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The United States and Britain are expected to announce a trade deal on Thursday that will lower the burden of President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs and deliver a political victory for U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer.Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that a deal due to be announced at 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT) will be a “full and comprehensive one that will cement the relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom for many years to come.”It’s the first bilateral trade deal announced since Trump began slapping tariffs on U.S. trading partners. He said: “Many other deals, which are in serious stages of negotiation, to follow!”Starmer’s office said the prime minister would give an “update” about U.S. trade talks later Thursday.“As you know, talks with the U.S. have been ongoing and you’ll hear more from me about that later today.” Starmer said at a defense conference in London.The agreement is likely to fall short of a full free trade deal, but will provide tariff relief to certain sectors.The president has imposed a 10% tax on imports from Britain, as well as 25% tariffs on autos, steel and aluminum on the premise that doing so would foster more factory jobs domestically.A major goal of British negotiators has been to reduce or lift the import tax on U.K. cars and steel. The U.S. is the largest destination for British cars, accounting for more than a quarter of U.K. auto exports in 2024, according to the Office for National Statistics.Britain has also sought tariff exemptions for pharmaceuticals, while the U.S. wants greater access to the British market for agriculture products. Starmer’s government has said it won’t lower U.K. food standards to allow in chlorine-rinsed American chicken or hormone-treated beef.The British government will see a deal it as a vindication of Starmer’s emollient approach to Trump, which has avoided direct confrontation or criticism. Unlike the European Union, Britain did not announce retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods in response to Trump’s import taxes.A trade deal with the United Kingdom would be symbolically important, and a relief for British exporters. But an agreement would do little to address Trump’s core concern about persistent trade deficits that prompted him to impose import taxes on countries around the world.The U.S. ran a $11.9 billion trade surplus in goods with the U.K. last year, according to the Census Bureau. The $68 billion in goods that the U.S. imported from the U.K. last year accounted for just 2% of all goods imported into the country.The U.S. is much more important to the U.K. economy. It was Britain’s biggest trading partner last year, according to government statistics, though the bulk of Britain’s exports to the U.S. are services rather than goods.Trump has shown a desire to strike a trade agreement with the U.K. since it voted in 2016 to leave the European Union. Yet as recently as Tuesday, Trump showed no awareness of the possible terms of the deal when asked about its possibility.“They’re offering us concessions?” Trump told reporters. “I hope so They do want to make a deal very badly.”Trump has previously said that his leverage in talks would be U.S. consumers, but he appeared to suggest that the U.K. would also start buying more American-made goods.“I think that the United Kingdom, like every other country, they want to . . . go shopping in the United States of America,” he said.A trade deal with the U.S. is one of several that Starmer’s government is seeking to strike. On Tuesday, Britain and India announced a trade after three years of negotiations. The U.K. is also trying to lift some of the barriers to trade with the EU imposed when Britain left the bloc in 2020. Jill Lawless reported from London. Josh Boak contributed to this report from Washington. Zeke Miller and Jill Lawless, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
After filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for a second time this week, Rite Aid is already planning to wind down operations at underperforming locations in at least nine states, court documents show. The long-suffering drug store chain, which is scrambling to sell parts of its business less than one year after emerging from bankruptcy the first time, has identified 47 locations that it will initially close as is negotiates with potential buyers and moves through the Chapter 11 process yet again. Rite Aid has 1,277 pharmacies, three distribution centers, and more than 24,000 employees across 15 states, and its hoping to sell many of its locations to preserve jobs, minimize the impact on customers, and extract the most value out of its business operationsespecially its prescription files, which it sees as its most vaulable assets. However, it saw little or no value in the initial stores that were marked for closure in this weeks filing, and so it has either started the process of closing the stores down or will do so soon. Fast Company has reached out to Rite Aid for more details about the timeline of these store closures. Will all Rite Aid locations eventually close? Some news outlets have falsely reported that Rite Aid is already planning to close all of its locations, but the company has made no such announcement. While many stores will no doubt shutter as the bankruptcy process unfolds, others could be sold to new owners. Which stores will be sold and how many is unclear. What is clear is that this will be a fast-moving process, as Rite Aid believes time is of the essence. Why is this process moving so quickly? This is not Rite Aids first time at the Chapter 11 rodeo. The company knows from its bankruptcy in 2023 that the longer it takes to secure deal with buyers, the more pharmacy customers its going to lose. That’s because people who get their prescriptions from Rite Aid are increasingly likely to transfer them elsewhere the more they read about the companys bankruptcy in media reports. A substantial customer exodus will make Rite Aid’s business less attractive to buyers. “The timeline proposed for the contemplated sale process is, in the Debtors business judgment, essential to preserving value and facilitating an orderly sale process, Rite Aid wrote in a court filing. Based on Rite Aids prior experience selling similar assets, the longer the sale process takes, the greater the value erosion through attrition in the meantime. This risk is entirely one-sided and to the Debtors detriment. Which locations are closing soon? According to this weeks filing, the following 47 locations are set to close and may already be in the process of doing so. (Based on a search of their Yelp pages, some may have already closed.) Rite Aid says it chose the locations based on factors such as underperformance and lack of proximity to competitors that might be willing to buy the locations. California 211 East 17th Street, Costa Mesa, CA 92627 1331 Wilshire Boulevard, Santa Monica, CA 90403 446 East Washington Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90015 23 Peninsula Center, Rolling Hills Estates, CA 90274 3300 East Anaheim Street, Long Beach, CA 90804 1203 West Imola Avenue, Napa, CA 94559 1550 Hamilton Avenue, San Jose, CA 95125 501 South Gaffey Street, San Pedro, CA 90731 4840 Niagara Avenue, San Diego, CA 92107 32450 Clinton Keith Road, Wildomar, CA 92595 720 Sutton Way, Grass Valley, CA 95945 34420 Yucaipa Boulevard, Yucaipa, CA 92399 2751 Del Paso Road, Sacramento, CA 95835 1038 East Colorado Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91106 6150 Van Buren Boulevard, Riverside, CA 92503 220 West East Avenue, Chico, CA 95926 1534 East Florence Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90001 4774 West Lane, Stockton, CA 95210 4920 La Sierra Avenue, Riverside, CA 92505 Connecticut 56 Rubber Avenue, Naugatuck, CT 06770 113-115 Mill Plain Rd., Danbury, CT 06811 180 Main Street, Cheshire, CT 06410 Massachusetts 10084-02 1031 Main St., Clinton, MA 01510 New Hampshire 354 Winchester Street, Keene, NH 03431 19 Wilton Road Ste 1A, Peterborough, NH 03458 75 Portsmouth Avenue Unit 1, Exeter, NH 03833 New Jersey 75 South Main Street, Neptune, NJ 07753 403 Sicklerville Road, Sicklerville, NJ 08081 New York 55-60 Myrtle Avenue, Ridgewood, NY 11385 8222 18th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11214 5901 Bay Parkway, Brooklyn, NY 11204 50-15 Roosevelt Avenue, Woodside, NY 11377 60-26 Woodside Avenue, Woodside, NY 11377 Oregon 2521 South Sixth Street, Klamath Falls, OR 97601 700 S.E. 3rd Street, Bend, OR 97702 514 NE 181st Avenue, Portland, OR 97230 1400 West 6th Street, The Dalles, OR 97058 Pennsylvania 304 Market Street, Harrisburg, PA 17101 23 North Elm Street, Kutztown, PA 19530 3773 Peters Mountain Rd., Halifax, PA 17032 843 Rostraver Road, Belle Vernon, PA 15012 400 West Second Street, Berwick, PA 18603 1039 2nd Street Pike, Richboro, PA 18954 10941-01 Pittsburgh Intl Airport, Pittsburgh, PA 15231 209 Atwood Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15213 Washington 248 Bendigo Blvd S, North Bend, WA 98045 250 Basin Street SW, Ephrata, WA 98823
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E-Commerce
Last week marked Trump’s first 100 days in officeand when it comes to climate policy, things are already pretty grim. In just three months, the president has elevated fossil fuels, pulled back billions from green investments, and implemented tariffs that make it harder to import renewable infrastructure. And that’s just the start. But despite Trumps relentless attacks on the environment, there are still some bright spotsfrom climate startups, from cities and states, and from nonprofits that are taking these actions to court. In a recent conversation, Fast Company senior editor Aimee Rawlins and executive editor Morgan Clendaniel discussed some of Trump’s most significant attacks on the environmentas well as the ways that people are pushing back. If you missed the subscriber-only event, you can catch the whole conversation in the video above.
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E-Commerce
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