Donald Trump, who is due to arrive in Scotland on Friday for a five-day golf trip, is expected to meet Keir Starmer early next week as the UK prime minister pushes to finalise their deal on steel trade tariffs.
In May, the US agreed to lift tariffs on steel imports from the UK, which currently stand at 25%. However, there are concerns that the steel must be melted and poured in the UK, which could exclude Tata Steel UK as it closed its last blast furnace last year. It has been importing steel from its sister plants in India and the Netherlands, which it then processes in the UK.
Starmer is expected to argue for building closer trade ties with the US, including cutting tariffs on Scotch whisky, according to a report by the Financial Times.
The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, told reporters this week: “On Friday morning, President Trump will travel to Scotland for a working visit that will include a bilateral meeting with prime minister Starmer to refine the historic US-UK trade deal.”
The talks will come after Stamer sealed a trade deal with India on Thursday. The agreement, which is the biggest struck by Britain since Brexit, will cut back the cost of India’s tariffs for the UK and improve exports of products such as Scotch whisky and cars.
Starmer told Bloomberg News that his government had “re-established the place and position of the UK on the world stage. We’re seen as a country which other countries want to be working with and delivering with.”
There is some positive news for the retail sector this morning, with official figures showing that monthly sales in Great Britain rose in June by 0.9%. It follows a fall of 2.8% in May.
Last month's rise was helped by warm weather, with supermarkets reporting better trading and an increase in drink purchases, the Office for National Statistics said.
There were strong figures from NatWest this morning, which reported its first quarter as a fully privatised bank.
The lender has announced a £750m share buyback and raised its guidance for the year. Pre-tax profits of £1.8bn in its second quarter beat expectations, and the bank has told investors that it now expects income for the year to land above £16bn, compared with previous guidance of between £15.2bn and £15.bn.
NatWest announced its return to full private ownership at the end of May, ending more than a decade as the government sold the last of its shares in the bank after its bailout in 2008. Shares in NatWest have risen by roughly a quarter in the year to date, as banks have also broadly benefited from interest rates falling at a slower rate than expected.
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