Amid last week’s pomp and parades in London, President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Keir Starmer toasted the trade deal they agreed in May as fresh reinforcement for the “special relationship” that binds Washington and London. What they will not stress is that outside this agreement, the two countries are actually headed in opposite directions on trade. While the United States continues to build steep tariff barriers, the U.K.—and most of America’s key trading partners—are trying to tear them down.

That’s not to say that free trade is dominating the global stage. China continues to subsidize excess capacity, dumping vast quantities of manufactured goods into global markets. Supply chains have fragmented as calls for “near-shoring” bring critical inputs closer to home. Over the last d

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