On May 8 local time, the United Kingdom and the United States reached an agreement on the terms of a tariff trade agreement, focusing on tariff adjustments in manufacturing and raw materials, with aluminum products tariff arrangements becoming one of the key issues in bilateral negotiations. Under the agreement framework, the British government exchanged tariff reductions for UK priority industries by adjusting barriers in certain sectors, while the U.S. retained a 10% baseline tariff in core areas as a “structural threshold.”

A official statement released by the British government on the same day showed that the tariff adjustments significantly impacted the metal processing industry: the tariffs on UK exports of steel and aluminum products to the U.S. will be reduced from 25% to zero. This policy directly covers the main categories of aluminum products exported by the UK to the U.S., including unwrought aluminum, aluminum alloy profiles, and some machined aluminum components. Data shows that the UK exported approximately 180,000 tons of aluminum products to the U.S. in 2024, and the zero-tariff policy is expected to save UK aluminum processing enterprises about £80 million in tariff costs annually, significantly enhancing their price competitiveness in the North American market. Notably, while the U.S. eliminated tariffs on aluminum products, it required UK exported aluminum materials to meet “low-carbon production” traceability standards, namely that at least 75% of production energy must come from renewable sources. This additional condition aims to align with the U.S. domestic “green manufacturing” strategy.

In the automotive sector, the tariff on UK cars exported to the U.S. will be reduced from 27.5% to 10%, but the scope is limited to 100,000 vehicles per year (covering 98% of the UK’s total automotive exports to the U.S. in 2024). Both sides specifically emphasized that aluminum chassis components, body structural parts, and other aluminum-based components in tariff-reduced vehicles must account for no less than 15%, indirectly prompting the UK automotive manufacturing industry to increase the proportion of domestic aluminum use and strengthen UK-U.S. collaboration in the new energy vehicle industrial chain.

Analysts point out that the “zero tariff” on aluminum and the low-carbon traceability requirements not only reflect the U.S. recognition of the UK’s aluminum processing industry technology but also imply its strategic layout for the greening of the global aluminum supply chain. For the UK, the zero-tariff policy opens access to the U.S. market for its aluminum products, but it must accelerate the decarbonization transformation of its electrolytic aluminum production capacity—currently, about 60% of UK aluminum production still relies on natural gas. In the future, it will need to meet U.S. standards by introducing renewable energy power or carbon capture technologies. Industry insiders believe this may force the UK aluminum industry to accelerate its transformation and upgrading to achieve full industrial chain low-carbonization by 2030.