The British steel industry is confronted with a 'devastating blow' after Donald Trump was prepared to hit 25 percent rates on the besieged sector yesterday.
The import tax would threaten British exports to the US worth an annual £ 400 million and jobs. And it is in the midst of the fear that the broader British economy is about to be a recession.
Until now in the second term of Mr Trump, the UK has been left undamaged by its rate statements – that China, Mexico and Canada have hit. He also made it clear that the EU is in its visor.
Now, however, the new president focuses on products instead of specific countries, with a levy of 25 percent on all steel and aluminum imports in the US.
Great -Britain sells 200,000 tons of steel a year to America – the largest market outside the EU. The British steel industry directly employs 33,700 people and another 42,000 in the supply chain.
But the sector – already a shadow of its former self – is dragged from a crisis to crisis in the midst of high energy costs and a stream of cheap imports.
The gigantic Tata Steel factory in Indian Steel Steel has set off thousands of jobs as part of a restructuring supported by the government, while British British steel remains in long -term conversations with ministers in its future.
Gareth Stace, director -general of Industrie Body UK Steel, said: 'The imposition of American rates on British steel would be a devastating blow to our industry.
Donald Trump's plans for steel rates would increase British export to the US worth an annual £ 400 million (file photo)
Mr. Trump has so far affected Canada, Mexico and China with his rate announcements
“At a time of shrinking demand and high costs, rising protectionism worldwide, especially in the US, will suppress our exports.”
Mr Stace said that it would be 'deeply disappointing' for Great Britain to be the target in view of the relatively small production volumes compared to other countries.
And he said that the 'world leading' steel of Great Britain was crucial for American sectors, including defense and space travel and 'simply cannot be replicated elsewhere'.
In the meantime, the British market could be flooded with more cheap imports, because other steel -producing countries that are affected by the rates are looking for a new market for their products, Mr Stace warned.
Alasdair McDiarmid, assistant -secretary -Secretary of the Community, the trade union, said that Mr. Trump's last threats were 'extremely worrying'.
“In a time of uncertainty for the sector, a punishing new rate for exporting the British steel would be enormously harmful and threaten jobs,” said McDiarm member.
Sharon Graham, general secretary of trade union Unite, said that the last tariff threats should come as a 'wake-up call' for the government to protect the sector by changing the rules, so that the public sector buys British steel where available.
Gareth Stace, the director of UK Steel, said that American rates on steel would be a 'devastating blow' for the British industry
The official spokesperson for the prime minister said that he had not yet seen the 'detailed proposals' of America, but that the United Kingdom would 'go as appropriate' to the US – and refused to be attracted whether the VK would take revenge.
The British steel industry was previously hit with rates in 2018 during the first term of office of Mr. Trump, but they were relaxed in 2022.
So far, Mr. Trump has imposed 25 percent rates in his second term – but then delayed to Mexico and Canada, and continue with 10 percent rates on China.
Tom Clougherty, executive director of the Institute of Economic Affairs, a think tank with a free market, said that Great Britain should not take revenge.
“Rates are a tax on domestic consumers,” he said. “With the living costs high and growth slow, they are the last one that needs Britain now.”
'That logic does not only change because other countries impose rates for the import of your goods. Reference rates simply contribute to the pain. '
It comes for the official gross domestic product (GDP) figures that are expected to show this week that the economy is about to have a recession.
The figures on Thursday are expected to show the GDP that 0.1 percent was demonstrated in the fourth quarter of last year. Two quarters in a row contraction would mean a recession.
The British steel industry was previously hit with rates in 2018 during the first term of office of Mr. Trump, but they were relaxed in 2022 among his successor Joe Biden (file photo)
Last week the Bank of England stopped its prediction for British growth in 2025 from 1.5 percent to 0.75 percent.
In the last sign of the economic misery of Great Britain, yesterday figures from the recruitment and employment confederation showed that vacancies of work since August 2020 have fallen at the beginning of this year.
It was accused of the higher costs of hiring staff, after the £ 25 billion of the Chancellor about the national insurance of the employer.
James Reed, boss of recruitment agency Reed, said to the BBC: “Unfortunately in the past, when I have seen this type of data, this means that the economy is certainly a delay or perhaps worse.”
