Chancellor will press US treasury secretary for trade deal at IMF meetings in Washington

Rachel Reeves will fly to Washington next week to meet her American counterpart for the first time as the government looks to intensify negotiations over a US trade deal.

- Rowena Mason Kiran Stacey

The chancellor will be in the US from Tuesday to Friday for the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). At the heart of her visit, though, will be crunch talks with Scott Bessent, the US Treasury secretary, whom British officials regard as one of their most likely allies in negotiating a deal.

With Donald Trump now talking about coming to the UK for a state visit in September, officials are hopeful they can agree tariff reductions in the coming months or even weeks.

One senior government source said Reeves would "make the argument for a trade relationship that is deeper and more open than the one on the table at the moment".

Reeves said this week that "active negotiations" were continuing. She added: "Any deal that's able to be secured will always have front-and-centre British national interest."

Ministers have put a trade deal at the top of their list of priorities for US-UK relations, with the Office for Budget Responsibility warning that a global trade war could wipe 1% off GDP in 2026-27.

Officials are pessimistic about their chances of persuading Trump to give them an exemption from his 10% global tariff, but they hope to be able to agree reductions to the 25% rates being promised on items such as cars and steel.