Fox optimistic about resolution over U.S. tariffs
Britain has made its disappointment with U.S. import tariffs on metals known and is optimistic about a resolution, UK trade minister Liam Fox has said
“The European Union is not the problem here in terms of steel supplies to the U.S., or the United Kingdom within that,” Fox, who is Britain’s secretary of state for international trade, said at an event hosted by Reuters in New York.
The European Union is seeking an exemption for all 28 countries in the bloc, including the UK, from President Donald Trump’s import tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminium.
Fox’s comments followed a meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer in Washington on Wednesday. The two discussed the EU’s requested exemption and the continued trade relationship between the United States and Britain after Britain’s planned departure from the EU.
In announcing the tariffs, Trump said imports could jeopardise national security because they are putting domestic producers out of business and have made the United States, the world’s largest steel importer, overly reliant on foreign suppliers.
“To apply a tariff to us on national security grounds, when some of this steel is actually going to America’s national security would seem a trifle strange,” said Fox, noting that of the 1 percent of steel imported from Britain, some was used by American military programs.
Published: by Radio NewsHub