Bloomberg Surveillance · Monday, July 20, 2026
The special relationship between the US and the UK is currently strained due to the US being in violation of their trade deal. Specifically, US tariffs on UK goods, which were agreed to be a low 10% reciprocal rate, are now in violation because other nations also have this rate, negating the preferential treatment. This issue is set to become more prominent as tariffs expire this week.
“It's hard to sense right now. One thing that I think about a lot is the fact that we're currently in violation of our trade deal with the UK. I think this is underappreciated, but os tariffs are set to expire this week and the President has to migrate into new rates. One of the things that we agreed to with the UK because of our special relationship was a very low ten percent reciprocal tariff rate. But now, of course every other nation on earth also has a ten percent terifrate, which means we are in violation of our own trade deal that we reached with the UK to give them preferential treatment. They don't have that right now. They're staying calm about it for the last one hundred and fifty days. But Friday we're going to have a different landscape on the trade.”