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The British civil servants are confident that the country’s steel industry will avoid that Donald Trump will be beaten 50 percent with a tariff if a deadline expired on Wednesday so that the nations can negotiate tariffs with the US president.
London is locked up in intensive conversations with Washington to fully implement the “economic partnership agreement” signed by both sides on May 8. The agreement offered a zero tariff rate for British steel manufacturers, but was not agreed two months later.
A spokesman for Prime Minister Sir Keir Starrer said on Monday that the government worked on completing the deal as soon as possible, but could not say when it would happen.
However, two high -ranking British officials have classified the risk that the current 25 percent of the current 25 percent Tariff In view of the British steel manufacturers, the deadline on Wednesday for other countries would increase to 50 percent in order to conclude the negotiations at the end of a 90-day break to the “mutual tariff”. Trump announced the measure on April 2.
In a sign of the determination of the White House to put pressure on the countries to agree on business, Trump said on Monday that he would be imposed on Monday Customs of 25 percent On goods from Japan and South Korea from August 1st.
Last month he announced that he was doubling The Global US steel tariff to 50 percent, but frees the United Kingdom from the increase until the negotiations are completed.
However, he also warned that “on or after” the deadline on July 9th due to mutual tariff “the applicable compulsory quotas could increase to 50 percent” if the United Kingdom had not complied with the relevant aspects of the economic partnership agreement.
Two high-ranking civil servants with knowledge of discussions stated that they were confident that the British steel industry would avoid this worst-case scenario.
“I am firmly convinced that we will not see the 25 percent that we currently rose on July 9,” said one, adding that the topic in the talks in Washington grew up directly with US officials last week.
Another situation said that the situation in Great Britain was complicated by the fact that the USA negotiated with other relevant trading partners, and added that the “hard-pressed” US bureaucracy needed more time to solve the problems.
The British Minister of Commerce Jonathan Reynolds has announced that a US requirements for steel for “melted and cast” in his country of origin in order to qualify for the treatment of preferred tariff treatment is the most important sticking point. Not all British steel are currently qualifying.
Regardless of this, a trade authority warned that steel consumers in Great Britain represent that the steps of the ministers to protect the steel industry from a flood of cheap international imports and risk higher prices for manufacturers.
The International Steel Trade Association warned against imposing additional tariffs on steel from countries such as Vietnam, South Korea and Algeria Last week Would “ports, vans and everything that steel uses and uses”.
The intervention was carried out after Reynolds, the British trade agency – the institution that the government advised on trade defense measures – overridden to take additional steps to defend itself against steel dampers.
The chairman of ISTA, Julian Verden, said Reynolds “ignored” the recommendations of user groups to protect British producers, which he said that he had an “interest” in creating a monopoly to the detriment of industry and other steel consumers.
Andrew Gardner, director of procurement at Hadley Group, one of the largest British users of galvanized steel in the construction and production parts, said that restrictive imports from Vietnam and South Korea would “remove access to high-quality, cheaper steel, potentially the costs and the end users would need to rely on steel in inferior quality”.
But UK Steel, who represents producers such as Tata Steel and British Steel, rejected ISTA’s claims and said that global steel prices were not sustainable for British manufacturers.
The government said that it is working on “protecting our (steel) industry from unfair competition”.
Reynolds “came to the conclusion that it was in the public interest to reject the recommendation of the TRA in order to ensure the effectiveness of the steel protection measure for domestic manufacturers and the need for supply,” she added.
