Trump announces trade deal with UK, Rollins heads there

President Trump and United Kingdom officials today announced a trade deal as Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins prepares to travel to the U.K. on Sunday. During the White House announcement, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer spoke by telephone from London, emphasizing the importance of manufactured products and services.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said that markets have been opened for ethanol and beef. But there are many uncertainties about the deal. “The final details are being written in the coming weeks,” Trump said at the announcement. After a BBC reporter noted that the U.K. has objected to the standards under which U.S. beef and chicken are produced, Trump said that “Bobby” Kennedy, a reference to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., “is headed toward your system of no chemicals.”

Trump added that the United States is “a very big country, we have a lot of beef.”

Rollins, who was in the Oval Office, then said, “This is going to exponentially increase our beef exports.”

“The reductions in tariffs will be important to crops, she said, but negotiators will be looking “at all our ag products.” No other sector has been treated as unfairly in trade as agriculture, Rollins added. Major U.S. farm groups have defended conventionally produced U.S. chicken and beef as safe and are likely to be surprised at Trump’s statement about moving toward no chemicals. Trump also added that the United States has “the best tractors.”

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association said it has has spent years advocating for expanded trade with the U.K. When the U.K. left the European Union in 2020, that opened the door to secure trade agreements with countries like the United States. British and American cattle producers share similar values and British consumers also enjoy American beef, said NCBA in a news release.

“With this trade deal, President Trump has delivered a tremendous win for American family farmers and ranchers,” said NCBA President Buck Wehrbein, a Nebraska cattleman. “For years, American cattle producers have seen the United Kingdom as an ideal partner for trade. Between our countries’ shared history, culture, and their desire for high-quality American beef, securing a trade agreement is a natural step forward. Thank you President Trump for fighting for American cattle producers.”

On Truth Social, Trump said that the deal would be “full and comprehensive” but the British media reported that the U.K. is unwilling to reduce food production standards. For decades the United States and the U.K. have been in conflict over two main U.S. practices: the feeding of hormones to cattle and the washing of chickens in chlorine. In April, The Independent, a British newspaper, reported that Trump said the U.K. must import chlorine-washed chicken and hormone-fed beef as part of a deal. But British publications this week have reported that U.K. negotiators won’t agree to either one. British consumer and farm leaders have said that the need to wash chickens in chlorinated water is an indication the chickens have been raised and slaughtered under unclean conditions.

But Sharon Bomer Lauritsen, a former U.S. trade official who is now a consultant, told The Hagstrom Report that less than 5 percent of U.S poultry is washed in a chlorinated solution. Other products are used to make sure the chickens are clean, she said.

Tom Bradshaw, president of the British National Farmers’ Union of England and Wales, said, “In any trade deal with the U.S., ministers must uphold their commitments and ensure that food that would be illegal to produce here from a food safety, animal welfare or environmental perspective is not granted access to our market.”

“But it’s equally vital to understand that whilst protecting U.K. food safety standards is essential, that can’t be top cover for a deal which gives U.S. agriculture the access to UK markets it has sought for decades without giving UK farmers and growers reciprocal access back,” Bradshaw said.

“A deal in which we open our markets to U.S. produce in return for nothing more than the reduction or removal of tariffs which didn’t exist eight weeks ago would be an unimaginable failure and is not a deal in anything but name.”

Rollins told congressional committees this week that she would travel to the UK on Sunday. Rollins has said she will “sell the bounty of American agriculture and to ensure the prosperity of our hard-working agricultural producers. Everything is on the table to get more markets for our products.”

As secretary, Rollins has authority to promote U.S. agricultural exports but she does not have authority to negotiate provisions of trade agreements. That is the job of Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and his staff. 

–The Hagstrom Report