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British Prime Minister Rachel Reeves held its first formal consultation with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bescent on Friday, with both finance ministers agreeing that there will be a “landing zone” for the bilateral trade agreement.
Reeves, along with the British administration and seafood products, has opened the door to reducing tariffs on imports of US-made cars, and is trying to persuade the Trump administration to cut the collection of UK exports.
Bescent is seen as a relatively disruptive figure on tariffs within the priority government, but there is a perception that trade decisions will ultimately be made in an oval office. The US imposes a 10% baseline tariff on UK exports and a 25% collection on automobiles and steel.
British officials said Reeves, who had not seen Bescent before her trip to Washington this week, had a “good argument” with her US counterpart.
One person who was described about the lecture said, “We both feel that there is a landing zone due to the trade contract, but we are not there yet. The discussion is getting more intense, so it’s positive. The discussion continues.”
In a read released Friday evening, the Treasury said Bescent had “recognized the need for “fair and mutual trade progress” between the US and the UK.
Reeves in Washington has been praised by some of the global financial elite for its commitment to free trade and supply-side reform for the World Bank and IMF’s spring meeting.
“We’re committed to providing a great opportunity to help you,” said Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of IMF.
However, there are opinions that Reeves is less popular at home, and her disastrous approval ratings have declined even further in recent weeks.
This month, Yougov reported that only 14% of those surveyed had a positive view of the Prime Minister, while 62% had a negative view. A score of -48 still represents Reeves’ lowest rating.
Reeves has been trying to build a relationship with the Trump administration this week by showing that some of the concerns about the global trading system have been well established.
At an event at the British Embassy in Washington on Thursday evening, Reeves argued that the US was right to worry about excessive trade imbalances.
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“The challenges that Donald Trump’s administration spoke about the global trade imbalance are very realistic and we should address them,” she said at Lord Peter Mandelson, an event hosted by the U.S. Ambassador of the UK.
Reeves added that these trade imbalances are not always associated with “transparent policies.”
However, she stressed at a meeting in Washington that the UK continued to believe in multilateral dialogue and institutions rather than tariffs, and emphasized the undesirable trade war.
