May to Trump: Steel tariffs deeply disappointing
Prime Minister Theresa May has told US President Donald Trump that new US steel and aluminium tariffs are “unjustified and deeply disappointing”.
In a 30 minute phone call May talked about the need to safeguard jobs and the pair agreed to discuss the issue further at the G7 summit in Canada later this week.
On Thursday the US confirmed it was imposing a 25 per cent tariff on steel and a 10 per cent tariff on aluminium for imports from the EU, Mexico and Canada.
Read more: Markets drop on trade war fears as White House confirms EU tariffs
Speaking to the House of Commons this afternoon Secretary of State for International Trade Liam Fox said that the decision was “unjustified” and warned that the EU would hit back with its own tariffs.
“We are deeply disappointed that the US has taken this unjustified decision, particularly on grounds of national security,” Fox said.
Fox went on to describe the close security relationship between the US and the UK as fellow nuclear powers and members of the UN security council.
He said the tariffs have “weak foundations” in international law and said the EU and UK should have been “permanently and fully exempted from the unjustified measures on steel and aluminium”.
Fox said that as the US had decided to impose tariffs which will “damage the steel and aluminium industry in Europe, the UK and EU “must respond”.
He said that the UK and EU were responding on three fronts.
Firstly, he said the EU Commission is working to introduce duties on US products which could take effect from 20 June.
The EU has previously published a 10-page list of US imports, ranging from Harley-Davidson motorcycles to bourbon, which it is planning on hitting with tariffs.
Secondly Fox said the EU was planning safeguarding measures to protect the EU from an influx of steel and aluminium displaced by US barriers and thirdly he said the EU was planning on pursuing a dispute at the World Trade Organisation which it had already filed.
Read more: No need to panic – Trumps tariff tantrum is Britains opportunity
“The government is committed to free and fair trade and the international rules that underpin both. We will seek to promote and protect those rules alongside the interests of British industry,” he concluded.
UK Steel director, Gareth Stace described the US tariffs as a “hammer blow” to the UK steel industry.
Stace welcomed Foxs strong response to the US tariffs but said that he worried that once the UK was outside the EU it would have less weight on the international stage.
“We dearly hope that this experience does not foreshadow post-Brexit trading for British companies, with the UK isolated and battling over trade issues on different fronts, without the heft of the EU behind us. The prospects are undoubtedly a cause for concern,” he said.
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CityAM
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