THE UK Government is reportedly struggling to get the United States’s attention over steel tariffs and is considering threats of levies on Harley Davidsons and bourbon in retaliation.
International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan visited Washington last week in a bid to get her counterparts to remove national security tariffs on steel and aluminium imposed by former President Donald Trump in 2018.
However, Politico reports that Trevelyan didn’t even leave Washington with a timetable for the steel negotiations to begin or a response to her invitation for Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to visit London next month and discuss the issue further.
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In response, the UK is reportedly considering threatening retaliatory tariffs in a bid for attention.
Before leaving for Washington, Trevelyan was facing growing pressure in the UK and said that the government is prepared to retaliate further.
She said: “We have been clear all along that resolving this dispute is the right thing to do.
“It will benefit workers and businesses on both sides of the Atlantic, and would remove the need for the UK to levy retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods.”
The Biden administration have been reluctant to remove the tariffs
There are already UK tariffs on Bourbon whiskey and Harley Davidson motorbikes which could be increased, but Politico reports that the UK could also consider targeting American wine.
However, there are concerns that the threats will work. In October, the EU and US ended a similar row over steel and aluminium tariffs, with the EU removing tariffs on whiskey, powerboats and Harley-Davidsons, which they had imposed in retaliation.
The EU, however, was arguing as a trading bloc, while the UK is now a single nation.
The row is likely to become fraught next month as the same tariffs Trevelyan desperately wants lifted will be eased for the EU, giving the bloc a competitive advantage over Britain.
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David Henig, co-founder of the UK Trade Forum, told Politico: “The idea of the U.K. threatening the U.S. with a heightened trade conflict is utterly preposterous.”
And in the US there is scepticism that the UK would follow through with any threats.
The post-Brexit commitments to strike a wider trade deal and desire for the Biden administration’s bid to rebuild ties with the EU following Trump, DC Trade lawyer Tan Albayrak said, meant he did “not anticipate that the U.K. would move ahead with that threat of increasing retaliatory tariffs on the U.S.”
Nick Thomas-Symonds, Shadow International Trade Secretary, said it was “extremely disappointing” that Trevelyan failed to return from Washington with a deal.
He said that “time is running out,” and added that the Conservative administration “must stop letting down our steel communities.”
Trevelyan visited the US last week but didn't succeed on steel
The trade row has also become linked to the ongoing talks over the Northern Ireland Protocol.
President Biden has warned the UK against triggering Article 16 of the protocol, which would allow the UK to unilaterally suspend the post-Brexit trade rules in Northern Ireland due to disagreements with Brussels over its implementation.
The Financial Times previously reported that a leaked memo from Washington warned the US will not discuss the steel issue until Britain backs down from its threats over the protocol.
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Trevelyan reportedly told her US counterparts that if the steel and aluminium tariffs aren’t lifted then the UK will be more likely to suspend the Brexit trade rules.
Henig said the suggestion made little sense because it would also amount to “threatening the EU, and collectively that is two-thirds of our trade.”
He added: “The government needs a pretty urgent dose of reality.”
The National contacted the Department of Trade for comment.
In response they provided a comment from Trevelyan after the talks with the US Secretary of Commerce last week.
Trevelyan said: “We have been clear all along that resolving this dispute is the right thing to do. It will benefit workers and businesses on both sides of the Atlantic, and would remove the need for the UK to levy retaliatory tariffs on US goods.
“I've invited Secretary Raimondo to London in January so we can make progress on this issue, allowing the UK and US to focus on taking our thriving trading relationship to the next level.”
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