For Britain’s prime minister, Keir Starmer, the trade deal would offer vindication for his assiduous cultivation of Mr. Trump. During his visit to the Oval Office in February, Mr. Starmer turned up with an invitation from King Charles III for the president to make a rare second state visit to Britain.

The Trump administration appears to be nearing deals with India and Israel, and is continuing to negotiate with South Korea, Japan, Vietnam and other nations. Still, Mr. Trump once again displayed his unpredictable approach to economic policy on Tuesday when he downplayed the prospect of trade deals, saying other countries needed such agreements more than the United States.

“Everyone says ‘When, when, when are you going to sign deals?’” Mr. Trump said, at one point motioning toward Howard Lutnick, his commerce secretary. “We don’t have to sign deals. We could sign 25 deals right now, Howard, if we wanted to. We don’t have to sign deals. They have to sign deals with us.”

Trade experts have said that Mr. Trump may be intending to announce far more limited deals than traditional trade agreements, which cover most trade between countries and require congressional approval. Historically, free-trade agreements have taken the United States more than a year to negotiate.

In his first term, Mr. Trump renegotiated several U.S. trade agreements, including a free-trade agreement with South Korea and NAFTA. But he also signed a series of more limited “mini-deals” with countries in which they reduced tariffs on a few kinds of goods or agreed to talk about a few sectors.

British officials have also been negotiating with the European Union, and on Tuesday agreed to a trade deal with India. The India deal would lower tariffs between the countries and secure more access for British firms to India’s insurance and banking sectors, among other changes. The announcement followed nearly three years of negotiations.

Mark Landler contributed reporting.

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Trump, speaking to reporters on Air Force One on his way to the NFL Super Bowl in New Orleans, said he will announce the new metals tariffs on Monday.

He also said he will announce reciprocal tariffs on Tuesday or Wednesday, to take effect almost immediately, applying them to all countries and matching the tariff rates levied by each country.

President Donald Trump speaks to the press after signing a proclamation renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America aboard Air Force One as it flies over the Gulf en route to New Orleans, Louisiana, on Feb. 9, 2025. AFP via Getty Images

“And very simply, it’s, if they charge us, we charge them,” Trump said of the reciprocal tariff plan.

The largest sources of US steel imports are Canada, Brazil and Mexico, followed by South Korea and Vietnam, according to government and American Iron and Steel Institute data.

By a large margin, hydropower-rich Canada is the largest supplier of primary aluminum metal to the US, accounting for 79% of total imports in the first 11 months of 2024.

“Canadian steel and aluminum support key industries in the US from defence, shipbuilding and auto,” Canadian Innovation Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne posted on X.

“We will continue to stand up for Canada, our workers, and our industries.”

Trump also said that while the US government would allow Japan’s Nippon Steel to invest in US Steel it would not allow this to become a majority stake.

“Tariffs are going to make it very successful again, and I think it has good management,” Trump said of US Steel.

The ArcelorMittal Dofasco steel plant is seen on Feb. 4, 2025, in Hamilton, Canada. Getty Images

Nippon Steel declined to comment on the latest announcements from Trump.

QUOTA QUESTIONS

Trump during his first term imposed tariffs of 25% on steel and 10% on aluminum, but later granted several trading partners duty-free exemptions, including Canada, Mexico and Brazil. Mexico is a major supplier of aluminum scrap and aluminum alloy.

Former President Joe Biden later negotiated duty-free quota arrangements with Britain, the European Union and Japan. It was not immediately clear from Trump’s announcement what will happen to those exemptions and quota arrangements.

“Quebec exports 2.9 million tons of aluminum to (the US), that is, 60% of their needs. Do they prefer to get supplies from China?” Francois Legault, premier of Quebec, said on X.

“All this shows that we must begin to renegotiate our free trade agreement with the United States as soon as possible and not wait for the review planned for 2026. We must put an end to this uncertainty.”

Steel mill capacity usage jumped to levels above 80% in 2019 after Trump’s initial tariffs, but has fallen since then as China’s global dominance of the sector has pushed down steel prices. A Missouri aluminum smelter revived by the tariffs was idled last year by Magnitude 7 Metals.

MATCHING RATES

Trump said he would hold a news conference on Tuesday or Wednesday to provide detailed information on the reciprocal tariff plan, adding that he first revealed on Friday that he was planning reciprocal tariffs to ensure “that we’re treated evenly with other countries.”

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba told US President Joe Biden that “strong” concerns have been raised over his decision to block Nippon Steel’s takeover of US Steel, local media reported on Jan. 13, 2025. AFP via Getty Images

The new US president has long complained about the EU’s 10% tariffs on auto imports being much higher than the US car rate of 2.5%. He frequently states that Europe “won’t take our cars” but ships millions west across the Atlantic every year.

The US, however, enjoys a 25% tariff on pickup trucks, a vital source of profits for Detroit automakers General Motors, Ford,and Stellantis’ US operations.

The US trade-weighted average tariff rate is about 2.2%, according to World Trade Organization data, compared to 12% for India, 6.7% for Brazil, 5.1% for Vietnam and 2.7% for European Union countries.

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BORDER STEPS

In a separate Fox News interview, Trump said Canada’s and Mexico’s actions to secure their US borders and halt the flow of drugs and migrants are insufficient ahead of a March 1 tariff deadline.

Trump has threatened to impose tariffs of 25% on all Mexican and Canadian imports unless America’s two largest trading partners take stronger actions.

He paused the tariffs until March 1 after some initial border security concessions from the two countries, with Mexico pledging to add 10,000 National Guard troops to its border and Canada deploying new technology and personnel and taking new anti-fentanyl steps.

Asked whether Mexico’s and Canada’s actions were good enough, Trump replied: “No, it’s not good enough,” Trump said. “Something has to happen, it’s not sustainable, and I’m changing it.”

Trump did not say what Canada and Mexico needed to do to avoid broad tariffs on March 1.

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The two companies said they had signed a memorandum of understanding on Monday and that smaller Nissan alliance member Mitsubishi Motors also had agreed to join the talks on integrating their businesses.

“We anticipate that if this integration comes to fruition, we will be able to deliver even greater value to a wider customer base,” Nissan’s CEO Makoto Uchida said in a statement.

Makoto Uchida, Director, Representative Executive Officer, President and CEO of Nissan Motor Corporation, and Toshihiro Mibe, Director, President, and Representative Executive Officer of Honda, hold a joint press conference on their merger talks in Tokyo, Japan, on Dec. 23, 2024. REUTERS

Automakers in Japan have lagged behind their big rivals in electric vehicles and are trying to cut costs and make up for lost time.

News of a possible merger surfaced earlier this month, with unconfirmed reports saying that the talks on closer collaboration partly were driven by aspirations of Taiwan iPhone maker Foxconn to tie up with Nissan, which has an alliance with Renault SA of France and Mitsubishi.

A merger could result in a behemoth worth more than $50 billion based on the market capitalization of all three automakers.

Together, Honda and the Nissan alliance with Renault SA of France and smaller automaker Mitsubishi Motors Corp. would gain scale to compete with Toyota Motor Corp. and with Germany’s Volkswagen AG.

Toyota has technology partnerships with Japan’s Mazda Motor Corp. and Subaru Corp.

The two companies said they had signed a memorandum of understanding on Monday. Getty Images

Even after a merger Toyota, which rolled out 11.5 million vehicles in 2023, would remain the leading Japanese automaker. If they join, the three smaller companies would make about 8 million vehicles.

In 2023, Honda made 4 million and Nissan produced 3.4 million. Mitsubishi Motors made just over 1 million.

Nissan, Honda and Mitsubishi announced in August that they would share components for electric vehicles like batteries and jointly research software for autonomous driving to adapt better to dramatic changes centered around electrification, following a preliminary agreement between Nissan and Honda set in March.

Honda, Japan’s second-largest automaker, is widely viewed as the only likely Japanese partner able to effect a rescue of Nissan, which has struggled following a scandal that began with the arrest of its former chairman Carlos Ghosn in late 2018 on charges of fraud and misuse of company assets, allegations that he denies.

He eventually was released on bail and fled to Lebanon.

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Speaking Monday to reporters in Tokyo via a video link, Ghosn derided the planned merger as a “desperate move.”

From Nissan, Honda could get truck-based body-on-frame large SUVs such as the Armada and Infiniti QX80 that Honda doesn’t have, with large towing capacities and good off-road performance, Sam Fiorani, vice president of AutoForecast Solutions, told The Associated Press.

Nissan also has years of experience building batteries and electric vehicles, and gas-electric hybird powertrains that could help Honda in developing its own EVs and next generation of hybrids, he said.

But the company said in November that it was slashing 9,000 jobs, or about 6% of its global work force, and reducing its global production capacity by 20% after reporting a quarterly loss of $61 million.

Uchida, Mibe, and Takao Kato, CEO of Mitsubishi Motors, attend a joint news conference on Monday, Dec. 23, 2024, in Tokyo, Japan. AP

It recently reshuffled its management and Makoto Uchida, its chief executive, took a 50% pay cut to take responsibility for the financial woes, saying Nissan needed to become more efficient and respond better to market tastes, rising costs and other global changes.

Fitch Ratings recently downgraded Nissan’s credit outlook to “negative,” citing worsening profitability, partly due to price cuts in the North American market.

But it noted that it has a strong financial structure and solid cash reserves that amounted to $9.4 billion.

Nissan’s share price also has fallen to the point where it is considered something of a bargain.

Nissan’s alliance member Mitsubishi Motors also agreed to join the talks on integrating their businesses. REUTERS

On Monday, its Tokyo-traded shares gained 1.6%. They jumped more than 20% after news of the possible merger broke last week.

Honda’s shares surged 3.8%. Honda’s net profit slipped nearly 20% in the first half of the April-March fiscal year from a year earlier, as sales suffered in China.

The merger reflects an industry-wide trend toward consolidation.

At a routine briefing Monday, Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said he would not comment on details of the automakers’ plans, but said Japanese companies need to stay competitive in the fast changing market.

“As the business environment surrounding the automobile industry largely changes, with competitiveness in storage batteries and software is increasingly important, we expect measures needed to survive international competition will be taken,” Hayashi said.

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