The following is the transcript of an interview with Peter Mandelson, United Kingdom’s Ambassador to the United States, that aired on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on May 11, 2025.
ED O’KEEFE: We’re delighted to turn now to the United Kingdom’s Ambassador to the United States, Peter Mandelson, who’s here making his Face the Nation debut. Ambassador, thank you for being here.
AMB. PETER MANDELSON: It’s great to be here, and Happy Mother’s Day to all those moms out there.
ED O’KEEFE: Indeed, to all of them, wherever they are. I wanted to start with the fact that the United States and the United Kingdom have now announced a framework, a framework for a trade deal that covers all sorts of things, steel, aluminum, cars, beef. You’re scrapping a 20 percent tariff on U.S. beef, you’re raising a quota on its imports. Do you have any sense of how soon this deal is going to be finalized, and do you trust that the United States is going to hold up its end of the bargain?
AMB. MANDELSON: Oh, yes, we regard it as finalized. A deal is a deal, and I have absolutely no doubt that the President and his colleagues, Secretary Lutnick and USTR Jamieson Greer, having said they would do a deal, have been true to their word. They delivered this deal, and I have absolute confidence that they’ll see it through. And it reflects the confid- the sort of amazing, confident relationship between our two countries, and the cordial relationship personally between the president and the prime minister and now we can build on it. I mean, we can look at- look to other trade barriers that we can bring down so as to create more jobs in the United States, and also something very close to my heart, I want to see us build a close U.S.-U.K. technology partnership. To invest, to build future industries in both our countries, which are science based and driven by technology. That would be a great gain–
ED O’KEEFE: –and it’s not part of this deal–
AMB. MANDELSON: — oh yes-
ED O’KEEFE: –So it requires another round.
AMB. MANDELSON: No, no, it’s- it’s featured in the deal, but it requires now work right to design it.
ED O’KEEFE: My read in the British press, I’m going to pin this on the British press, is that you’ve accepted a worse deal than the U.K. had before just to get out from the shadow of the tariff threat. Is it that you guys perhaps rushed to be first before all other countries?
AMB. MANDELSON: I don’t- I don’t- literally don’t understand the logic of that. The fact is that-
ED O’KEEFE: –Well, you’re paying more tariff than you were before, right? That’s part of it.
AMB. MANDELSON: Well, in some cases, but in other cases, we’re not. I mean, in some cases, we’re down to zero. So- and in other cases, for example, in autos, we’ve got absolutely secure quotas for exports to the United States. So it’s a good deal, and I’m very pleased that we’ve achieved it, but now we have to build on it.
ED O’KEEFE: The other tariff thing that came up this week that has the potential to adversely affect the British economy is the idea of a 100 percent tariff on any movies produced outside the United States. Have you discussed that year with the administration? Do you have any sense of how that could adversely affect the British film industry?
AMB. MANDELSON: Well, we touched on it, but this is American film production taking place in Britain, and we want to protect the American film industry and tariffs, if you can put a tariff on a film, is not going to do that. But whether it be in respect of films or pharmaceuticals that may be coming down the track towards us, we have an agreement in this deal that British interests will be protected alongside those of the United States.
ED O’KEEFE: I want to turn to Russia and Ukraine, because that was a great focus of your Prime Minister this weekend. He said, after the announcement of the proposed ceasefire this weekend, that if Putin, quote, “is serious about peace, he has a chance to show it,” but he’s basically ignored the ceasefire proposal and is now once again, calling for one-on-one talks. Do you- is the assessment of your government that Russia is at all serious about this?
AMB. MANDELSON: Look at face value it’s constructive that he’s offered direct talks for Putin with- with the Ukrainians. But then when you look at the small print, you see what he- you see that he wants these talks so as to call into question the very existence of Ukraine as a free, democratic and sovereign nation. And in the meantime, overnight, this weekend, we’ve had Russian munitions and drones raining down on Ukraine and killing Ukrainian people. It doesn’t seem serious to us, and we’re very glad that the Ukrainians have embraced this ceasefire, as the President asked them to do. But the truth is that it looks as if President Putin is engaging in brinkmanship with President Trump, and certainly, as far as we’re concerned in Britain, we only want one president to prevail in this standoff, and that’s President Trump, not President Putin, and that may require, therefore, additional pressure being mounted on Russia in order to bring them to the negotiating table.
ED O’KEEFE: And I’m curious, you’ve been around the president in recent days. He’s been clearly charmed by you, and you’ve been talking to the administration about a host of things. Is it your sense that he and his administration has, in essence, turned the corner on the Ukraine-Russia conflict in the last few weeks, siding more now, clearly with Ukraine?
AMB. MANDELSON: I think we are at a defining moment in this conflict, this war between- that Russia has launched on Ukraine. And that’s why I think that the administration now needs to consider how it’s going to pursue its goal of peace. That goal can only be realized if Russia, Putin matches what Zelensky and Ukrainians have offered, which is a 30-day ceasefire during which proper negotiations can take place. That’s what we need to see.
ED O’KEEFE: Does the United States need to pass a new round of sanctions against Russia if they don’t follow through in the next few days?
AMB. MANDELSON: Well, Senator Lindsey Graham has a bill–
ED O’KEEFE: He does, yes.
AMB. MANDELSON: –with his colleagues up on the- on the Hill, and I think the administration will want to judge the timeliness, appropriateness of backing that bill.
ED O’KEEFE: All right. Ambassador Peter Mandelson, thank you so much for stopping by. Don’t be a stranger. Come again.
AMB. MANDELSON: I’d love to.
ED O’KEEFE: All right, thank you. We’ll be back in a moment. Stay with us.