US and UK to announce plans for formal metal tariff talks on Wednesday – Sources Reuters

By David Lawder and Andrea Shalal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States and Britain are expected to announce on Wednesday their intention to launch formal talks to resolve a long-running trade dispute over U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs, two friends familiar with the plan said.

The announcement will be made at a virtual meeting on US tariffs between US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and UK Secretary of State for International Trade Anne-Marie Trevelyan, sources told Reuters.

The two sides will not announce a specific deadline for talks, nor a specific deadline for reaching an agreement, one source added.

A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Commerce declined to comment on the forecast plans, and a spokesman for the British embassy in Washington did not respond to a question from Reuters.

Reuters reported last week that Raimondo and Trevelyan would talk about U.S. metal rates almost this month after the Commerce Department said Raimondo was not in a position to go to London for talks.

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said last week that the Biden administration had begun talks with Japan on steel and aluminum tariffs, but that talks in Britain would begin “at the right time” without giving details.

Britain and Japan are keen on tax-free access to steel and aluminum markets similar to the one they gave to the European Union on 1 January under a quota agreement reached with Washington last October.

Metal tariffs – 25% for steel and 10% for aluminum – were first set in March 2018 by former President Donald Trump for national security reasons and have been a major transatlantic trade ever since.

The UK approved retaliatory tariffs on whiskey, motorcycles, jeans, tobacco and other products in the US when it left the bloc in early 2021.

The EU lowered these retaliatory taxes under an agreement with the US, and raises tariffs on about 4 million tonnes of steel that are “melted and dumped” in the bloc each year, by applying taxes to higher volumes.

The US and EU are looking for another deal to reduce global high-carbon steelmaking, which aims to reduce China’s excess coal-fired steel production.