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The number of Americans filing for jobless benefits last week rises to highest level in eight months

SUMMARY:

  • Weekly jobless claims rose to 247,000, the highest since October.
  • market shows signs of cooling, with fewer job quits and rising .
  • Major companies, including P&G, plan job cuts amid restructuring efforts.

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — Filings for U.S. unemployment benefits rose to their highest level in eight months last week but remain historically low despite growing uncertainty about how could impact the broader .

New applications for jobless benefits rose by 8,000 to 247,000 for the week ending May 31, the Labor Department said Thursday. That’s the most since early October. Analysts had forecast 237,000 new applications.

Weekly applications for jobless benefits are considered representative of U.S. layoffs and have mostly bounced around a historically healthy range between 200,000 and 250,000 since COVID-19 throttled the economy five years ago, wiping out millions of .

In reporting their latest earnings, many companies have either lowered their sales and profit expectations for 2025 or not issued guidance at all, often citing ‘s dizzying rollout of tariff announcements.

Though Trump has paused or dialed down many of his tariff threats, concerns remain that a tariff-induced global economic slowdown could upend what’s been a robust U.S. .

In early May, the  held its benchmark lending rate at 4.3% for the third straight meeting after cutting it three times at the end of last year.

Fed chair Jerome Powell said the potential for both higher unemployment and are elevated, an unusual combination that complicates the central bank’s dual mandate of controlling prices and keeping unemployment low. Powell said that tariffs have dampened consumer and business sentiment.

Earlier this week, the government reported that U.S. job openings rose unexpectedly in April, but other data suggested that Americans are less optimistic about the labor market.

Tuesday’s report showed that the number of Americans quitting their jobs — a sign of confidence in their prospects — fell, while layoffs ticked higher. And in another sign the job market has cooled from the hiring boom of 2021-2023, the Labor Department reported one job every unemployed person. As recently as December 2022, there were two vacancies for every jobless American.

The Labor Department’s more comprehensive monthly report comes out Friday, with analysts expecting that U.S. employers added a slim 130,000 jobs in May, down from 177,000 in April.

The government has estimated that the U.S. economy shrank at a 0.2% annual pace in the first quarter of 2025, a slight upgrade from its first estimate. Growth was slowed by a surge in imports as companies in the U.S. tried to bring in foreign goods before Trump’s massive tariffs went into effect.

Trump is attempting to reshape the global economy by dramatically increasing import taxes to rejuvenate the U.S. manufacturing sector. The president has also tried to drastically downsize the federal government workforce, but many of those cuts are being challenged in the courts and Congress.

In a regulatory filing early Thursday, the packaged consumer goods company Procter & Gamble said it expected to cut 7,000 jobs — about 15% of its nonmanufacturing workforce — as part of a two-year restructuring plan.

Other companies that have announced job cuts this year include Workday, Dow, CNN, Starbucks, Southwest Airlines, Microsoft and Facebook parent company Meta.

The four-week average of jobless claims, which evens out some of the week-to-week gyrations during more volatile stretches, rose by 4,500 to 235,000, the most since late October.

The total number of Americans receiving unemployment benefits for the week of May 24 inched down by 3,000 to 1.9 million.

Amazon planning $10B investment for North Carolina data center and AI campus

SUMMARY:

  • will invest $10 billion in Richmond County, N.C.
  • The and cloud campus will create at least 500 high-skilled .
  • Project includes major infrastructure upgrades at no local cost.
  • Incentives package offers Amazon 20 years of tax-based grants.

HAMLET, N.C. (AP) — Amazon plans to invest $10 billion toward building a campus in to expand its cloud computing and infrastructure, bringing a massive shot in the arm to a region where many textile and apparel jobs dried up a generation ago.

Amazon said Wednesday that its investment in rural Richmond County should create at least 500 jobs and support thousands more through construction and data center supply chain providers, according to statements from the company and Gov. Josh Stein’s office. Stein called the investment one of the largest in state history.

are already familiar to North Carolina’s landscape, including those operated by Apple. This project could transform Richmond County, which is on the South Carolina border and has a population of about 42,000.

The Richmond County site is expected to employ engineers, network and security specialists and other technical roles, the company said. Amazon said it would provide support for universities, community colleges and other workforce training programs to help people enter data center and broadband expansion fields.

“This investment will position North Carolina as a hub for cutting-edge , create hundreds of high-skilled jobs, and drive significant economic growth,” Amazon chief global affairs and legal officer David Zapolsky said. “We look forward to partnering with state and local leaders, local suppliers, and educational institutions to nurture the next generation of talent.”

Richmond County commissioners approved an incentives package for Amazon on Tuesday. The company could receive annual cash grants for 20 years equal to portions of the real estate property tax and the property tax for vehicles and equipment at each data center contingent on job creation and monetary investment thresholds, The Richmond Observer reported.

“This project will truly transform our community in ways that we cannot imagine,” Richmond County Manager Bryan Land said at Tuesday’s commissioners meeting. “With the announcement comes large-scale upgrades to our water system, Rockingham’s wastewater system and our fiber optic infrastructure throughout our county — all of which will come at a cost to our Richmond County taxpayers of zero.”

Stein’s office, which called the project an “innovation campus,” said the data centers will contain servers, storage drives, networking equipment and other technology.

“Artificial intelligence is changing the way we work and innovate, and I am pleased that North Carolina will stay at the forefront of all that’s ahead as we continue to attract top technology companies like Amazon,” Stein said. The governor attended a public announcement about the investment on Wednesday at an event in Hamlet.

The company said it has invested $12 billon in North Carolina since 2010 and supports 24,000 full- and part-time jobs.

Trump speaks with Xi amid stalled talks between the US and China over tariffs

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping spoke on Thursday at a time when stalled tariff negotiations between their two countries have roiled global .

The conversation was reported by Xinhua, a Chinese state media outlet. The did not immediately comment.

Trump had declared one day earlier that it was difficult to reach a deal with Xi.

“I like President XI of , always have, and always will, but he is VERY TOUGH, AND EXTREMELY HARD TO MAKE A DEAL WITH!!!,” Trump posted Wednesday on his social media site.

Trade negotiations between the United States and China stalled shortly after a May 12 agreement between the two countries to reduce their tariff rates while talks played out. Behind the gridlock has been the continued competition for an economic edge.

RTX subsidiary wins $1.1B Navy contract modification

Raytheon, a subsidiary of -based Fortune 500 aerospace and defense contractor , has received a $1.1 billion contract modification from the to manufacture AIM-9X Block II missiles.

This is the largest contract awarded for the program, according to RTX, and will increase production to 2,500 missiles per year. The company describes the AIM-9X as “the most advanced infrared-tracking, short-range, air-to-air and surface-to-air missile.”

“This award represents a historic milestone for the AIM-9X program, further emphasizing its importance to the U.S. and partnered nations,” Barbara Borgonovi, president of Naval Power at , said in a statement. “Through our partnership with the U.S. Navy, we are well-positioned to support this increased demand.”

According to the , other components of the contract modification include support equipment, maintenance and sectionalization kits, spare parts and containers.

Work will be performed at numerous sites throughout the country and is expected to be completed by October 2028. Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.

RTX has more than 185,000 employees globally and reported more than $80.73 billion in 2024 sales. The contractor is Virginia’s second-highest ranked company on the 2025 Fortune 500.

BAE Systems lands $1.2B contract for missile-tracking satellite cluster

BAE Systems Inc.’s Space and Mission Systems business has won a $1.2 billion U.S. contract to provide a constellation of missile-tracking , Space Systems Command announced Monday.

Based in Falls Church, Inc. is the U.S. arm of British defense giant Systems. Its Space and Mission Systems business is based in Broomfield, Colorado.

Under the contract awarded on May 29, BAE Systems will provide 10 Epoch 2 space vehicles for the Space Force’s Resilient Missile Warning Tracking architecture in Medium Earth Orbit.

Space Force’s Resilient MWT MEO program is focused on acquiring infrared sensing and integrating it into a new satellite constellation in medium Earth orbit. The satellites are designed to detect and track a range of threats, from intercontinental ballistic missile launches to maneuvering hypersonic missiles, according to a news release.

Epoch 2’s primary purpose is delivering resilient global hypersonic missile tracking access. BAE Systems is scheduled to deliver satellites every two years, and the first delivery of Epoch 2 is planned for fiscal 2029.

The Space Force’s MWT program could support ‘s $175 billion missile defense system formalized in an executive order on Jan. 27. In May, Trump announced he had chosen the concept for the program from three options the Department of Defense developed, according to Associated Press reporting.

Trump also tapped Gen. Michael Guetlein, Space Force’s vice chief of space operations, to oversee the system’s development.

Lt. Col. Brandon Castillo, materiel leader in the Epoch 2 program office, said in a statement: “Epoch 2 is in alignment with the chief of space operation’s top priority to provide accurate real-time information to decision-makers. This allows for additional resiliency in the missile warning and tracking satellite architecture.”

Boeing subsidiary Millennium Space Systems and -based won contracts for Epoch 1 space vehicles in 2021. RTX, which was contracted to build three satellites, was later removed, and instead Millennium received a contract in October 2024 to build six more satellites for a total of 12.

BAE Systems Inc. has about 41,000 employees worldwide and reported $16.85 billion in 2024 sales.

Virginia Congress members press for details on Fort Eustis layoffs

SUMMARY:

  • A bipartisan group of Virginia congressional lawmakers is demanding transparency on the Army’s plan to move () headquarters from Fort Eustis, , to Texas.
  • Officials are concerned about potential mass at Newport News base.
  • Merger follows a directive from the Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to consolidate commands and cut redundant operations.

A bipartisan group of Virginia congressional officials sent a letter to Secretary of the Army Daniel Driscoll and Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George Tuesday seeking more transparency regarding plans to move the Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) headquarters from Fort Eustis in Newport News to Austin, Texas.

Last month, George told the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee that TRADOC would be merged with the Army Futures Command (AFC) in Austin to form a new command — the Army Transformation and Training Command.

However, the announcement raised questions about how many military and civilian staff would be impacted and which TRADOC functions would relocate to Austin. Maj. Chris Robinson, a TRADOC spokesperson, said last week that more updates were expected to be revealed in mid-June.

The lack of details prompted Tuesday’s letter from the bipartisan delegation, which includes several representatives, seeking more information on the merger.

The letter stated that, based on discussions with Army senior leaders over the past several weeks, the delegation learned that AFC will retain a four-star general in Austin, but that TRADOC will not retain a four-star general in Fort Eustis. It also said it is unclear how many service members and their families will relocate, what facility impacts will be and whether there would be cost savings from eliminating redundant roles and responsibilities between the two commands.

“We have received a number of troubling updates from other community stakeholders that lead us to believe the impacts on Virginia will be more substantial than the Army has shared with thus far,” the letter states. “We appreciate that analysis is ongoing, but we urgently require clarification.”

The delegation heard that TRADOC’s G-2 section at Fort Eustis, consisting of approximately 250 positions, may be eliminated as part of the consolidation. Delegation members were also told that the Center for Initial Military Training at Fort Eustis may be folded under a staff directorate and that the headquarters staff of the three-star general at Fort Eustis may be reduced to 20 to 25 soldiers, with ongoing general staff reductions projected to be between 20 and 80 personnel.

“We agree that ruthless prioritization is necessary to ‘deliver critical warfighting capabilities, optimize our force structure, and eliminate waste and obsolete programs,’” the letter states. “At the same time, we believe these changes must be made with precision, underpinned by clear analysis, and executed effectively.”

The letter was signed by Republican U.S. Reps. Rob Wittman, Ben Cline, , Jennifer Kiggans and Morgan Griffith; Democratic U.S. Reps. , , Eugene Vindman, Don Beyer and Suhas Subramanyam, as well as Democratic U.S. Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner. The group stated that they wish to receive the complete analysis that led to the proposed merger of TRADOC and AFC.

The delegation also requested an anticipated timeline for the proposed merger, a discussion of any associated risks identified by the Army in completing the analysis and budget and funding information about the merger. They requested the information be received by June 10.

TRADOC, created on July 1, 1973, trains more than 750,000 soldiers and service members annually. Its headquarters have been based at Fort Eustis since 2011. Robinson said the command has more than 35,000 military and civilians worldwide. Of this, approximately 2,000 are based at Fort Eustis, and of those, about 800 personnel are tied to the headquarters component of TRADOC.

The planned merger follows a directive from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to transform and streamline the military and eliminate “wasteful spending.” In an April 30 memo from Hegseth to senior Pentagon leadership, he directed the Secretary of the Army to merge the AFC with TRADOC as a way to “downsize, consolidate, or close redundant headquarters.”

The delegation’s letter says a successful merger of TRADOC and AFC requires “a detailed and viable plan.”

“I am committed to working with Secretary Driscoll and General George to ensure that our Army is lethal, ready and prepared for the next fight,” Wittman said in a statement. “In order to work effectively with Army leaders, we must make sure that we fully understand the analysis effort that supports the changes proposed by the Army Transformation Initiative–in sending this letter, I hope to open a productive dialogue with the Army about how to best achieve the vision set forth in ATI and preserve the critical mission of Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC).”

Robinson said TRADOC had no further updates to provide since last week.

Old Dominion Job Corps to lay off 130 in Amherst

Amherst County-based Center will lay off 130 workers by June 30, due to ‘s administration ordering the closures of contractor-run centers across the nation.

Old Dominion, in compliance with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, notified the state Tuesday of plans to lay off the employees due to the of the Job Corps site.

The U.S. Department of announced on May 29 it would begin a phased pause in operations at contractor-operated Job Corps centers nationwide, with all operations closed by June 30. The Job Corps program provides students ages 16-24 with education, vocational training and job placement assistance. Blue Ridge Job Corps Center in Smyth County is also slated for closure.

The Labor Department said the decision followed an internal review of the program’s outcomes and structure and that the closures aligned with Trump’s fiscal 2026 budget proposal. Tens of thousands of federal this year have been cut in an effort by the to slash federal spending.

According to the Labor Department, the Job Corps program faced significant financial challenges and operated at a $140 million deficit for the 2024 program year, with the deficit projected to reach $213 million for 2025.

The Labor Department’s and Training Administration on April 25 released the first-ever Job Corps Transparency Report, which the department says analyzed the financial performance and operational costs of the most recently available metrics of program year 2023. The Labor Department said in a summary of findings from the report that the average graduation rate was 38.6%, the average cost per student per year was about $80,285, the average total cost per graduate was roughly $155,600 and that, post separation, participants earn $16,695 annually on average.

The summary also reported 14,913 serious incident reports for program year 2023, including instances of inappropriate sexual behavior and sexual assaults, acts of violence, breaches of safety or security, reported drug uses and total hospital visits.

Democratic U.S. Sens. Mark. Warner and Tim Kaine last week released a joint statement condemning the closures, saying the move would “abruptly eliminate crucial job training for thousands of young Americans and cut nearly 13,000 jobs across the program’s 99 centers.”

Old Dominion Job Corps did not immediately return requests for comment.

Fed lifts restrictions placed on Wells Fargo in 2018 because of its fake-accounts scandal

SUMMARY:

  • Fed ends 2018 imposed on .
  • Reform follows years of cultural and compliance overhaul.
  • Wells Fargo can now expand deposits and investment banking.

NEW YORK (AP) — The said Tuesday that Wells Fargo is no longer subject to harsh restraints the Fed placed on the bank in 2018 for having a toxic sales and banking culture.

It’s a win for Wells Fargo, which has spent nearly a decade trying to convince the public and policymakers that it had changed its ways.

“We are a different and far stronger company today because of the work we’ve done,” said Wells Fargo CEO in a statement. Scharf also announced that each of the 215,000 employees at Wells Fargo would receive a $2,000 award for turning the bank around.

Wells Fargo used to have a corporate culture where it placed unreasonable sales goals on its branch employees, which resulted in employees opening up millions of fake accounts in order to meet those goals. Wells’ top executives called its branches “stores” and employees were expected to cross-sell customers into as many banking products as possible, even if the customer did not want or need them.

After an investigation by The Los Angeles Times in 2016, Wells Fargo shut down its sales culture and fired much of its leadership and board of directors. The cost Wells Fargo billions of dollars in fines and lost business, and permanently tarnished its reputation, particularly because the scandal broke only a few years after the Great Recession and financial crisis. It was later revealed that Wells Fargo opened up roughly 3.5 million accounts that were not wanted or needed by customers.

Wells Fargo, once thought to be the best run bank in the country, was now the poster child of the worst practices of banking in decades.

In order to push Wells to fix itself, the Federal Reserve took the unusual step of placing Wells Fargo in a program where the bank could grow no larger than it was in 2018. No bank had previously been placed into such a program, known as an asset cap. The Fed required Wells to fix it culture and redo its entire risk and compliance departments in order to address its problems.

Since taking over in 2019, Scharf’s goal has been to convince the Federal Reserve that Wells Fargo had fixed its toxic banking practices. With the asset cap removed, the bank can now pursue more deposits, new accounts and take on additional investment banking businesses by holding additional securities on its balance shet.

Tysons AI startup raises $10M in seed funding

Tysons , which developed an proposals writing tool, has raised $10 million in a round.

MicroStrategy co-founder Sanju Bansal, members of the Blue Delta Capital Partners team and “other government contracting industry leaders” led the round, according to a Monday news release.

The startup developed its generative AI tool in partnership with Shipley Associates, a business development training and consulting company based in Utah. pWin.ai said in a news release its product can improve win rates by up to 20%.

“pWin.ai simplifies RFI and RFP response generation, empowering businesses and government contractors at the federal, state and local level to increase both bid volume and win rates,” pWin.ai co-founder and CEO Vishwas Lele said in a statement. “What sets our enterprise-grade SaaS products apart is our relentless focus on writing quality.”

pWin.ai was founded in 2024. The startup’s clients include large contractors like Parsons and Astrion as well as small and mid-sized companies like CRL Technologies and Applied Information Services. Its tool operates in Azure Commercial and Azure Government environments.

“For us, it has proven to be not just another software product but a strategy amplifier that frees up the team to surface insight faster and deliver on our big growth goals,” Holly Losh Trombly, corporate vice president of proposals at Astrion, said in a statement.

Trump’s promised steel and aluminum tariffs go into effect

SUMMARY:

  • Trump hiked on to 50%.
  • Move expected to impact automakers and home builders.
  • In speech, president said tariff increases would ‘further secure’ U.S. steel industry

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S.  hiked nearly all of his tariffs on steel and aluminum imports to a punishing 50% on Wednesday in a move that’s set to hammer businesses from automakers to home builders, and likely push up prices for consumers even further.

Foreign-made steel and aluminum is used in household products like soup cans and paper clips, as well as big-ticket items like a stainless-steel refrigerators and cars. Economists warn that such heightened levies could significantly squeeze the wallets of both companies and shoppers alike. But Trump argues that his latest import taxes are necessary to protect U.S. industries.

The 50% tariffs went into effect just after the clock struck midnight on Wednesday. The two metals had previously faced 25% tariffs worldwide since mid-March, when Trump’s order to remove steel exemptions and raise aluminum’s levy from his previously-imposed 2018 import taxes went into effect.

Steel and aluminum from the U.K. is the exception. British imports of these metals are still levied at 25%, per a proclamation issued by Trump on Tuesday afternoon, which pointed to a recent deal reached between the two countries.

Here’s what else we know.

Why is Trump raising these tariffs?

Trump says it’s all about protecting U.S. industries. He reiterated that argument on Friday, when he first announced the 50% tariff on imported steel during a visit with steelworkers in Pennsylvania, where he also discussed a “planned partnership” between U.S. Steel and Japan’s Nippon Steel.

In his speech at U.S. Steel’s Mon Valley Works–Irvin Plant in suburban Pittsburgh, Trump said that the tariff hike would “further secure the steel industry in the U.S.” Shortly after, he took the same tone when sharing plans to also raise tariffs on imported aluminum.

In Tuesday’s proclamation, Trump also said that the higher tariffs would ensure that imported steel and aluminum would “not threaten to impair the national security.”

“In my judgment, the increased tariffs will more effectively counter foreign countries that continue to offload low-priced, excess steel and aluminum in the United States,” he said in the proclamation.

How is the industry responding?

While some analysts have credited the tariffs Trump imposed during his first term with strengthening domestic production of steel and aluminum, many others have warned that stark new levies can make it difficult for the industry to adjust.

Some organizations representing metal workers also note that tariffs aren’t the only solution needed to boost U.S. manufacturing.

“While tariffs, used strategically, serve as a valuable tool in balancing the scales, it’s essential that we also pursue wider reforms of our global trading system,” David McCall, international president of the United Steelworkers union said in a statement, noting that work must be done “in collaboration with trusted allies” like Canada — the top exporter of steel and aluminum to the U.S. — to help “contain the bad actors.”

Matt Meenan, vice president of external affairs at the Aluminum Association, added that the trade group “appreciates President Trump’s continued focus on strengthening the U.S. aluminum industry,” but that “tariffs alone will not increase U.S. primary aluminum production.”

“We also need consistent, predictable trade and tariff policy to plan for current and future investment,” Meenan said.

Meanwhile, the American Primary Aluminum Association, which advocates for stronger trade enforcement, applauded Trump’s latest tariff increase on foreign aluminum.

“For decades, subsidized foreign producers have hollowed out domestic aluminum manufacturing,” APAA President Mark Duffy said in a statement, calling Trump a “strong leader who is fighting to rebuild domestic manufacturing and protect thousands of American aluminum .”

What kinds of products could be impacted by heightened steel and aluminum tariffs?

A range of businesses that rely on foreign-made steel and aluminum have already begun feeling the impacts of Trump’s previously-imposed levies. But the latest anticipated hikes could drive up costs even more.

Steel and aluminum are used in a range of products like washing machines, consumer electronics and cars. Much of the auto industry relies on a global supply chain. And even if you aren’t in the market to buy a new vehicle, repairs could involve parts that use imports of either metal, driving up overall maintenance and ownership costs.

Rick Gagliano, president and CEO of AccuTec, a Verona, Virginia-based manufacturer of specialty, medical and professional cutting blades, lamented Wednesday morning that the increase in steel tariffs will force the company to raise its prices for the second time this year.

“100% of our material cost is steel, and if somebody increases the cost … we have no choice but to pass that on,” Gagliano said Monday.

AccuTec requires a high purity steel for its products which, according to Gagliano, U.S. mills don’t want to make. “We have to go to Europe and Japan,” he said.

Even if there was a U.S. mill willing to make the quality steel AccuTec needs, Gagliano said U.S. mills have also announced price increases. “So, there is no relief for us even if there was a viable U.S. option,” he wrote in an email Wednesday.

To weather the storm, AccuTec has put all nonessential spending on hold and has reduced worker hours. The company has 200 employees in Virginia and another 200 in Mexico. “It’s a killer,” Gagliano said. “It gives European and Asian companies a competitive advantage because they don’t have a 25 or 50% tariff on the steel that they use.”

In the grocery aisle, steel and aluminum are ubiquitous in the packaging for many foods, including canned tuna, soup and nuts. Experts warn that hiking import taxes on these materials could led to higher grocery prices overall, further straining consumers wallets.

The aluminum and metal tariffs also carry wider implications for construction and transportation as a whole, as many key building parts and materials are made with these metals. Economists further warn of spillover impacts. Even if a product isn’t directly packaged in steel or aluminum, there could be higher costs to build the shelf it’s sold on, for example, or truck used to transport it to the store. And all of that could trickle down to the consumer down the road.

If foreign competition becomes “priced out” due to these new tariffs, U.S. steel and aluminum producers may also find room to raise their own prices. As a result, even companies that don’t buy these foreign metals could end up paying more.

Steel prices have already climbed 16% since Trump became president in mid-January, according to the government’s Producer Price Index. And as of March 2025, steel cost $984 a metric ton in the U.S., significantly higher than than in Europe ($690) or ($392), per the U.S. Commerce Department.

Why is the UK excluded from the 50% rates?

As part of trade deal reached on May 8, the U.K. said that the U.S. had agreed to exempt the country from its then-universal 25% duties, which would allow British steel and aluminum to come into the U.S. duty-free. That has yet to happen. But in his proclamation issued Tuesday, Trump acknowledged that it was “necessary and appropriate” to implement the deal.

The duty on British steel and aluminum will now stay at 25% instead of zero. But that rate could go up starting on July 9 if the U.S. government determines that Britain has not held up its end of the bargain, the details of which remain unclear.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said that he is confident a trade deal exempting the U.K. from U.S. metals tariffs entirely will be in force before Trump’s July 9 deadline.

“We are the only country in the world that isn’t paying the 50% tax on steel and that will be coming down,” Starmer told lawmakers in the House of Commons on Wednesday. “We are working on it to bring it down to zero, that is going to happen.”

Gareth Stace, head of the industry body U.K. Steel, added that Trump’s decision to keep tariffs on British steel at 25% was a “welcome pause” but warned that continuing uncertainty was making American customers “dubious over whether they should even risk making U.K. orders.”

Other countries may also seek reprieve — or retaliation.

Late Tuesday, Mexican Secretary of Marcelo Ebrard said that doubling the tariff rate on imported steel and aluminum “it is unfair and unsustainable” because it will damage both countries’ economies. Ebrard added that he will be in Washington on Friday to meet with top U.S. officials and plans to present Mexico’s arguments “to be excluded from this measure, because it does not make sense.”

Meanwhile, the European Union has outlined countermeasures in response to levies imposed on aluminum and steel earlier in the year. The 27-nation bloc later delayed those actions until July 14 in efforts to ease negotiations, but recently said that was preparing a list of measures to enact if a trade deal with the U.S. crumbles.

Virginia Business Associate Editor Beth JoJack contributed to this story.