US and UK settle dispute over steel and aluminium tariffs
- The United States and Britain mend rift that dates back to the Trump administration
- US says deal allows both countries to focus on ‘China’s unfair trade practices’
The United States and Britain ended a four-year dispute over US steel and aluminium tariffs, pledging to work together to counter China in a deal that also removes retaliatory tariffs from US motorcycles, whiskey and other products.
In a joint statement on Tuesday, US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and US Trade Representative Katherine Tai said the deal would protect steel and aluminium companies – and their workers – in both countries, allowing the allies to focus on what they say are “China’s unfair trade practices”.
The would also help ease inflation in the United States, where consumer prices have hit their highest level in 40 years, Raimondo said.
UK to review anti-dumping tariffs on Chinese steel
Under the deal, Britain will receive a duty-free import quota of over 500,000 tonnes of steel “melted and poured” in the country annually. It also sets smelt and cast requirements on aluminium.
The agreement requires any UK steel company owned by a Chinese entity to audit their financial records to assess influence from the People’s Republic of China government, and then share them with the United States, the statement said. The requirement will initially apply to British Steel, acquired by China’s Jingye Group, in 2020.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson cheered the announcement of the deal “with our American friends”.
“This is fantastic news and a very welcome boost to our steel and aluminium industries,” he said on Twitter.
The announcement of the deal was also welcomed by many business executives and labour leaders in both countries.
The pact, which comes after Raimondo met with Britain’s trade minister, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, also will end Britain’s retaliatory tariffs on iconic American goods, including Harley-Davidson motorcycles, bourbon whiskey, Levi Strauss blue jeans, and cigarettes.
03:31
Chinese-owned steel mill rains ‘thick, greasy’ dust on Serbian town facing rising cancer cases
The United States has reached similar deals with the European Union and Japan.
Britain is a relatively small supplier of steel to the United States. Its 500,000-tonne quota for finished steel exceeds average UK shipments to the United States in 2018 and 2019 and is considerably smaller than the EU quota of about 4 million tonnes and Japan’s quota of 1.25 million tonnes.
Trevelyan met with Raimondo in Washington after two days of meetings with Tai and other US trade officials about expanding US-UK trade ties and ensuring they protected labour rights, the environment and addressed a changing digital economy.
The Trump administration imposed the US metals tariffs in March 2018 under the Section 232 national security law to protect US producers from subsidised imports.
The US Steelworkers Union said the deal marked “an important step in addressing systemic problems like illegal dumping and global overcapacity that threaten the vitality and future of our steel and aluminium industries”.
It said the arrangement with Britain left the overall structure of the 232 relief measures in place while imposing tariff rate quotas.
Steelworkers have expressed concerns that easing the tariffs for allied countries will allow surges of steel into the United States that could hurt industry profitability. But futures prices for Midwest hot-rolled steel remain elevated at US$1,138 per tonne, compared to US$1,265 a year ago, more than US$1,900 last August and US$825 when tariffs were first imposed in 2018.
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse
