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UK-US Trade Deal
The UK has sealed a deal securing a 0 per cent tariff rate for all UK medicines exported to the US for at least 3 years, officials said Monday, in return for the UK spending more on new medicines. Under the deal, announced by officials on both sides, the United States government agreed to exempt UK-origin pharmaceuticals, pharmaceutical ingredients, and medical technology from import taxes. The Trump administration said that in return, UK drugs firms committed to invest more in the US and create more jobs. As part of the deal, the UK government said it will invest around 25 per cent more in new and effective treatments the first major increase in such spending in over two decades. Both sides hailed the deal as a win. This vital deal will ensure UK patients get the cutting-edge medicines they need sooner, and our world-leading UK firms keep developing the treatments that can change lives, Science and Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said. US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
After the pomp, it's time for the politics. President Donald Trump will meet Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday, the final day of the US leader's state visit to Britain, with tech investment, steel tariffs and potentially tricky topics on the agenda. The president and first lady Melania Trump were feted by King Charles III and Queen Camilla on Wednesday at Windsor Castle with all the pageantry the monarchy can muster: gold-trimmed carriages, scarlet-clad soldiers, artillery salutes and a glittering banquet in a grand ceremonial hall. British officials have festooned the trip with the kind of superlatives Trump revels in: It's an unprecedented second state visit for the US leader, featuring the biggest military honour guard ever assembled for such an occasion. On Thursday it is Starmer's turn to welcome the president to Chequers, a 16th-century manor house northwest of London that serves as a rural retreat for British leaders. Trump's British hosts want to celebrate the streng
US President Donald Trump arrives in the United Kingdom on Tuesday for a state visit during which the British government hopes a multibillion-dollar technology deal will show the transatlantic bond remains strong despite differences over Ukraine, the Middle East and the future of the Western alliance. State visits in Britain blend 21st-century diplomacy with royal pageantry. Trump's two-day trip comes complete with horse-drawn carriages, military honour guards and a glittering banquet inside a 1,000-year-old castle all tailored to a president with a fondness for gilded splendour. King Charles III will host Trump at Windsor Castle before the president holds talks with Prime Minister Keir Starmer at Chequers, the British leader's rural retreat. Starmer's office said the visit will demonstrate that the UK-US relationship is the strongest in the world, built on 250 years of history after that awkward rupture in 1776 and bound by shared values of belief in the rule of law and open ..
Windsor Castle staff are setting the 50-metre-long mahogany table. Grooms are buffing the hooves of the horses that will pull the royal carriages. And the military honour guard is drilling to ensure every step lands with precision. Throughout the halls and grounds of the almost 1,000-year-old castle west of London, hundreds of people are working to make sure King Charles III puts on the best show possible when he welcomes US President Donald Trump for his historic second state visit this week. The visit, featuring glittering tiaras, brass bands and a sumptuous banquet served on 200-year-old silver, is a display of the pomp and ceremony that Britain does like no one else. But it's a spectacle with a purpose: to bolster ties with one of the world's most powerful men at a time when his America First policies are roiling longstanding trade and security relationships. We're buttering up to him, said Robert Lacey, a royal historian and consultant on the Netflix series The Crown." He ...
Britain and Mauritius are finalising a deal to transfer sovereignty over the Chagos Islands, a disputed UK territory that is home to a major US military base, the UK government said Tuesday. The government signalled that President Donald Trump's administration, which was consulted on the deal, has given its approval and no further action is needed from the US. We are working with the Mauritian government to finalise and sign the treaty, said Tom Wells, a spokesman for Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Once signed it will be laid before both houses of Parliament for scrutiny and for ratification. Britain and Mauritius have been negotiating a deal for the UK to hand over the Indian Ocean archipelago, which is home to a strategically important naval and bomber base on the largest of the islands, Diego Garcia. The UK would then lease back the base for at least 99 years. But the deal has faced criticism from the opposition Conservative Party and from some allies of Trump. Last year the ...