WE’LL TRUMP DONALD ON STEEL TARIFFS
Silvio vote is X-rated
THERESA May voiced “deep concern” last night over Donald Trump’s controversial plans to slap hefty tariffs on steel and aluminium imports to the United States.
The President is threatening to impose a 25% tariff on steel and a 10% duty on aluminium, sparking fears of damage to Britain’s troubled steel industry if a trade war erupts between America and Europe.
Mrs May raised her fears during a phone call with the American leader yesterday, Downing Street confirmed.
A spokeswoman said: “The Prime Minister raised our deep concern at the President’s forthcoming announcement on steel and aluminium tariffs, noting that multilateral action was the only way to resolve the problem of global overcapacity.”
Last week a war of words broke out between Mr Trump and the European Union when the President warned he would bring in sky-high tariffs.
The EU claimed it would tax iconic American goods such as Levi’s jeans, Harley-Davidson motorbikes and bourbon whisky if he followed through with the plan.
Mr Trump hit back, vowing the US would slap a tax on cars made in Europe.
He wrote on Twitter: “If the EU wants to further increase their already massive tariffs and barriers on US companies doing business there, we will simply apply a tax on their cars which freely pour into the US.”
Cabinet Office Minister David Lidington, Mrs May’s right-hand man, fired back at Mr Trump.
He told BBC One’s Sunday Politics: “I just think that the United States is not taking an advisable course in threatening a trade war.”