legacy of the Trump administration
US and UK settle customs dispute
03/23/2022 02:54 am
In the “interests of national security”, then-US President Trump introduced high special tariffs on steel and aluminum imports in 2018. Britain, for its part, is reacting with punitive tariffs, for example on American whiskey and jeans. Now exports and imports should be possible again without the additional costs
The United States and Britain have agreed to end tariffs on British steel and aluminum. At the same time, “retaliatory tariffs” will be lifted on “over $500 million” (€450 million) worth of US exports, including “liquor, miscellaneous agricultural and consumer goods,” said US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Trade Representative Katherine Tai. The punitive tariffs were imposed in 2018 by then US President Donald Trump. As a result, Great Britain made imports of whiskey, Levi Strauss blue jeans and Harley-Davidson motorcycles more expensive, among other things.
Both countries announced negotiations on an end to tariffs in January. Shortly before the agreement was announced, British Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan was in the US for talks. US President Joe Biden’s administration is trying to resolve many trade disputes from its predecessor’s time – which Tai said were “repairing ties with our allies”. It had already reached an agreement with the EU last October and with Japan at the beginning of February.
The new deal will remove the additional tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum on a “historic and enduring quantity” of British metal products, the US government said. In addition, “any British steel company owned by a Chinese entity” must undergo an audit of the books “to assess the influence of the government of the People’s Republic of China”.
The dispute with China continues to smolder
Little has changed in the trade dispute with China under the new US administration. The USA accuses the Chinese government of destroying the steel industry of its trading partners through deliberate overproduction and dumping prices.
With the agreement, the British government has only achieved part of its trade ambitions with the USA. Because while British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had hoped for a more advantageous free trade agreement with the USA after leaving the EU, Biden has so far given him the cold shoulder. The US is making the prospect of an additional deal conditional on strict adherence to the Northern Ireland peace deal. However, this is threatened by a dispute between London and the EU over customs regulations in Northern Ireland.
Nevertheless, Johnson is happy about what has been achieved so far: “This is great news and a welcome impetus for our steel and aluminum industry,” he tweeted. Trevalyan and Tai plan to continue their talks in Scotland next month.