Tory MP praises safeguards over UK steel imports
Extended protection ‘vital for industry’
A CONSERVATIVE MP representing a Yorkshire steel town has praised the Government for extending safeguards aimed at protecting the historic industry from cheap foreign imports.
International Trade Secretary Liz Truss announced on Wednesday that she had accepted a recommendation from the new Trade Remedies Authority to axe measures to defend the steel sector from imported metal dumped on the world market.
The Leeds-educated Minister said the Government only had the option of accepting or rejecting the recommendations in full, which said quotas and tariffs should be retained for 10 categories of steel for three years, and revoked in nine others.
However she said she would now introduce a public notice to launch a temporary extension on a further five of the 19 steel products for one year. “Imports outside the quotas will face a tariff of 25 per cent,” she said.
Labour had previously warned that ending trade safeguard measures could see the UK become a “magnet for large quantities of foreign steel” and put thousands of jobs across the North at risk. Paul Blomfield, Labour MP for Sheffield Central, hailed the decision made a few hours before the deadline as a “huge victory for Sheffield steel”.
Miriam Cates, the Conservative MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge whose constituency includes hundreds of Liberty Steel workers, was among those welcoming the move.
She said: “These safeguards are vital to protect the UK steel industry from unfair trade practices, and I’m delighted that the Government has recognised the importance of extending them.
“I’ve been working for months with colleagues in the Conservative Steel Caucus to persuade the Prime Minister and Secretary of State of the need to make these legal changes. They fully agree on the value of a strong UK steel industry to our economy, and the jobs that rely on it. Communities like Stocksbridge are built around steel, and I know from speaking to management and unions just how important having a level playing field is for the industry locally.”
Rother Valley Tory MP Alexander Stafford said the Government had “stood firmly behind our steel industry”.
Mr Blomfield had previously written to the Prime Minister and emphasised the importance of the steel industry to Sheffield’s economy. He told Boris Johnson : “Scrapping the safeguards threatens high quality, well-paid jobs in areas like mine which really benefit from steel manufacturing”.
And he pointed out that “the median steel sector salary is £34,299, 45 per cent higher than the regional median in Yorkshire and Humberside and Wales”.