Liam Fox seeks UK exception from US steel tariffs

International Trade Secretary Liam Fox is travelling to Washington to seek a UK exemption from punitive trade tariffs on metal imports.

The duties - 25% on steel and 10% on aluminium - were signed off by US President Donald Trump last week and are due to come into effect on Friday next week.

Fox has said it would be “absurd” for the UK to be subject to the tariffs, which the country’s steel industry has warned could head to price increases and put jobs at risk.

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The new levies “could destabilise the industry’s recovery after a crisis in 2015 that cost thousands of jobs as imports of subsidised Chinese steel flooded into the UK”, The Daily Telegraph says.

The duties do not apply to Mexico and Canada, and the White House has said that other nations can petition for exemptions. Australia, an important trading partner to the US, says it has already secured one.

Fox will pursue a similar deal when he sits down for talks with US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.

The Trade Secretary was forced to clarify the UK’s position earlier this week, after officials suggested the Government could still accept an exemption for British products even if the US did not apply the same leniency to the rest of the EU, Bloomberg reports.

“I will be making the case for the UK as part of the EU,” Fox told Parliament. “Our current membership of the EU means that the European Commission will be coordinating the European response.”

However, when asked whether European officials would be accompanying him on his trip to Washington DC, Fox told the House of Commons: “I do not require a babysitter from the EU.”