Ministers work overtime to seek exemption from US 'liberation day' tariffs

Ministers and senior officials at every level of government are holding talks with US counterparts this weekend in a last-ditch effort to secure a carve-out from swingeing import taxes.

- Eleni Courea Richard Partington

Government sources said ministers were raising Donald Trump's tariffs as the "No 1" issue in every conversation with the US.

Trump announced on Wednesday that he would introduce a 25% tariff on car imports to the US on 3 April, which would hit British carmakers such as Bentley and Aston Martin.

The UK government is seeking an exemption to the car tariffs and the wider package of measures that Trump is drawing up for next week as part of a US-UK "economic prosperity deal".

Officials told the Guardian this week they were confident that there was an appetite for a deal on the US side, but less confident that an agreement could be reached before further levies come in on Wednesday 2 April, which Trump has branded "liberation day".

Britain is one of four countries, alongside Australia, Japan and South Korea, that are engaged in intensive negotiations to secure exemptions before the deadline, according to a government source.

Jonathan Reynolds, the business and trade secretary, told a Chatham House event on Thursday that ministers were "continuing an incredibly intensive set of negotiations and we'll know pretty soon what the outcome of that will be".

But he conceded that a deal might not be done by 2 April, saying: "Our view would have been we would not have wanted any tariffs applied to the UK whilst we're having this conversation, but we're pretty close to what the US calls 'world tariffs day' next week," he said.