boosters on the UK economy”.

The deal, which the UK government has said will save “thousands of jobs”, will see car export tariffs slashed from 27.5 per cent to 10 per cent, for a quota of 100,000 UK cars. This, the government said, is almost the total the UK exported last year.

Mr Trump’s 25 per cent tariffs on steel will be axed entirely, while a levy on ethanol – which is used to produce beer – coming into the UK from the US has been removed entirely.

In addition to this, the two governments have negotiated new reciprocal market access on beef, giving UK farmers a tariff free quota of 13,000 metric tonnes of meat.

Downing Street has also said that the US has agreed to give the UK “preferential treatment” in any further tariffs imposed as part of Section 232 investigations – a process where the US government determines if certain imports threaten US national security.

Donald Trump’s top trade adviser has suggested British consumers would like US-produced chlorinated chicken and hormone-fed beef if it were made available in UK supermarkets.

Peter Navarro said concerns over food hygiene standards were a “phony tool that’s used to suppress what is very fine American agricultural product”.

He added: “We don’t believe that once they taste American beef and chicken that they would prefer not to have it.”