UK to press US to withdraw tariffs on aluminium and steel

According to a recent report, the United Kingdom Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan will press the United States Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo on Tuesday, December 7, to remove Trump-era tariffs on British aluminium and steel.

“We’ve already made strong progress; from getting British beef and lamb back on U.S. plates, to lowering the cost of Scotch whisky exports by addressing the long-running Airbus-Boeing issue,” Trevelyan said in a statement. “Now is the time to hit the ground running and get on with boosting ties with our closest ally.”

As per the report, the tariffs bring distress to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who pitched an improvement in trading relations with the United States as one of the major benefits of exiting the European Union. Johnson has already offered a bilateral deal after recognising the US President Joe Biden’s concentration on his domestic agenda.

Trevelyan will visit the United States for three days and focus on securing state-by-state trade deals. Her junior, Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt will visit California, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Oklahoma this week to press the case.

Among all the discussions over duties, aluminium and steel tariffs will draw the most attention.

The United States is the UK’s largest single trading partner, with total trade at 201 billion pounds (%266 billion) in the year ended June 2021, according to British government figures.

Boris Johnson is also set to reveal draft legislation for his so-called levelling up agenda, driving power and investment out to British regions in coming months. Highlighting how the agenda can rely on foreign investment, the Department of International Trade released statistics showing the United States business employed almost 1.5 million people in the U.K. in 2019 with 60% of those jobs outside of London and the southeast.