Sir Keir Starmer needs to “get on the blower” immediately to President Trump after he dealt Britain a devastating tariff blow, according to Shadow Business Minister Harriett Baldwin.
US businesses wanting to bring steel and aluminium into the country will have to pay a 25 per cent tax on them, prompting the European Union to announce it will impose counter tariffs on billions of euros of US goods.
The UK did not announce any tariffs in response as it works towards a free trade deal with the US, and Baldwin said on GB News this must be urgently addressed.
“They should get on the blower and start negotiating again on the free trade agreement”, she said.
Baldwin urged Starmer to ‘get on the blower’
PA / GB NEWS
“We think they have been dragging their feet on this. We welcome the fact that when the prime minister met President Trump, they agreed to move forward on a free trade agreement and it is important they do that.
“It is a terrible thing to be in a trade war like this with tariffs. It’s not good for anybody. It’s not good for our steel industry or consumers in the US.
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Harriett Baldwin joined Stephen Dixon and Ellie Costello on GB News
GB NEWS
“There was substantial progress made on a trade deal during the last Trump administration when we were in Government and it would be incumbent on the current Government to make progress quickly.”
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said the tariffs were “disappointing” but the UK was “focused on a pragmatic approach” and was “rapidly negotiating a wider economic arrangement” with the US.
The news has been welcomed by the steel industry across the pond, with the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI), a group representing US steelmakers, saying the move will boost domestic steel manufacturing and create jobs.
Other countries have hit out at Trump’s move.
US steelmakers have backed the move
REUTERS
Australia’s Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, said the decision is “entirely unjustified”.
Albanese had been working to secure an exemption to the tariffs, but confirmed Australia will not be imposing retaliatory duties.
Canada’s Energy Minister, Jonathan Wilkinson, told CNN his country would retaliate but will seek to do so in a way that does not escalate tensions.
During Trump’s first term as president, he imposed import tariffs of 25 per cent on steel and 10 per cent on aluminium in 2018.
Cut downs were negotiated and sanctioned during that term, but the Trump administration has indicated that will not be the case this time around.