UK seeks US trade deal as Donald Trump’s metal tariffs take effect

The United Kingdom has described the introduction of US President Donald Trump’s prices on “disappointing” steel and aluminum imports while the 25% sample comes into play.

Commerce Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said the United Kingdom has adopted a “pragmatic” approach, but the conservatives have declared that work had “no plan” when the steel industry has raised concerns concerning the redigtion of cheap steel to the United Kingdom due to American rates.

Unlike the United Kingdom, the EU said on Wednesday that it would impose prices recorded at 26 billion euros (22 billion pounds sterling) of American goods.

Trump hopes that the prices will stimulate American production of steel and aluminum, but criticisms say that this will increase prices for American consumers and the economic growth of bumps.

US markets sank Monday and Tuesday While traders and analysts expressed recession fears.

The prices introduced Wednesday mean that American companies wishing to bring steel and aluminum to the country will have to pay a 25% tax on them.

These costs will probably be passed on to American consumers.

The president of the European Union, Ursula von der Leyen, said that the prices “bring uncertainty to the economy. The jobs are at stake, the prices, no one needs this, on both sides, neither in the EU nor in the United States”.

She said that the EU reprisal rates were “strong but proportioned” and that the EU remains “open to negotiations”.

EU prices will be imposed on “products ranging from boats to bourbon to motorcycles” The EU said. They will be partially introduced on April 1 and entirely in place on April 13.

In the United Kingdom, business secretary Jonathan Reynolds said the prices were “disappointing” but that the United Kingdom was “focused on a pragmatic approach” and “quickly negotiated” an American trade agreement.

He said the United Kingdom “works with affected companies” and “will keep all options on the table” to respond in the national interest.

But the secretary to conservative ghost affairs, Andrew Griffith, said that work “cannot even get into the room” to negotiate with the United States “while liberal democrats said Reynolds needed to” harden “.

Gareth Stace, director general of the Body UK Steel industry, said the US move was “extremely disappointing” for the United States to work with the United Kingdom.

Some steel corporate contracts have already been canceled or put on hold, he said, adding that customers in the United States will have to pay 100 million pounds per year per year in the tax.

The prices “hit us hard” at a time when imports of steel in the United Kingdom increase and the industry is “struggling” with energy prices, he said.

He said the prices imposed by the United States could mean that cheap international steel floods the British market, exerting more pressure on national producers.

Unite Secretary General Sharon Graham called on the government to “act decisively to protect the steel industry, adding that the public sector should” always acquire steel produced in the United Kingdom “.

The United States represents around 10% of exports from the British steel industry, but for some suppliers of specialized products, it is more important than that, which constituted a large part of their overall activity.

Philip Jackson, director general of Bright Steels, a centennial family business that employs 75 people in Malton, North Yorkshire, said prices could lead to customers in the United States to reduce their orders.

He said it will not reach jobs, but it could affect the company’s profits and ability to invest in the future.

However, in the United States, some have welcomed the prices, with the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI), a group of lobbies saying that they will create jobs and stimulate the manufacturing in American steel.

Its president Kevin Dempsey said that this decision closed a system of exemptions, exclusions and quotas which allowed foreign producers to avoid prices.

In 2018, during his first mandate as president, Trump imposed 25% import rates on steel and 10% on aluminum, but the cuts were finally negotiated for many countries.

This time, the Trump administration said there would be no exemption.

The United States is an important importer of aluminum and steel, and Canada, Mexico and Brazil are among its largest suppliers.

Tuesday, Trump had become to double the prices in Canada In response to a supplement, Ontario had placed on electricity.

In the United States, others do not support prices.

Michael Dimarino directs Linda Tool, a Brooklyn company that manufactures parts for the aerospace industry. Everything it does implies a kind of steel, a large part of which comes from American factories.

“If I have higher prices, I transmit them to my customers. They have higher prices, they transmit it to the consumer,” said Dimarino, adding that he supports the call for increased manufacturing in the United States, but warning the president’s movements could turn against him.

The American Automotive Policy Council, a group that represents car giants such as Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, said that they “feared that the specific revocation of exemptions for Canada and Mexico adds significant costs” to suppliers of car manufacturers.

Bill Reinsch, a former head of the trade department, said the prices could help the American steel and aluminum industries, but harm the wider economy by making the products more expensive.

Meanwhile, the Oxford Economics research office said in a report that it had reduced its American growth forecasts for the year by 2.4% to 2% and provided even higher adjustments to its prospects for Canada and Mexico.

Additional report by Michelle Fleury in New York and Ben King in London.