U.S., U.K. Reach Deal To End Steel Tariff Dispute

The United States and the United Kingdom on Tuesday reached an agreement that will lead to the partial removal of tariffs that former President Donald Trump imposed on British steel and aluminum, an announcement that came at the conclusion of a two-day trade dialogue that was shadowed by the increasingly grim conflict in Ukraine.

The Biden administration has already reached similar deals with the European Union and Japan, part of its efforts to repair trade relations with allies that were damaged during the Trump administration. Trump argued that the U.S. needed to protect its steel and aluminum industries on national security grounds, prompting him to levy duties on imports of both metals from a number of major trading partners, including China, Russia and India.

“President Biden has made it a top priority to rebuild our relationships with our allies and partners around the world as we work to counter China’s unfair trade practices and ensure that America is able to compete globally in the 21st century,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in a statement.

The deal reached with the U.K. helps achieve that goal and “will benefit America’s steel and aluminum industries and workers by protecting manufacturing, as well as consumers by easing inflationary pressures in the U.S.,” Raimondo added.

The announcement came while U.K. Secretary of State for International Trade Anne-Marie Trevelyan was in the United States for high-level talks with U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai on the future of the U.S.-U.K. economic relationship.

Trevelyan and Tai met in Baltimore on Monday and Tuesday. Then, the U.K. trade chief made a quick side trip to Washington for a meeting with Raimondo, whose department has jurisdiction over the steel and aluminum tariffs imposed by Trump.

The steel and aluminum deal removes an irritant in the U.S.-U.K. trade relationship at a time when the two trans-Atlantic allies — and other members of NATO — are eager to unify in the face of Russia’s aggression in Ukraine.

Read the full article from Politico here.