By Caroline Fletcher
U.S. and U.K. officials announced a trade deal to end U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum and in return the United Kingdom will lift levies on American products such as motorcycles, farm products and other consumer goods. The agreement allows the United Kingdom to ship “historically based sustainable volumes” of steel and aluminum products without the previous tariffs.
Specifically, the United Kingdom will be permitted to ship up to 500,000 metric tons of steel annually, which must be melted and poured in the United Kingdom. The agreement allows for quotas of 900 metric tons of unwrought aluminum and 11,400 metric tons of semi-finished aluminum, which must not contain “primary aluminum” from China, Russia or Belarus. The deal also requires U.K. steel companies owned by Chinese entities to audit their financial records to assess possible influence from China, and to share the results with the United States.
The metal tariffs of 25% on steel and 10% on aluminum were initially imposed on various countries in 2018 under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 on national security grounds. The U.S.-U.K. agreement comes after similar deals were reached between the United States and European Union and United States and Japan. The deal goes into effect June 1.
For more information, contact Caroline Fletcher at carolinef@sema.org.