The UK has been temporarily spared from US President Donald Trump’s executive order doubling steel and aluminium tariffs from 25% to 50%.

The order raises import taxes for US-based firms buying the metals from other countries from Wednesday – but the levy remains at 25% for the UK.

Last month, the US and UK agreed a deal to reduce or remove tariffs on some goods, which included cutting tariffs on UK steel and aluminium to zero and reducing import taxes on cars to 10%. The agreement is yet to come into force.

Imports of UK steel into America are currently subject to tariffs, but the UK government said it wanted to implement the agreement to remove them “as soon as possible”.