On Truth Social, the President writes that "it will be a great and exciting day for the USA and the United Kingdom" and refers to a press conference at 4 pm Swedish time. "It is a great honor to have the United Kingdom as our FIRST announcement", Trump writes.
Not unexpected
That the United Kingdom appears to be the first party to enter into an agreement with the USA is not unexpected, notes Swedbank's chief economist Mattias Persson, and notes that Trump and the USA have had a softer dialogue with the United Kingdom than, for example, the EU.
The EU, in turn, has raised the temperature by announcing that it plans to impose SEK 100 billion in retaliatory tariffs if it proceeds with the discussions. The United Kingdom has been very quiet so far, and I believe they have been closer to each other, he says.
When Trump announced the various import tariffs at a press conference on April 3, the United Kingdom also got off relatively lightly with a 10 percent surcharge, which can be compared to 20 percent for the EU.
No details
No exact details about the agreement have leaked out yet, but the New York Times reports that previous discussions have been held about reducing British tariffs on American vehicles and food products, as well as tax rates for American tech giants.
If it becomes concrete announcements or rather deals with a framework to be discussed later is difficult to speculate about, says Mattias Persson.
I'm not overly optimistic. What makes me uncertain is that Trump said two days ago that "we may not need any agreements, I'll just set a figure". I don't have very high expectations.
There will be differences
A potential agreement between the United Kingdom and the USA should not be seen as a benchmark for how agreements will be written with other countries, such as Sweden, assesses Mattias Persson.
In a recently presented economic report, Swedbank made the assessment that trade tariffs will range between 10 and 20 percent.
We believe there will be differences. It also appears that the USA will focus on that certain sectors are more important from a security policy aspect. The key issue is where China will end up, says Persson.
In connection with what Trump himself called "Liberation Day" on April 2, he introduced comprehensive trade tariffs against the rest of the world. Then Trump paused many of them for 90 days to give countries room to negotiate trade agreements with the USA.
Global tariffs of 10 percent remain, which also applies to the United Kingdom. The country is also affected by the 25 percent tariffs that Trump introduced on foreign steel, aluminum, and cars.
