LONDON — U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will visit London on Nov. 24 as the U.K. seeks to secure more concessions in its trade talks with Washington, according to three people familiar with the plans. London continues to push for a favorable position on a narrow list of tariff lines — with President Donald Trump’s duties on pharmaceuticals and Scotch whisky among Britain’s top priorities. In a bid to stave off Trump’s 100 percent tariff threats on pharmaceutical imports, the U.K. has proposed increasing the amount the NHS pays for its drugs, as POLITICO first reported in early October. Ministers agreed last week to a two-week extension to the deadline by which pharma firms must tell the government if they intend to leave the NHS’s voluntary drug pricing scheme, signaling that a breakthrough in talks is imminent. Greer’s visit comes just two days before Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ budget, and British officials are eager to finalize the pharma deal ahead of that announcement, said two of the people cited higher. They were granted anonymity to speak freely on a sensitive matter. If Washington accepts the proposal — effectively committing the NHS to higher drug spending — Reeves will face pressure to spell out how much the increase will cost taxpayers. A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We will always prioritise the needs of NHS patients. Investment in patient access to innovative medicines is critical to our NHS.” “We are now in advanced discussions with the US Administration to secure the best outcome for the UK, reflecting our strong relationship and the opportunities from close partnership with our pharmaceutical industry,” the spokesperson added. TRUMP’S ASKS Washington, meanwhile, is pushing for more. The U.S. administration wants Britain to grant additional concessions benefiting American farming and manufacturing, including a relaxation of product standards.  U.S. officials told The Times earlier this month that the talks risk “going off the rails,” voicing frustration over the pace of progress and delays in receiving documents from their U.K. counterparts. The U.K. has proposed increasing the amount the NHS pays for its drugs. | Leon Neal/Getty Images Negotiators will hold technical-level talks in Washington in mid-November before Greer’s visit. His office did not respond to a request for comment. Meanwhile the European Union has invited U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to Brussels on Nov. 24 — the same date Greer is in London — for talks with the bloc’s trade ministers. The Danish presidency of the Council of the EU, as well as the European Commission, invited the commerce secretary to attend a lunch with ministers dedicated to trade relations between the United States and the EU. It comes as the U.K. is seeking to form an alliance with the European Union and the U.S. to curb China’s dominance of the global steel market. Doug Palmer contributed to this report.

LONDON — Keir Starmer thought he had an enduring trade pact with the U.S. to lower tariffs. Donald Trump appears to have other ideas. A flurry of new tariff announcements on pharma, trucks and movies have left British officials scrambling to keep up — and exposed holes in the trade deal Starmer and Trump struck in May. “I think it was a better deal for you than us, but these are minor details,” Trump told Starmer during a press conference amid the pomp of his second State Visit earlier this month, which saw the U.K. roll out a grand carriage procession with King Charles III, 1,300 troops, 120 horses and a fighter jet flyover. Under the terms of the May deal, the U.S. lowered tariffs on British car exports to 10 percent, but the U.K. has failed to negotiate a long-promised zero-tariff rate for steel and aluminum. And now, other threats are emerging. LATEST PILL PRESSURE  Trump has threatened to slap a 100 percent tariff on pharmaceutical imports unless firms have begun construction on U.S. plants. While the EU insists it has capped its pharma tariff exposure at 15 percent, the U.K. position is less clear cut. The May trade pact, trumpeted by ministers at this week’s Labour Party conference, left the door open to “preferential treatment” on tariffs — but only if Westminster improves conditions for American pharma in the U.K. That means one of Trump’s long-running gripes is back in play: the National Health Service’s price watchdog, NICE. Under the first Trump administration, U.S. firms criticized the regulator’s cost-effectiveness tests, which often force pharma companies to slash prices before patients can access new drugs. Trump has decried what he called the unfair treatment of American patients — who pay more for drugs than those abroad — writing a letter to major pharmaceutical companies, demanding price cuts in line with “most favored nation” rates.  Britain’s pharma heavyweights have been quick to show they’re willing to honor Trump’s reshoring requests. GSK is already building an $800 million facility in Pennsylvania, while AstraZeneca unveiled a $50 billion U.S. investment plan stretching to 2030.  Since they are either “breaking ground” or have manufacturing facilities already “under construction” — terms Trump explicitly defined when clarifying who would qualify for exemptions — these British pharmaceutical giants seem to be exempt under these terms. “It looks like some of the bigger companies [in Britain] might be okay, subject to where they are with their building,” said former government trade adviser Allie Renison. Those firms may seek solace from the White House’s confirmation on Wednesday that it is pausing its plan to enact the tariffs, as it attempts to negotiate agreements with major firms to avoid higher duties on their name-brand products — like the deal it announced with Pfizer Tuesday. But the Trump administration is expected to negotiate hard — and there is still lingering uncertainty over rules of origin terms for the industry. The impact of Trump’s tariff threats on British pharmaceutical giants like AstraZeneca and GSK “needs to be seen in the much wider picture of U.S. demands given conditionality on agreeing tariffs and exemption for firms building U.S. sites,” said Mark Dayan, Brexit program lead at the Nuffield Trust. “For the U.K., this is bound up in the requirements in the Economic Prosperity Deal,” he said. Not only does this tie pharmaceutical tariffs to essentially paying more for medicines — the trade deal also states exemptions are contingent on Britain’s compliance with supply chain security requirements. The industry runs on a sprawling global supply chain, with active ingredients, packaging and distribution separated across multiple countries. Trying to figure out where an active pharmaceutical ingredient comes from is challenging.  London is currently locked in talks with the U.S. government over NHS drug pricing. Science Minister Patrick Vallance has hinted the health service will need to pay more if Britain wants to stay attractive for investment.  “There is a question of how much money the NHS can put into this, how much goes on price,” he said, warning tariffs could make things worse if London doesn’t make “offers in this direction.” Speaking at the POLITICO pub on the sidelines of the Labour Party conference, New Trade Secretary Peter Kyle labeled pharma companies “hard negotiators, [who] know how to use the media and the press to do it.” ”We are tough negotiators too, and we are in the process of negotiating lots of different arrangements and agreements and investments in pharma,” he added. Starmer’s chief business adviser Varun Chandra flew to Washington this week, to try to head off tariffs — potentially in exchange for higher NHS spending on drugs ahead of the Wednesday deadline.  But the issue is politically sensitive for Starmer’s government.  “This is more sensitive than hormone-treated beef frankly,” Renison said, referring to the U.S.’s long-standing efforts to fo. “I think the government probably needs to be careful about being seen to connect the dots between U.S. pressures in this space and saying there’s a rationale for increasing the amount the NHS has to pay for it.” TRUCKING ALONG Trump’s spree of recent Truth Social posts also included threats to impose 25 percent tariffs on U.S. imports of heavy trucks. When it comes to the new tariff policy “there’s quite a lot of unknowns with this,” said a U.K. auto industry representative, pointing to the fact that “it’s just a post on Truth Social” at the moment without an executive order from the White House or initiation of an investigation by the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office. Britain’s auto industry also only exports a small amount of Heavy Goods Vehicles to the U.S., but “we’re not quite clear on how they’re defining a heavy truck,” they said. “Businesses need as much certainty as possible on tariffs,” said William Bain, head of trade policy at the British Chambers of Commerce, citing research by the industry body showing 60 percent of U.K. goods exporters are concerned about their customers paying higher prices. Bain and the BCC plan to “urge” the U.K. government “to continue dialogue on tariff reduction with the U.S. administration in the interests of both U.K. businesses and their U.S. consumers.” SITTING COMFORTABLY?  On Monday the White House issued a presidential notice saying that in mid-October, it will slap 25 percent tariffs on the value of imported kitchen cabinets, vanities and upholstered furniture and 10 percent duties on softwood lumber. This is one British sector, however, which is sheltered by the May deal. The administration said that U.K. tariffs will be leveled at 10 percent, in addition to the original “most-favored nation” rates, per the terms of the deal. THE BIG HITTER The president has also decided to revive an earlier bugbear, vowing to impose yet another 100 percent flat tariff on “any and all movies that are made outside of the United States.  “Our movie making business has been stolen from the United States of America, by other countries, just like stealing ‘candy from a baby,’” he wrote on Truth Social earlier this week.  Paul Fleming, general secretary of Equity, the British union for performers in film, television and radio, said Trump’s threats have already complicated talks with U.S. studios.   “We saw some delays in investment when President Trump last raised this threat, but there is a pipeline of work in the U.K. which will benefit both Hollywood and U.K. studios,” he said. While he dismissed the latest threat as “erratic,” Fleming warned it was creating “an unhelpful level of uncertainty” during contract negotiations.

LONDON — Keir Starmer has scored some wins in his relationship with Donald Trump. Now he is desperately trying to hold onto them. The U.S. president arrives at the prime minister’s official country residence Chequers on Thursday for the working portion of his two-day U.K. visit after being showered with the showiest splendor Britain has to offer on the full first day of his state visit, as soldiers in bearskin hats and a marching band welcomed him and First Lady Melania Trump to Windsor Castle. All the might of the royal household was focused on making this trip the biggest and best: An unprecedented second audience with the monarch accompanied by the largest guard of honor ever seen for such an occasion. Starmer will up the ante by giving Trump his own bespoke ministerial “red box” as a gift — usually reserved for U.K. ministers, it sends a clear signal about where the power lies. But the Labour leader, who is beset by his own domestic woes, will watch the ceremonial choreography even more nervously than normal as Downing Street desperately tries to shore up the goodwill it has built with the White House.  One former senior U.S. government official — granted anonymity like others in this piece to speak candidly — said the rapport between the two men “should not be overplayed” but “there is a very highly functioning working relationship between them, and that’s pretty good right now because you don’t want the opposite.” Starmer now just has to try to make sure all his efforts up to this point deliver on their early promise. HIGH-STAKES CHESS This week’s state visit is not a standalone occasion but part of a “steady drumbeat” of overtures from London to Washington, as one British diplomat put it. With their very different temperaments and political instincts, Starmer’s team has been aware from the beginning that he and Trump would not be the easiest of bedfellows. They have thrown themselves at the task of smoothing relations, including by extending the invitation for a second state visit.  In return, the British government has banked some apparent successes, including a deal for lower tariffs on some U.K. exports and Trump’s description of Starmer as a “good man.” While state visits are always the subject of a painstaking planning operation, this one has been given even more care and attention, as No. 10 is keenly aware of what it has to lose. A former aide to No.10 said: “We made big early wins in our relationship with the White House — and they were real wins — but we have to press that home now.” Catherine, Princess of Wales and William, Prince of Wales receive US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump at Windsor Castle on September 17, 2025 in Windsor, England. | POOL photo by Aaron Chown/Getty Images Preparations began as soon as Trump accepted the invitation for the state visit in February, led by Buckingham Palace and military officials on the ceremonial side, with the civil service and government coordinating the policy side. Peter Ricketts, a former ambassador and U.K. national security adviser, said: “Because the Trump presidency is hyper personalized — the view of the president at any particular time is so important — there is a lot of benefit in exposing him to the most high-impact, the most powerful expression of Britain that we can do.” “SLEEPLESS NIGHTS” Careful coordination is all the more important this time round, not only because of the president’s propensity to go off script but because his visit coincides with a particularly nightmarish stretch for the British PM. Starmer is currently trying to shrug off losing his deputy prime minister, his ambassador to the U.S. and another top aide in the space of a fortnight. His personal ratings are at an all-time low. Paul Harrison, who as communications director for Theresa May helped coordinate the first Trump state visit, said that this trip, whenever it fell, would have caused “sleepless nights” inside No. 10 because the U.S. president is “uniquely unpredictable.” But he observed that Starmer and Trump’s joint press conference on Thursday would be a moment of “maximum danger” which would only be heightened because “Trump likes winners, and it is possible that the relationship will come under some pressure as a result of recent events.” A second British diplomat said people in Trump’s team were “unimpressed” by the scandal surrounding the abrupt departure of Britain’s ambassador to Washington over his support for convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, viewing it as unnecessary noise which could detract from the state visit. A No. 10 official insisted ahead of the visit that Mandelson’s sacking would have no impact on the event, which would see “an unbreakable friendship reach new heights.” COULD HE PULL IT OFF? Despite the winds of fortune not blowing in the prime minister’s direction lately, Trump’s descent on the U.K. could yet prove a boost to the prime minister. The initial impressions of Trump’s traveling retinue suggested that the royal treatment was having the desired effect. One White House official commented: “It’s top of the line class and elegance — everything the Trumps love.” The president may also be less attuned to Starmer’s political ills due to the extent to which Americans’ attention is currently consumed by the killing of Charlie Kirk and the question of how the Trump administration will respond.  He might not care to resurface his own connections to the billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein by wading into the Mandelson row either. U.S. President Donald walks toward reporters while departing the White House on September 11, 2025 in Washington, DC. | Win McNamee/Getty Images Even Nigel Farage, the leader of the insurgent right-wing party Reform UK, who usually delights in inflicting as much political pain on Starmer as possible, has been keeping a relatively low profile during the state visit.  A Reform official shrugged off the suggestion he was lying low, pointing out that Farage had his own audience with Trump less than 10 days ago when he visited the U.S. There is still plenty of time for things to go wrong, and Starmer will just have to hope that his luck is about to change. Andrew McDonald, Annabelle Dickson and Emilio Casalicchio contributed reporting.

U.S. President Donald Trump has said he wants to “help” Britain get a better trade deal, as he prepares to fly to the U.K. for his second state visit. “Basically, I’m there also on trade,” the president told reporters outside the White House on Tuesday ahead of his flight to London. “They want to see if they can refine the trade deal a little bit. We’ve made a deal, and it’s a great deal. “I’m into helping them. Our country is doing very well … They’d like to see if they could get a little bit better deal, so we’ll talk to them.” Trump’s words will be music to the ears of trade negotiators who hope to use the state visit to charm the president into dropping 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum, in line with the deal agreed earlier in May. Negotiators are also pressing the U.S. for preferential treatment on future pharmaceutical tariffs, contingent on the outcome of a U.S. investigation. In addition, the Scottish government has been lobbying hard for reductions to duties on Scotch whisky, which is subject to the blanket 10 percent “reciprocal” tariff applied to most U.K. goods. But Trump, a vocal admirer of the royal family, made clear that his priority was to meet the king and queen. “Primarily it’s to do with Prince Charles and Camilla,” he said. “They’re friends of mine for a long time … It’s an honor to have him as King. I think he represents the country so well … He’s such an elegant gentleman.”

SALTEND, England — Jordan Spamer and Stacey Monkman live five minutes from the Vivergo Fuels bioethanol plant in Saltend, an estuary town on Yorkshire’s Humber river. For the past four years, they’ve worked in the firm’s logistics team — tucked away, as they put it, in “a little cabin” on site, “just getting really excited about trucks.” Normally, the team sees up to 140 lorries a day moving wheat and fuel in and out of the site. But last Friday, the final wheat delivery came and went. Vivergo’s plant is now at risk of closure due to the U.K.-U.S. trade deal, which allows 1.4 billion liters of tariff-free American ethanol into the British market. It’s a volume Vivergo’s managing director Ben Hackett says is equivalent to the entire U.K. bioethanol market. Unless ministers intervene, 160 staff at Vivergo — one of only two major bioethanol producers in the U.K. — will lose their jobs from Aug. 18. Thousands more in farming and haulage will also feel the impact. The general sentiment towards government at Vivergo has been described by its people director Kirsty Hussey as  “disappointment, in the sense that [the industry] was overlooked, it wasn’t understood.” Workers who’d been offered “good salaries” and “the opportunities to learn and grow” are now “concerned about their ability to feed their families,” said Hussey.  RED WALL CRACKS The Saltend chemical park is a 10-minute drive from Hull, a once Labour stronghold undergoing political upheaval. The area has seen rising support for Reform UK, with Luke Campbell, an Olympic boxing gold medalist, sweeping into office as mayor with nearly 50,000 votes in May. His face is now on a mural at his city-center gym, established in 2021, and a gold-painted postbox and phone kiosk celebrates his 2012 victory.  Unless ministers intervene, 160 staff at Vivergo will lose their jobs from Aug. 18. | Caroline Hug/POLITICO Campbell said that rather than advocating for a bailout, he “would change the clause in Labour’s U.S.-U.K. trade deal, which allows cheap bioethanol fuel to flood into Britain.” The Vivergo site “doesn’t need government subsidy; it’s a profitable business that supports thousands of jobs in the region,” he added.  He described what is happening in Hull as “a political revolution, as people reject the decline of the last 30 years caused by establishment politicians.”  MULTIPLE INDUSTRIES HIT Britain’s bioethanol industry is tied to multiple other industries in the region. It buys wheat from more than 12,000 British farmers, which is carried by lorries, and used to produce fuel for vehicles and high-protein animal feed.  “This place can take a million tonnes of U.K. wheat each year,” said Jamie Burrows, National Farmers’ Union Crops Board Chair and a farmer in Norfolk. “If you take that demand away, [wheat would] probably be between 15 and 20 pounds a tonne less,” he added. Farmers in the region — still furious about Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ changes to inheritance tax and national insurance — would be forced to export more, facing weaker prices on the European market.  Haulage firms are also affected. Mike Green, who runs Aghaul Limited in North Lincolnshire, said business is already slowing.  “This facility would take grain all year round,” he said. “The plant can process about 1.1 million tonnes a year, and we get heavily involved in that movement, so the impact of that closure is going to be quite widespread. I’m going to have to start potentially looking to diversify the business, there might be possible redundancies.”  Vivergo’s closure would be the latest in a line of potential industry shutdowns within driving distance of the plant. Forty-five minutes away just on the other side of the river, Lindsey Oil Refinery near Immingham has halted production, threatening 420 jobs. Roughly an hour in the other direction, British Steel in Scunthorpe narrowly avoided collapse in April after emergency government intervention.  “This is a fantastic facility supporting a huge portion of U.K. agriculture,” said Green. “There’s a lot of downbeat people. I [have] a tear in my eye that it’s another part of the job that’s going and could go forever.” Mike Green owner of Aghawl Agriculteral Haualge Contractors who will no longer be working for Vivergo. | | Les Gibbon/Hull News Green said he didn’t vote in the most recent elections and describes the area in the region as having a “distrust in politics at the moment, particularly with the Labour government.”  WHAT COMES NEXT?  Vivergo Managing Director Ben Hackett said the company is still in discussions with the government, which has appointed Teneo as a strategic adviser on the case. The firm has requested temporary financial support to offset the impact of the U.S. trade deal and an improved regulatory framework that supports the domestic bioethanol industry.  Hackett describes the situation as “at a T-Junction.” “You go one way, and it’s redundancies, it’s decline, it’s stagnation,” he said. “You go the other way and it’s growth, it’s investment, it’s jobs, it’s prosperity.”  A British government spokesperson said: “We recognise this is a concerning time for workers and their families which is why we entered into negotiations with the company on potential financial support last month.” They added: “We will continue to take proactive steps to address the long-standing challenges the company faces and remain committed to working closely with them throughout this period to present a plan for a way forward that protects supply chains, jobs and livelihoods.” ‘I WATCHED IT GET BUILT’ The company was also expecting a £1.25 billion investment from Meld Energy, to supply feedstock for a new sustainable aviation fuel plant at Saltend, which is now on hold until the government makes the decision.  Dean Brown, who supervises plant operations at Vivergo, has worked there for 15 years, having joined when he was 25 years old as a technician.  “Before coming to Vivergo, I watched it get built,” he said. “I actually pestered the production manager for a good year as they were building the plant, to let me know when this job’s coming up.  I want to be part of this, I want to be part of the greener energy and bioethanol future.” L to R: Jon Kerridge (in charge of maintenance), Ben Hackett (Managing Director) and Paul Rhoades (IT manager) Vivergo Fuels, Saltend Chemicals Park, Hull. | Les Gibbon/Hull News He described the job as “life changing” for him and his family, including his two teenage daughters. He pointed to his computer screen, showing a picture of his daughters catching a giant fish in a Thai river. He said that would have never happened without the job.  Production manager Nick Smalley commutes an hour and a half to work every day “because he loves it so much.”  “I’m a father, I’m a son, a husband, I have a family that depend on me,” he said. “For me to think about losing my job, it’s really hard to swallow.”   Smalley said the government made an “off the cuff decision” with the U.S. — speaking personally, he finds it “hard to trust politicians, given recent events.”  “But we have to trust people and hope they understand our plight, and the benefit we bring to the U.K. economy,” he said. “We’re here to fight to the bitter end — everybody here will do whatever it takes to make this business successful.”