The UK will have to “wait and see” if Donald Trump “gets more specific” about his threat to impose tariffs on steel and aluminium imports into the US, a government minister has said.
Speaking on Air Force One, on his way to the Super Bowl in New Orleans last night, the US President told reporters he plans to announce new 25 per cent tariffs on the metal imports.
He said: “We’ll also be announcing steel tariffs on Monday… everybody, steel. Any steel coming into the United States will have 25 percent tariffs – aluminium too.”
It comes after a recent suggestion from the president that trade issues with the UK, as he sees it, could be “worked out” – sparking hope in Westminster that Britain could dodge the worst impacts of Trump’s ‘America first’ industrial policies.
And it also comes as UK’s ambassador to the US, Lord Peter Mandelson, began his job in Washington this week, with the steel issue set to be the top of his in-tray.
According to Politico, a senior government aide said last night that ministers and officials were “seeking further clarification” and will “work closely with the industries affected”.
They added: “We’ve got a strong and balanced trade relationship with the US.”
Now home office minister Dame Angela Eagle has insisted it is “in the best interests” of both the UK and US that the two countries carry on with their “balanced trade”.
She told Sky News: “We have a very balanced trading relationship with the US, I think £300bn worth of trade between our countries, and I think it’s in the best interests of both of us, as long-standing allies and neighbours, that we carry on with that balanced trade.”
We will have to wait and see whether the president gets more specific about what he meant by that comment on the way to the Super Bowl.
The UK sent around ten per cent of its total steel exports to America in 2024, and the government recently unveiled a new steel council in bid to shore up the industry described by UK Steel as “operating in a challenging and uncompetitive environment”.
Dame Angela also insisted the government was not considering watering down online safety rules in exchange for exempting the UK from any American steel tariff regime.
Asked about reports that changes to the Online Safety Act could be offered to the US administration in exchange for exemptions from tariffs, she said: “I certainly, from my perch in government, haven’t seen any corroboration that that’s likely to happen.”
She told ITV’s Good Morning Britain programme that the government will have to see how the Online Safety Act operates when it comes into force at the end of March.
She said: “We know that, since the Act was passed, the tech bros in America have got very close to the administration there and are watering down rather than strengthening some of the rules about content.
“But I wouldn’t have thought there would be any justification whatsoever for keeping violent videos available across the globe when they can be taken down, and we are working very closely to ensure that we can get that damaging content off the internet so that it is not seen by people who can be radicalised by it.”
She added: “I can’t imagine that we would be in a situation where we would want to see a weakening rather than a strengthening of safeguards in that area.”
Tom Clougherty, executive director at the free-market think tank, the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), said: “Tariffs are a tax on domestic consumers. With living costs high and growth sluggish, they are the last thing Britain needs right now.
“That logic doesn’t change just because other countries impose tariffs on the import of your goods. Retaliatory tariffs simply add to the pain.”
He added: “The government should pay little attention to what other countries do in response to US protectionism. The right course for Britain is to trade as freely as possible, whatever the circumstances.”
More to follow.