Tories weak over Trump steel tariffs
Government blasted for ‘inaction’
THE Tories have been accused of “utter complacency” over Donald Trump’s steel tariffs.
The US President plans 25% levies on imports plus a 10% tariff on aluminium.
International Trade Secretary Liam Fox is today expected to plead in Washington for an exemption for the UK.
Yet it would need to be awarded to the whole EU.
Labour formally pressed Government three times when the US began investigating imports last April. Gill Furniss, Shadow Steel Minister, said: “The Government has been utterly complacent in confronting an issue it has been warned about almost a year.” She tabled written Commons questions in June, July and October about the probe’s implications for the UK. Each time a junior minister replied steel was regularly discussed with the US, and Trade Minister Greg Hands said it was “inappropriate to speculate” on the probe. But Ms Furniss said: “Now we are seeing the real consequences of Government inaction.”