In Britain, “we’re not going to have a kneejerk reaction,” government official says.
LONDON — Keir Starmer’s Labour government plans to hold fire on any retaliation against President Donald Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminum expected overnight.
Nations around the world are bracing for 25 percent tariffs from the Trump administration on the industrial metals as part of the president’s America First trade agenda.
Trump’s tariffs will make U.K. steel £100 million more expensive for U.S. firms to import each year. The move will be a blow to the struggling sector as it transitions to green manufacturing.
Starmer raised the tariffs during a 20-minute call with Trump on Monday. “We remain prepared to defend the U.K.’s national interest where it’s right to do so,” a No 10. spokesperson said afterwards.
European Union leaders have threatened to bite back against Trump with retaliatory duties on bourbon and Harley-Davidson motorcycles. Yet Britain is unlikely to retaliate, an official from the U.K.’s Department for Business and Trade who agreed to speak anonymously to discuss sensitive trade issues told POLITICO.
In Britain, “we’re not going to have a kneejerk reaction,” the official said, pointing out No. 10 Downing Street is emphasizing the U.K. will “continue to take a cool-headed approach” to tariffs and Trump’s antagonistic trade policy.
Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds has been in touch with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick “regularly” and spoke with him over the weekend to secure exemptions for Britain’s sectors, they said. But Lutnick said on Sunday the tariffs will go ahead.
Reynolds emphasized to Lutnick that “we’ve got a balanced trading relationship that works on both sides,” the U.K. trade official said. Ministers and U.K. Ambassador to the U.S., Peter Mandelson, have repeatedly argued that trade between the two countries is not lopsided with large trade deficits.
Rather than retaliating with tariffs on U.S. goods, Reynolds’ “priority is engaging constructively, pragmatically and trying to find a solution,” the U.K. trade official emphasized. “That’s what standing up for industry means.”
The U.K. government has devoted £2.5 billion in taxpayer support to the steel sector. Next month, the government’s cap on energy costs for industries including as steel — known as the British Industry Supercharger — also promises to cut all industrial electricity prices by a total of £410 million in 2025, further easing the pain for the industry.
Nevertheless, tariffs from the U.S. “would be quite a blow” on the sector, Chrysa Glystra, trade and economics policy manager at industry body UK Steel said. The U.S. market makes up 10 percent of the total value of British steel exports.
“The last thing we need is our second most-valuable export market hit by tariffs,” she said.