Announcements on steel and reciprocal tariffs contradict the U.S. president’s suggestion the U.K. could be spared from his trade war.
LONDON — The U.K. is “seeking further clarification” from Washington after U.S. President Donald Trump said he would impose steep tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum in a surprise announcement late Sunday.
“Any steel coming into the United States is going to have a 25 percent tariff — aluminum too,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday.
Trump did not specify when the tariffs would come into effect but said they would apply to all countries — sending U.K. officials working hard to build bridges with the new administration into fresh disarray.
The president also said Sunday that he would impose reciprocal tariffs on trading partners that would match the duties imposed by other countries in the coming days.
The announcements contradict Trump’s recent suggestion that the U.K. could be spared from his trade war, which has so far targeted China as well as neighboring Canada and Mexico.
A senior British government aide said the administration was now “seeking further clarification” on the measures and will “work closely with the industries affected.”
“We’ve got a strong and balanced trade relationship with the U.S.,” they added.
Meanwhile, a separate U.K. official said British diplomats were immediately “engaging the U.S. system on steel and aluminum tariffs” last night. Both figures were granted anonymity in order to speak freely.
That line was echoed by Home Office Minister Angela Eagle on Monday morning.
She told Sky News: “We have a very balanced trading relationship with the U.S., I think £300bn worth of trade between our countries, and I think it’s in the best interests of both of us, as long-standing allies and neighbors, that we carry on with that balanced trade.
“We will have to wait and see whether the president gets more specific about what he meant by that comment on the way to the Super Bowl.”
Retaliation risk
About one-tenth of the U.K.’s total steel exports were sent to America in 2024. But for a struggling U.K. steel industry facing long-term decline, these measures are not good news.
And on top of that, this may only be the start of more widespread tariffs on different products entering the U.S., which would cause serious global economic disruption.
The decision on reciprocal tariffs, which is expected to come Tuesday or Wednesday, would be a major shift from Trump’s previous threat to impose an across-the-board tariff on all imports from across the world.
Starmer and his ministers will be mulling whether to hit back against these tariffs — a move which would plunge the U.K. into a trade war with the U.S. and potentially escalate into other areas of the economy.
SEC Newgate’s Allie Renison, a former U.K. business and trade policy adviser, said retaliating could put the U.K. “even more in the firing line” of further Trump measures.
“The prospect of reciprocal universal tariffs that he has recently floated could do much greater overall damage to the British economy,” she said.
