Published May 9, 2025
Thursday’s U.K.-U.S. trade deal may give hope to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney that his nation could score a similarly rapid pact. He should think again.
President Trump’s deal with Great Britain likely came so quickly because so little was truly at stake. The U.S. had an $11.9 billion trade surplus in goods with Britain in 2024. Add in the trade in services, and the U.S. surplus grew to $78 billion.
That meant the main impetus for the deal was Britain’s desire not to see the deficit widen even further as tariffs priced British goods out of the American market.
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Henry Olsen, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, studies and provides commentary on American politics. His work focuses on how America’s political order is being upended by populist challenges, from the left and the right. He also studies populism’s impact in other democracies in the developed world.
