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A minister has admitted the UK will have to “wait and see” after Donald Trump threatened to impose tariffs on all steel and aluminium imports to the US.
In comments made on the way to the Super Bowl late on Sunday, Mr Trump announced plans to impose 25 per cent tariffs on “any steel coming into the United States”, adding that aluminium will also be subject to additional duties.
He did not offer any details but did confirm he plans to announce on Tuesday or Wednesday other “reciprocal tariffs” on countries that have their own duties on US products.
But asked about his comments, Dame Angela Eagle said it is “in the best interests” of both the UK and US that the two countries carry on with their “balanced trade”.
The Home Office minister said the government will have to “wait and see whether the president gets more specific about what he meant by that comment”, signalling hopes that the UK might secure some form of exemption from the levy.
“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,” she told Sky News.
The president has previously suggested a deal could be done to exempt the UK from tariffs while claiming Britain is “out of line” in its trading relationship with the US.
British officials are understood to be seeking further details regarding Mr Trump’s comments, with the UK so far having avoided being hit with tariffs.
Since he took office in January, following a presidential campaign which saw him make a number of protectionist threats, Mr Trump has imposed but then delayed duties on imports from Mexico and Canada, and has also put in place 10 per cent levies on goods from China.
A report published in November by the Resolution Foundation warned the impact of Mr Trump’s plans would hit UK firms as hard as the trade barriers that came into place after Brexit, with the think tank urging Britain to build closer ties with the EU to mitigate the effects.
The report argued the impact on firms that export goods to the US could be devastating, with 10 to 20 per cent tariffs on goods being roughly equivalent in scale to the non-tariff barriers that Brexit imposed on goods sales to the EU.
