US, Britain strike trade deal on steel, aluminum

WASHINGTON－The United States and Britain on Tuesday struck a trade deal to resolve a four-year dispute initiated by former president Donald Trump over US tariffs on British steel and aluminum.

The deal would allow "historically based sustainable volumes "of British steel and aluminum products to enter the US market without applying Section 232 tariffs, according to a joint statement by US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and US Trade Representative Katherine Tai.

The deal will also lift retaliatory tariffs on over $500 million worth of US exports to Britain, including distilled spirits, various agricultural products and consumer goods, the statement said.

Citing national security concerns, the previous administration of Donald Trump unilaterally imposed a 25-percent tariff on steel imports and a 10-percent tariff on aluminum imports in 2018, under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962.The actions drew strong opposition domestically and abroad.

In recent months, the administration of US President Joe Biden signed similar deals with the European Union and Japan to scrap tariffs on steel and aluminum in an attempt to mend ties frayed by Trump's trade conflicts with multiple trading partners.

The trade deal will benefit the US steel and aluminum industries and workers by protecting manufacturing, as well as consumers by easing inflationary pressures in the US, Raimondo said.

British Secretary of State for International Trade Anne-Marie Trevelyan, who is visiting the US, said on Twitter that the deal is "good news for our vital industries who were unfairly hit", noting that British producers can enjoy tariff-free access to the US market again.

Last year, the Biden administration reached a deal with the European Union, agreeing to drop the tariffs on EU metals that come in below new import quotas and continuing to tax imports that exceed them.

The US Steelworkers Union said the deal marked "an important step in addressing systemic problems like illegal dumping and global overcapacity that threaten the vitality and future of our steel and aluminum industries".

Myron Brilliant, the head of international affairs for the US Chamber of Commerce, warned of a possible steel shortage due to trade disruptions from the conflict in Ukraine and called for the Section 232 tariffs to be removed from more countries.

Steel-makers have expressed concerns that easing the tariffs for allied countries will allow surges of steel into the US that could hurt industry profitability. But futures prices for Midwest hot-rolled steel remain elevated at $1,138 per metric ton, compared with $1,265 a year ago, more than $1,900 last August and $825 when tariffs were first imposed in 2018.

Xinhua - Agencies