Blitz Bureau
Britain will seek to persuade the US Government that its steel and aluminium products should avoid tariffs due to the sensitive role they play in the US defence sector and its manufacturing supply chains, Britain’s Business Minister Jonathan Reynoldshas said, reports Reuters. US President Donald Trump has announced 25 per cent taxes on steel entering the country, meaning American businesses face having to pay more to import the metal.
Meanwhile, Trump has confirmed he received a call from Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer to plan a “friendly meeting”.Trump said he is expecting to meet with Starmer next week, the Independent reported.
Reynolds told the BBC that the UK had a strong case to avoid the border taxes, given the amounts Britain exported to the US were small in comparison to other countries and because the steel was used in areas such as defence. “There’s a very strong case the UK is not the problem”, he said.
Speaking at an event in London, Reynolds said that the steel and aluminium exported by Britain to the US tended to be “sensitive defence” products and parts that formed part of the wider US manufacturing supply chain, and he would be seeking to negotiate on that basis. “I’ll be seeking to engage…I think there’s a basis for discussion,” he said.
He also highlighted the fact that Trump’s trade policy was aimed at reducing the US trade deficit in goods with the European Union and with China, not Britain. According to Reuters, Britain and the US trade hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of goods and services annually, but London hopes that ambiguities in the data will help to earn it an exclusion from Trump’s tariffs.
Industry body UK Steel warned the tariffs could be “devastating” as the U.S. is the second largest export market for UK steel, worth over 400 million pounds a year. Meanwhile, Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey has urged the UK to hit back against the US if Trump slaps tariffs on British steel and aluminium exports.
